Easy guide for reconeing speakers

[cuggie]

http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1747&p=4505

I know this is very basic info but for a beginner it might be most helpful. It was the first project I tried and it got me hooked to try more. Now look at me, I got cabinets. drivers and little thingies with wires { LOL }to make X-overs all over my dinner table. But I am having fun and hearing great sound.
cuggie

[ligs]

From your experience would you recommend using shims (meaning you have to cut open the dustcover) for centering the voice coil or not. My last refoaming attempt of AR 3a woofer using Parts-express's kit resulted in rubbing voice coil. Part of the reason was the outside perimeter of PE's foam was slightly larger than my AR 3a's frame so I could not eyeball the aligment. Now I have a pair of nice AR 18 paper woofers(foamless, of course) which have nice natural roll-off around 2 kc. If I do anything to the dustcover I am afraid I will change the frequency response. However, Both Vintage AR and PE seem to suggest you should remove and replace the dustcover while refoaming.

The reason I grabed this pair of AR 18 was due to the favorable comment saying AR 18(icluding 18, S and B version)has been sold to many recording studios and is better than Yamaha' NS10. AR 18 B woofer does have a 1.5 inch voicecoil and similar magnet structure to the 8 inch woofer used as the lower mid in AR 9. According to High Fidelity magazine(1978), at 300 Hz it can be pulsed to 123 db with a power peak of 4114 watts!

[billfitzmaurice]

From your experience would you recommend using shims (meaning you have to cut open the dustcover) for centering the voice coil or not. !In theory the spider will keep the coil centered, but for the price of a dustcover I prefer to be more safe than potentially sorry.

[Paul Carmody]

From your experience would you recommend using shims (meaning you have to cut open the dustcover) for centering the voice coil or not. My last refoaming attempt of AR 3a woofer using Parts-express's kit resulted in rubbing voice coil.

You pretty much just answered your own question right there. I've only re-foamed a few woofers (vintage stuff is zzzzz to me now), and yeah, pulling off the dustcap is a PITA, however the shims really do serve a purpose. Tolerances are tight between the voice coil and pole piece... keep them that way, and the woofer will perform its best.

[johna_partsexpress]

Also remember that if you are "uncomfortable" with doing it yourself, we now have a speaker repair service.

http://www.parts-express.com/speakerrepaircenter/index.cfm

[ligs]

Just to be certain I don't ruin another good woofer I will take the dustcap off and do the right thing. Some time ago I had a pro-sound repair shop refoam my poor pair of Dynaudio 30W54. They came back with conical shaped home-made dustcaps and I had developed a fear for refoaming speaker right away. Now I can see a great advantage of speaker with a phase plug. Becasue of the exposed voicecoil it would be a lot easier to replace the surround. But now most home speakers are using long lasting butyl or nitrile rubber surrounds, the need for making repairs is greatly reduced!

BTW, I have seen speakers with porus(gauze like) dustcaps, solid paper or plastic dustcaps and all metal dustcaps. Beside making the voice coil look bigger(read marketing), how critical to sound is a dustcap anyway?

[billfitzmaurice]

BTW, I have seen speakers with porus(gauze like) dustcaps, solid paper or plastic dustcaps and all metal dustcaps. Beside making the voice coil look bigger(read marketing), how critical to sound is a dustcap anyway?
If it's an extended range driver, critical. But otherwise, not so much. Drivers with extended pole pieces (they only resemble phase plugs, thus the mis-connotation) generally do so to eliminate break-up modes that dust covers can create, whereas extended range drivers get their extended range from those break-up modes.
The usual reason for a porous cap is coil ventilation, so if that's what they have you must maintain that.

[Brian Steele]

Also remember that if you are "uncomfortable" with doing it yourself, we now have a speaker repair service.

http://www.parts-express.com/speakerrepaircenter/index.cfm

I'd love to try reconing my two Shivas (a recone kit for the Dayton DVC 12" might fit), just for curiousity's sake. Even better would be if I could replace the basket too :).

[ligs]

Actually I am a little puzzled by the repair/reconing service offered by PE. If, according to the description, PE will replace all the soft parts(not just surround) you will be making a new speaker altogether. What would happen to the TS parameters and sound quality?