I have a vintage set of speakers that I would like to get refoamed. Some suggestions of where to have it done would be helpful, especially if you liked their service. I am in Texas, but can ship anywhere.Thank you
Where in TX? If you're in the Austin area, there's TexaSound; "Located in North Austin near Burnet, and West Koenig. We meet by appointment, and can be reached By phone: 512-769-9750 By email: texasound@gmail.com" I haven't called on them as I've given up on speakers with foam surrounds a while back.
The Speaker Exchange They've done work (by mail) for me. I've sent dozens of folks to them over the years. I've also visited the shop in person to drop off and pick up and was very impressed with the operation. Jeff
...or you can DIY @fuse999. Search "speaker refoaming" on eBay and you'll get 900+ results. Here's one: Boston Acoustic A40 6.5" Woofer Refoam Kit-Speaker Foam w/ Shims & Caps! | eBay
If the speakers aren’t worth a lot, I’d consider DIY too. I’ve done it on a few pairs of vintage speakers (ESS, IMF, Paradigm, etc) and it’s a little messy, but it’s not that hard. Sending them away to be redone is more pricey. I’ve used MillerSound in the past for a more expensive refoam (Alon) that in retrospect I should have attempted and for a recone/new voice coil for blown speakers. They did a good job in both cases, but again, not cheap.
I bought a kit off eBay. But it was a simple afair only needing to do a single woofer for a small speaker. Simple enough to do yourself. Scape off the glue and pieces still stuck to the drive frame and the driver. Clean off anything left with some mineral spirits. Then glue on the new foaming to the driver, allow to dry then glue on the frame. Took a day allowing the glue to dry in between. Then connect the drivers and screw them back in. Really not that hard to do. But you will want to set aside a work area for the day.
Yep, did my old b&o cx100's too about 18 years ago. DIY, not too difficult and satisfying to do. With expensive speakers I wouldn't try it myself but otherwise it's a nice challenge.
Since it is all relative, what would you say are speakers which aren't worth much? I have a few early '90s 7" Eton mid woofers in need of a refoam. I've been sitting on them for years since they're spares but wondering if it's worth it to refoam them. I think they're worth $80-$100 a piece.
I wouldn’t necessarily refoam them if they’re not going to be used in the foreseeable future. For that value, I’d try to do it myself. For me, personally, if a speaker (thinking whole speakers, not individual drivers) are worth less than $400-500, I’d take a shot at doing it myself. Even if you were to mess it up, it could be redone. When I had my Alon woofers refoamed, I think it was maybe $60-70 each, plus the shipping costs to send them out. So you can see that the cost to have them professionally refoamed would be a significant portion of the driver cost itself in your case. Though maybe you could find someone to do it for cheaper than I did. Important thing is to replace like for like (foam for foam, rubber for rubber) and even within a material type, there are probably different specs for thickness, pliability, etc. Ideal if the driver manufacturer actually sold OEM parts, but in most cases, we just have to make due with something of the right type and size.
Great! If I can do it (and I'm a non-handy person who has done it several times) you can do it. The important things: 1) Make sure you're using the right size/shape/material for your woofers. Google is your friend. 2) Look for how-tos online, including on YouTube. I use them as a rough guide but don't get too hung up on the details that don't seem critical. 3) Definitely consider shimming the voice coil. I'm not saying it's absolutely necessary in every case, but it's worth being aware of. 4) Have fun!
You can also check out Parts Express. I got foam surround kits for my Advents from them. They also have some good diy videos that are helpful. Good luck. I’m sure they’ll come out great! Home
Great! I re-foamed my Snell Type JIIIs - initially using a generic kit from Simply Speakers. The most tedious part is removing the old foam and preparation for the new foam installation. Vifa M21 woofers with generic foam. When Simply Speakers started selling the Euro foam kit, I did it again. The Euro foam sounded a bit better in the midrange. Good luck!
I don't think it's as simple as "scrape off old foam and glue on new foam". I've had a couple of speakers re-foamed at a long out-of-business company in Massachusetts and I watched them do some while I was there. They told me that it was important to fix the woofer in its "resting position" by using shims. If you don't do that, the woofer can be too far down into the voice coil or too far out of it, causing issues of not having enough woofer movement. In the worst case (woofer re-foamed with it too far out), you can have the woofer hit the end of its "throw" and you'll get a knock with loud bass sounds. How do I know this is the sound you can get? It happened to a friend of mine. He re-foamed the speaker and it knocked like crazy. I helped him do it right and he's been fine.
When I lived in Chicago I used Van L Speaker works. John can rebuild any speaker. I've used them in the past. Now that I live in NW Arkansas there's not even a legitimate HiFi dealer much less a good repair shop. I will mail any speaker work to Chicago. Van L Speakerworks, Chicago, High End, Tube amp, soundstage
I should have qualified that in the case of my Snell Type JIII's Vifa M21 woofer, the voice coil is self centering. No need for shims to center the voice coil. In fact trying to do that will ruin the one-piece Vifa woofer cone/dust cap. I documented the procedure in my two blog entries: Part 1 and Part 2. Onyx RTA with the Simply Speakers generic foam kit for the Vifa M21 RTA with the Euro foam kit on the Vifa M21 No voice coil rubbing with either kits. If the OP's woofer is similar to the Vifa M21, then, it's a pretty straight forward DIY re-foam. An obvious indication wherein the voice coil needs shimming is if the dust cap is "glued-in". In which case, it'll be handy to also have an audio generator to align the voice coil properly. This video was also helpful.
