[Drew]

Ok, long story short, I have a rather nice pair of Boston Acoustics T830 speakers sitting in my apartment right now with blown drivers. My dad bought them, probably 25 years ago, and used them until maybe 3-4 years ago when, while cranking the living hell out of his stereo with the windows open while he and my brother were working outside around the house, the drivers blew out. They're pretty awesome speakers, though, I was always quite impressed with how they sounded, they're about 3' high or so so they look cool as hell, and I'm assuming replacing the driver is probably a hell of a lot cheaper than buying something comparable.

So, I know a couple of you guys are into home audio - 1159, if nothing else. What should I be doing here? Calling up Boston Acoustics and trying to get a replacement set from them? Are there decent aftermarket speakers that I should be looking at instead? Scrap the whole project as yet another distraction keeping me from finishing my album? If anyone actually answers the later, go to hell. :wub:

 

[1]

Are the speakers blown, or just ripped?

Check this out:

eBay - Boston Acoustics T830 Speaker Foam Repair Kit T 830, Similar items search

 

[1]

Also, you need a woofer. This:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=295-610&source=googleps

Though truth be told, you can probably just get a new set of towers for what it's going to cost you to re-speaker those enclosures if all of the parts are blown.

 

[Drew]

It may just be the foam. Though, it seems I took one of the speakers out and now I don't remember where I put it, so that might be an issue. :lol:

 

[eleven59]

Definitely get an original replacement, if you get a different driver, it won't sound right, since the whole box design and crossover are set for those specific drivers. If it's the foam, you can get it re-surrounded, but make sure you find someone who does it right, if it's done a little bit off it won't work right. Most of those high-end companies are excellent about replacement drivers, though. You'll have to pay for them if they're out of warranty, but they should have them in stock if the speakers aren't more than 20+ years old, and even then there's a good chance they'll have them, or at least have the brand and part number so you can hunt one down on your own. Hell, sometimes they'll recommend something that they've found works even better in the years since designing that speaker.

 

[Jason]

Ok, long story short, I have a rather nice pair of Boston Acoustics T830 speakers sitting in my apartment right now with blown drivers. My dad bought them, probably 25 years ago, and used them until maybe 3-4 years ago when, while cranking the living hell out of his stereo with the windows open while he and my brother were working outside around the house, the drivers blew out. They're pretty awesome speakers, though, I was always quite impressed with how they sounded, they're about 3' high or so so they look cool as hell, and I'm assuming replacing the driver is probably a hell of a lot cheaper than buying something comparable.

So, I know a couple of you guys are into home audio - 1159, if nothing else. What should I be doing here? Calling up Boston Acoustics and trying to get a replacement set from them? Are there decent aftermarket speakers that I should be looking at instead? Scrap the whole project as yet another distraction keeping me from finishing my album? If anyone actually answers the later, go to hell. :wub:

Definitely get an original replacement, if you get a different driver, it won't sound right, since the whole box design and crossover are set for those specific drivers. If it's the foam, you can get it re-surrounded, but make sure you find someone who does it right, if it's done a little bit off it won't work right. Most of those high-end companies are excellent about replacement drivers, though. You'll have to pay for them if they're out of warranty, but they should have them in stock if the speakers aren't more than 20+ years old, and even then there's a good chance they'll have them, or at least have the brand and part number so you can hunt one down on your own. Hell, sometimes they'll recommend something that they've found works even better in the years since designing that speaker.

:lol:

 

[Drew]

:lol:

...and even then there's a good chance they'll have them, or at least have the brand and part number so you can hunt one down on your own. Hell, sometimes they'll recommend something that they've found works even better in the years since designing that speaker.

:lol:

....sorry,. couldn't resist.

 

[Jason]

:lol:

I seen that part to I just thought it was funny.

....sorry,. couldn't resist.

