WD25T Bass Speaker Cone Damaged - World-Designs-Forum

London Comedian · #1 22nd July 2014, 06:59 PM

Just noticed damage to one of my speaker cones - £90 for a new speaker!
Anyone know if they can be 're-coned'?
If worst comes to worst do they need to be bought as a pair?
OR!
It's not that bad - a kind of indentation in the surface about 30mm long, 5mm wide.
Home repair maybe?
Any constructive thoughts appreciated.
Or you could have a go at humour I suppose!

Shane · #2 22nd July 2014, 10:15 PM

A photo would be useful....

bob orbell · #3 23rd July 2014, 06:56 AM

A few years back I had to replace a ribbon tweeter in one of my Monitor Audio's, that was £180.00

, so £90.00 for a bass driver seems good, we await pictures. BOB

VantheMan · #4 25th July 2014, 10:55 PM

I have had problems with both of my bass drivers.I blamed it on the high temps and humidity over here and poor storage of the drivers before building my WD25Ts. One developed a sort of crease/indentation "varicose" vein sort of thing on the cone itself and both voice former collar like thingies become unstuck. I bodged them with a mess of toilet tissue and and diluted wood glue and also primed the cones themselves with even more diluted wood glue as a sort of outer protection so not being straight undoped paper any more they probably no longer sound as they should. When I´m feeling flush I might buy a pair of new drivers but am a bit peeved.

London Comedian · #5 26th July 2014, 08:17 AM

Hi
Thanks for the responses.
A couple of photos attached.
One of the damaged cone and one of the system as a whole.
Sorry for the delay I couldn't transfer the original snaps I took from camera to laptop as the latter is playing up. These are from the camera on my tablet.
Bob: I take your point about the costs involved - it could have been worse obviously. Just seems a shame to replace an otherwise good unit.

Richard · #6 26th July 2014, 09:20 AM

Looks like physical damage from being caught by the corner of some object doesn't it (rather than any manufacturing or storage problem).

I bet it still sounds the same as the cone is designed to move as a piston (rather than resonate itself) and it doesn't look bad enough to affect that. Try putting the speakers alongside each other then playing the same music through them alternately to see if they still sound similar.

Of course you might not like it being there from a cosmetic point of view and I agree with Bob there that £90 isn't bad these days for such a driver

VantheMan · #7 26th July 2014, 09:35 PM

Definitely looks like the driver has been through a traumatic experience. Not at all like my problem.

London Comedian · #8 27th July 2014, 04:39 PM

Well I've decided to do a repair using pva glue and coffee filter paper based on advice from the web. The main issue was prizing the unit out of the enclosure without damaging the wood at which I was not entirely successful because of the putty holding the unit against a cross brace inside the enclosure. I'll post a photo when it's sorted.
While on the subject is anyone aware of a cover that can be used to offer some protection?

Greg. · #9 28th July 2014, 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by London Comedian

Well I've decided to do a repair using pva glue and coffee filter paper based on advice from the web. The main issue was prizing the unit out of the enclosure without damaging the wood at which I was not entirely successful because of the putty holding the unit against a cross brace inside the enclosure. I'll post a photo when it's sorted.
While on the subject is anyone aware of a cover that can be used to offer some protection?

Your choice of course. Having viewed your photo's unless you have detectable sound degradation owing to the damage, I would leave it alone. I really don't think you need to do anything here and if you start applying PVA glue with coffee filter paper, there is every likelihood you will spoil or change performance.

London Comedian · #10 29th July 2014, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg.

Your choice of course. Having viewed your photo's unless you have detectable sound degradation owing to the damage, I would leave it alone. I really don't think you need to do anything here and if you start applying PVA glue with coffee filter paper, there is every likelihood you will spoil or change performance.

Greg
Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately the deed has already been done!
On inspection I noticed that the cone had actually been punctured so I acted on the assumption that the sound may already have been changed plus it perhaps would degrade physically and/or performance wise with further use.