Mowed the lawn, had a couple beers and now the woofers are done. Not even sure I needed the clothes pins. Decided not to mess with the whole battery thing.  The woofers are perfectly aligned, no rubbing. The glue from Simply Speakers is awesome - sets up quickly but allows you to move the speaker if needed for positioning, then bites and holds.  

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Guys, once you glue the foams to the cones and let set up, they will find their true center on the frames. I don't see any reason to shim, but I respect your technique and approach.  

Should be listening to these tomorrow as everything else is done and ready to reassemble.  I picked up a couple of 7/8" plastic plugs from Lowes for the rear speaker wires to exit. Drilled them out so the wire can be exposed and am going to use some screw on banana plugs for now.   Login to view image

Oh, here's one more owner cutting corners to save - err.. what is it you are saving ?

"Guys, once you glue the foams to the cones and let set up, they will find their true center on the frames."
- The cones are practically never centered in the frames. Neither is the center piece, actually. And why should they be ?
Besides, over 30 years the heavy coils of those 8- and 10-inch woofers will almost always make the spider sag a bit
and with that the coil and cone.
Centering the cone around the center piece is the important thing. Centering to the mounting frame is not!

"I don't see any reason to shim"
- Exactly this has brought dozens of failed DIY refoam jobs to my door. Some could be saved.
Many owners actually ruined the woofers when they tried to remove the new surrounds again.

"but I respect your technique and approach."
- That's what experience has showed to be the only way to a safe, lasting result the first time, so thanks.

But why cut corners ?
You are so close to doing a professional job and this could easily spoil it all.
Shimming is easy, fast and doesn't cost anything.
You are free to do what you like with- and to your speakers and I've written long and heavy
about this subject countless times but that's my advice, anyways.

But I'm happy to see that you seem to have bought decent quality surrounds and glue.
You can safely buy the same ones next time.

Oh, and don't let the clothes pegs push inwards on the bulbs.
Compare T/S with and without the pegs and you'll be much surprised !
That's experience talking again. Sorry.  😂

Martin

Hey Martin - glad you have such a wealth of experience here. I read some of your posts and others before I made my decision.  You seem to feel there is only one way to do this, but sadly, you are wrong.  We agree there is some risk in doing it without shims, but again, many enthusiasts have been successful without shims.  If you looked at the video from Simply Speakers (and several others these days that repair speakers for consumers), they don't shim.  

As well, if you read the earlier part of the thread, the reason I did it this way was NOT to disturb the factory dust caps. And, I didn't just glue them on and let them set up, there was a lot on moving the cone in and out to have it reach it's natural centering point.  

I am very happy with the results and I am sure the music will sound great here later this afternoon.  Feel free to tell me I'm wrong on that one too.  

"If you looked at the video from Simply Speakers (and several others these days that repair speakers for consumers), they don't shim"
- I've seen the videos.
I've also seen all the failed DIY attempts arriving here. I had three last week, two M150 woofers and one S80.
And the prof. refoamers DO shim, they would have too many returns if they didn't.
But of course they want to make it look as simple as possible to the buyers and if a buyer fails the project and complain, they
will blame his skills or the woofers initial condition.
I've been there too with several foam suppliers and even more owners.

"the reason I did it this way was NOT to disturb the factory dust caps"
- Why is this important to you ?  😕

"there was a lot on moving the cone in and out to have it reach it's natural centering point."
- The cone/coil/spider will all have sagged to some extent, that's gravity and nature, in other words; unavoidable.
In some woofers (RL140 seem particularly prone because of its tight tolerances) this can in rare cases cause
the coil to start rubbing against the center piece EVEN with the surrounds still intact.
Surely, this is not where you want it to sit again ?  ❓
In the above mentioned cases the spider will also have to be shim'ed back (or replaced - and shim'ed).