 

[eleven59]

Yeah, I'm tired today :lol: At any rate, I think my main point was: talk to the manufacturer, since they'll know more about them, and are usually pretty friendly and helpful, while there's a lot of hobbyist douches out there that think they know what they're talking about, and it's hard to figure out which ones actually do :lol:

 

[Jason]

Sooo... are you one of the hobbyist douches? :lol:

 

[eleven59]

Sooo... are you one of the hobbyist douches? :lol:

Nah, the last thing the hobbyist douches will tell you is to talk to the manufacturer, they all think they know better :lol: If you listen to them, your "upgrades" eventually result in you building your own speaker :lol:

 

[1]

Call them up and say "Does not sound of the speaker, help."

 

[Soopahmahn]

Drew, you will certainly not be able to get a replacement woofer. I do not know what's wrong (voice coil or spider damaged, cone torn, foam melted...) but I would recommend finding a high-end audio store and talking to them about repair. There are people who make it their life's mission to re-cone or otherwise fix loudspeakers.

If the price is not favorable for whatever needs to be done, you will not be able to find a good replacement woofer that will integrate into the loudspeaker system properly. At that point, you are in the market for new, album-delaying speakers. If you end up in this boat and want a great value on new loudspeakers, I recommend Paradigm.

EDIT: I actually don't know if you're even talking about the woofers or the tweeters. A) Is this a 2- or 3-way design, B) What exactly are the symptoms?

 

[1]

Nonsense. One of my best friends (who I drink with regularly) replaced a couple of blown speakers in some Polk Audio towers, and they sound just fine. He's using 20 year old towers. Any replacement woofer will work as long as it's the right impedance. It's not like he's going to be mixing on them.

 

[Soopahmahn]

Nonsense. One of my best friends (who I drink with regularly) replaced a couple of blown speakers in some Polk Audio towers, and they sound just fine. He's using 20 year old towers. Any replacement woofer will work as long as it's the right impedance. It's not like he's going to be mixing on them.

They won't sound the same. You can slap any 8" driver in to replace a woofer, but there are 100 variables that will affect anything from frequency response to resonant peaks to driver efficiency. As Aaron said, the system is designed as a whole. Some drivers will make alright drop-in replacements, but it's just as easy to end up with a dud, and it's difficult to guess which is good and which is bad.

Again, I still don't know what the exact symptom is. I wouldn't recommend getting new speakers as those are reasonably nice towers, I would recommend getting the existing ones repaired if possible. Heck, for all I know at this point, maybe they just blew the crossover network.

If you want to try replacing drivers, BA may have something similar-ish, or try to find a Focal dealer (classic hobbyist driver source).

 

[1]

The sympton is that he has free 20 year old speakers with a hole in the woofer dude. :lol:

 

[Soopahmahn]

The sympton is that he has free 20 year old speakers with a hole in the woofer dude. :lol:

:lol: He didn't specify that. Most commonly, the voice coil is just fried instead of actual mechanical damage. The crossover fuse could be blown. I dunno.

I've said my peace - check into repair options. It's likely a hell of a lot cheaper than buying new, and should restore your speakers to practically new condition. We used to own a set of BA's of roughly that vintage, and they're fun speakers.

 

[BigM555]

Still not sure from these posts if it's just bad foam surrounds (assuming you can find the missing driver) but replacing foam is pretty easy. I just re-foamed a pair of Infinity RS9's and it was dead simple. A bit of a messy process, the old foam got all gooey, but nothing difficult.

If you can set up Chris' axes then you can re-foam a speaker. :yesway:

 

[1]

Still not sure from these posts if it's just bad foam surrounds (assuming you can find the missing driver) but replacing foam is pretty easy. I just re-foamed a pair of Infinity RS9's and it was dead simple. A bit of a messy process, the old foam got all gooey, but nothing difficult.

If you can set up Chris' axes then you can re-foam a speaker. :yesway:

Shit, I can re-foam it for him while he sets up my axes, and it'll be win-win. :lol:

 

[Drew]

:lol: awesome.