Sam Cogley
12-13-2009, 10:53 AM
I picked this up Friday night, sold as needing a recone. A small child had poked the cone, which led to two light but noticeable creases and the accordion edge being torn halfway around. I figured I had nothing to lose by taking a stab at a repair - worst case scenario, I still need to buy a recone kit. Best case scenario, I get a D130 for a very low price.
Some grey tissue paper was purchased from Target to serve as patch material. Ailene's tacky glue (my handy bottle for speaker re-surround jobs) was used to bind the tissue paper to the cone. I chose to apply a layer of tissue paper all the way around on the front of the cone for cosmetic purposes and to keep the thickness of the material close to the same all the way around and hopefully avoid any issues related to differing cone density. Tissue paper was applied to the back only where there was damage. Two short tears leading down towards the voice coil from the rip in the accordion didn't show through to the front, so they were only patched in back. The light creases (V-shaped longer repairs) also received a layer of reinforcement to keep them from causing problems both sonically and structurally.
The results are quite good! I played several Beatles songs on my iPod through a Magnavox 8802 as a test, and everything seems to be in good order. I'm amazed at the high-quality sound coming from such a large full-range speaker with no whizzer cone or other form of high-range reinforcement. It's not the prettiest thing going, but it works well and I can always buy an aftermarket (or factory E130) recone kit later.
On a side note, does anyone know the meaning of the markings on the cone next to the terminals? They're only visible under indirect light or a camera flash. There was a white stamping next to them that said 130-102 (or 120, I can't remember for sure), but it's now under the patch material.
Some grey tissue paper was purchased from Target to serve as patch material. Ailene's tacky glue (my handy bottle for speaker re-surround jobs) was used to bind the tissue paper to the cone. I chose to apply a layer of tissue paper all the way around on the front of the cone for cosmetic purposes and to keep the thickness of the material close to the same all the way around and hopefully avoid any issues related to differing cone density. Tissue paper was applied to the back only where there was damage. Two short tears leading down towards the voice coil from the rip in the accordion didn't show through to the front, so they were only patched in back. The light creases (V-shaped longer repairs) also received a layer of reinforcement to keep them from causing problems both sonically and structurally.
The results are quite good! I played several Beatles songs on my iPod through a Magnavox 8802 as a test, and everything seems to be in good order. I'm amazed at the high-quality sound coming from such a large full-range speaker with no whizzer cone or other form of high-range reinforcement. It's not the prettiest thing going, but it works well and I can always buy an aftermarket (or factory E130) recone kit later.
On a side note, does anyone know the meaning of the markings on the cone next to the terminals? They're only visible under indirect light or a camera flash. There was a white stamping next to them that said 130-102 (or 120, I can't remember for sure), but it's now under the patch material.