"sadly, you are wrong."
- Yes, that is sad.
And to hear it after doing a count of close to 4 digits of B&O woofers from all over the world over several
decades only makes it even more sad.  🙁
Well, having said that, I do feel a slight bit of comfort in the fact that I've not had one single negative feedback
on my work yet, let alone a return. 😳

If you are happy, then fine.
And no, you're not wrong - not at all. 😂
I have a huge respect for owners trying to fix stuff themselves but as one of this sites technical advisors, I will again have
to advice against doing refoam jobs without shim'ing.
It's so easy, cheap and fast and an almost 100% guarantee of good result so I see no reason whatsoever for NOT shim'ing.
I've seen too many woofers, that could've been saved, go to landfill.
These woofers are custom produced to B&O. They are long out of production and replacements with reasonably
similar T/S parameters can't be found anywhere.

I've also said this before; Some owners have more skills than others. Others again just have more luck.
If you succeded, then fine. You will know if you succeeded after a couple of months.
Just don't count on all DIYers to reach the same result.
I can tell you, not all people have finger skills for tasks like this ! 😂

Martin

Thanks Martin - again, you know WAY more about this than me or most for that matter, and I fully respect that knowledge and your execution.  Your perfect track record is something to be proud of and no doubt, your method is best.  

I have decent skill and dexterity to restore cars, bikes, electronics, so this was the route I took.  You have all educated me here, perhaps the next set of rare speakers will be done with shims so as to not risk failure. 

On to the reassembly and some listening later on today.  More pics to follow.

Martin, I may look you up for the crossover rebuild kit and I would welcome your input on how best to execute on that little project, thanks

indyaudio wrote:

Martin, I may look you up for the crossover rebuild kit

I can recommend Martins kits, comes with instructions, i have used several of his kits, not only for crossovers. I normally change at least the caps in the crossovers, when the speakers are opened anyway, its faster, and using electrolytic caps, no high cost. Waiting for your test 🙂

Well, regarding the capacitors my advice is to keep it simple.
Replace the old electrolytic capacitors with fresh electrolytic capacitors.
Some owners prefer to use foil caps, sometimes even very expensive ones but it is my experience
that 99,8% of enhancing the sound quality comes from simply renewing the caps and
only the last 0,2% (if any at all) from upgrading the caps.
I can't tell much of a difference from fresh standard bipolar caps to foils, to be honest. Not on these speakers anyway.
From putting together kits of both types, I can tell that not many owners heard a difference either.
Foil kits are no longer made for the same reason.

Besides, the speakers and filters were designed for electrolytic capacitors. Feel free to experiment but, being one
that likes to give out safe advice, I would tell you to just fit standard bipolar caps.

Unless coils or resistors look burned or otherwise damaged, I would leave them alone.
They'll be fine and they don't wear.

If you like to do an upgrade, it should be to the input and woofer leads.
They are alright from factory but a little more gauge here will never hurt.
No need to go upwards of 0,75mm2 and no need to do the midrange and tweeter leads.

Martin

it is clearly the best BeoVox in my opinion I'll got to have a set but have to wait until Dillen have renovated my last pair of beolab penta mk3. I'll just can not wait

Dillen wrote:

Well, regarding the capacitors my advice is to keep it simple.
Replace the old electrolytic capacitors with fresh electrolytic capacitors.
Some owners prefer to use foil caps, sometimes even very expensive ones but it is my experience
that 99,8% of enhancing the sound quality comes from simply renewing the caps and
only the last 0,2% (if any at all) from upgrading the caps.
I can't tell much of a difference from fresh standard bipolar caps to foils, to be honest. Not on these speakers anyway.
From putting together kits of both types, I can tell that not many owners heard a difference either.
Foil kits are no longer made for the same reason.

Besides, the speakers and filters were designed for electrolytic capacitors. Feel free to experiment but, being one
that likes to give out safe advice, I would tell you to just fit standard bipolar caps.

Unless coils or resistors look burned or otherwise damaged, I would leave them alone.
They'll be fine and they don't wear.

If you like to do an upgrade, it should be to the input and woofer leads.
They are alright from factory but a little more gauge here will never hurt.
No need to go upwards of 0,75mm2 and no need to do the midrange and tweeter leads.

Martin

Thanks Martin, I"ll take this advice and get with you for a cap kit. 

Well, a bit of a delay. I forgot I needed to reglue the 4 trim bezel rings to the woofers before I could reinstall them.  So that's been done and waiting for the glue to set up.