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In Reply to: RE: Are used speakers good? posted by Velocidallas on December 04, 2009 at 08:44:44
For speakers whose drivers have foam surrounds, you'll have to make sure the foam has not dry rotted and crumbled away. These can be repaired, and often are. I don't know what the average life of a foam surround is, or if the new foam repair kits last any longer. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can chime in.
Of course, not all speakers have foam surrounds....my 35 year old JBL L200's have the accordian surround which doesn't rot, not needed repair, and still are rocking hard.
I don't know anything about planar and other speaker types, so no comments there. All in all though, the answer to your question is... they certainly can be.
marc g. - audiophile by day, music lover by night
Follow Ups:
I know that these speakers are not foam they have buty rubber surround so I' am assuming that they are good to go. I head people say that rubber surround doesn't have wear and tear problems. Also people do say that used speakers are a way to go since they can be half the price and sound good as new.
Do you guys agree what others have said that I talked to? just wondering
Anyways I did went ahead and bought the JBL Monitor from the Venue Series for $99.99. They will come to my house on the 9th of this month it said on the tracking number. Also Amazon says that is something goes wrong I can return it within 30 days. I hope that is enough time to figure out if they are working good. I do know that the seller did test the speakers and they said it was working great. They did also say that the speakers were an open box item.
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.
Good rundown on the plus/minus.
What else can go wrong? The speakers in question have rubber surrounds, which can eventually harden and crack -- especially if exposed to UV, ozone, or solvent vapors -- but should vastly outlive foam. Voice coils could be bent, and scraping, if the speakers were abused. Old electrolytic crossover caps can dry out and shift in value, or fail altogether. They should be replaced with poly film types of same capacitance and higher voltage rating. If the tweeters had ferrofluid in the voice coils, it could potentially dry out and get gummy, impairing performance. If rotary L-pads are used to adjust mid or treble levels, these will almost certainly get sputtery. They can be cleaned with something like Caig De-oxit, or simply be replaced with new ones.
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