In Reply to: RE: Are used speakers good? posted by marc g. on December 4, 2009 at 21:39:12:
I've seen the normal life of foam surrounds put at precisely 8-20 years. Someone getting started with old speakers should know that replacing them takes a hobbyist couple of hours per set (pair of woofers) and usually costs between 5 and 35 dollars for the replacement surrounds. This equals $50 to $150 if you take them to a pro for the same work. Figure that 90 percent of good speakers made in the last 30 years have foam surrounds. Some other parts of the speakers could be likely to reach end of life between roughly 30 and 50 years out, sooner if the speaker is played at or beyond its ability to handle power or spends a lot of time in an inhospitable place. It's not unlike trying to keep an old car original and running. The reason to like old speakers is definitely the cost, as the price of new speakers has gone up about twice as fast as the price of new cars over the past several decades. So, buying a nice pair of old speakers for $100-$200 today would be about like buying a 1980 Lincoln that looked and ran like it was two years old for $1000 today. Heck of a bargain if you can accept the potential downside.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Are used speakers good? - Lucas Membrane 02:39:03 12/05/09 (1)
- RE: Are used speakers good? - caspian@peak.org 13:45:58 12/05/09 (0)