My LE14a debacle comes to a solid close.

[Alan Fletcher]

In several previous threads, I mentioned a rattling problem in a pair of LE14a's which had been reconed with the newer foam compliance (9/23/1984).

I had found several phantom issues to which logical solutions were applied, resulting in little to no improvement.

The true problem was discovered after a long bout of laziness subsided. I pulled one of the drivers and began moving the cone with my hand and tapping on it lightly with my finger while listening closely. After a period of puzzled bewilderment, I finally tracked it down to something really stupid and obvious.

Whoever reconed these things did a decent job of cone alignment, but the rubber rings that surround the compliance seemed to be too large, with alot of dried-up, yellow glue underneath. The outside edge of the compliance was rattling against the rubber ring, causing a rattling and "squooshing" sound.

I removed the rubber rings, and now they sound perfect and do not rattle or squoosh-- perfect travel.

The questions are:

1) Although the edge of the compliance seems to be tightly bound to the edge of the frame, will I do any damage by not re-gluing the compliance where it meets the frame??

and

2) were those the correct rubber rings, or were they re-used from the original lans-aloy cones?

Thanks in advance,

Alan

[GordonW]

Sounds like someone re-used the gasket/rubber ring, which in itself is not necessarily a bad thing... but in this case, it MIGHT NOT have been the original ring the speaker was supposed to be equipped with (ie, someone may have reconed/refoamed the speaker sometime in the past, BEFORE the current re-foam, and installed the wrong gasket).

My inclination, would be to either get the correct-size gasket (which you can probably aquire from most any good reconing shop), or trim out the inside of the gasket you have, carefully, with scissors or an xacto knife. Scrape off as much of the yellow glue as you can without damaging the gasket, and re-install it. IME, the surround/compliance bond is much more secure, with the gasket in place... much less likely to have the foam "lift" from the basket.

Regards,
Gordon.