Are These Worth Repairing??

[vintagestereo]

Hi. I found a pair of EPI "M 100" Speakers the other day at the local GW for $7.00 each. They had real wood veneer so they caught my attention. As they always say at GW, "These work real good!", so, being the gambler that I am, I took 'em home. Of course, the first one I listened to had a blown, scratchy woofer, so, in frustration, I decided to put 'em outside by the curb hoping someone would take 'em off my hands. They sat there for 5 days with no takers!

This morning I brought them back inside and, just for the heck of it, hooked up the other speaker. Amazing, it worked perfectly and sounds really FINE!!

Now, I'm wondering if it is worth it to get the bad woofer repaired and what would be involved.

Does anyone here know these guys? Your thougts........... :scratch2:

 

[Fisherdude]

:jawdrop:

You've got to be kidding!!! You put a pair of EPI 100's at the curb?????

That tears it!! You're off the team!! :bash:

Those speakers sound great, they're worth $100+ easy, and the surrounds for the woofs are readily available.

Fix 'em, dude, and you'll keep 'em forever!

Maybe then we'll forgive you!
Clay

 

[vintagestereo]

Fix 'em, dude, and you'll keep 'em forever!

Maybe then we'll forgive you!
Clay

OK, OK!! I'll fix 'em!! I took the grills off to see what was going on....and you were TOTALLY correct. The surround from the woofer on the right one has completely seperated! However, as you will note, each of them has completely different drivers!

Now, the quandry....should I just get the woofs refoamed or is it worth the money just getting replacement woofers?

 

[mhardy6647]

That's OK, they're both very early EPI 100's.
www.humanspeakers.com has most of the info you'd ever need on EPI and their speakers.

They are excellent systems.

FWIW, I just refoamed the woofers on a pair of the very similar Genesis Physics model 1+ 8" two-ways this past weekend.

 

[outlawmws]

The foam is an easy replace. Kits are in the $20-$25 range and is well within most anyone's abilities, even if they arent mechanically inclined. Instructions come with most surround kit's, plus there is an excelent step by step right here on AK. :thmbsp: It's a sticky in Speakers or DIY, I can't remember just now.

DO IT! :yes: :yes: :yes:

 

[Fisherdude]

Generally speaking, replacing drivers with non-original drivers will make the speakers sound different from, or not as good as, the original sound.

I would really suggest that you replace the wrong drivers with correct ones, if you can find them at reasonable prices.

 

[outlawmws]

As an aside, if the cases need a bit of cleaning or touch up, use 3 products.

Clean with Murphy's Oil Soap. It's made to clean wood and does a wonderfull jop without damaging or drying the wood. Don't use 409 and other kitchen cleaners. If there is marker or crayon, try lighter fluid first, 409 last, at least on wood products.

Scratches can be minimized or made to go away using Old English Scratch cover. it comes in dark and light flavors. I used it for years when I was working for an upholstry shop for touching up wood trim in High School.

Finish with Lemon Oil. I use Weiman Lemon Oil, but I'm sure other Lemon Oil pruducts are good also. Take your time and let it soak in. Several coats is good.

It's amazing what these 3 products can do to improve a wood finish! :thmbsp:

 

[Toasted Almond]

It appears you are fortunate to have ignorant neighbors. If I lived next door, by the time you got back in the house from the trip down the driveway, your curb would've been uncluttered.

 

[GordonW]

OK, OK!! I'll fix 'em!! I took the grills off to see what was going on....and you were TOTALLY correct. The surround from the woofer on the right one has completely seperated! However, as you will note, each of them has completely different drivers!

Now, the quandry....should I just get the woofs refoamed or is it worth the money just getting replacement woofers?

Woofers are OK, EPI regularly used different color paper (reddish vs. bluish gray) on those. Completely interchangable.

My concern, would be the tweeters... one of those is a paper dome, the other is a phenolic (later model). Now, they don't sound much different... with the exception that the paper dome is about 1 dB more efficient. You may wind up having to turn the L-pad on the one with the bare-wood tweeter (the phenolic dome) flange a bit louder, than the one with the black flange.

If you would like to match them, I've got a couple of the black-flange tweeters (the correct one for that model)... as long as that bare-wood/phenolic one is working properly, I'd take that one in trade, plus $10, for one of the earlier models (more rare). But, I'd listen to them first, to see if you can hear any difference... it may not be discernable.

PM me if you like...

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[Andyman]

It appears you are fortunate to have ignorant neighbors. If I lived next door, by the time you got back in the house from the trip down the driveway, your curb would've been uncluttered.

Damn straight there TA! Those are keepers always.

BTW, VS, what's your addy???


They prolly would have been gone in 60 seconds with "Bose" on them though :yes: :lmao: :lmao:

 

[Parky50]

Hey Vintagestereo,

Grumpy just posted a set of EPI Tweeters for sale... I would bet that those are you replacments for your Tweeters !!! :yes:

 

[vintagestereo]

Hey Vintagestereo,

Grumpy just posted a set of EPI Tweeters for sale... I would bet that those are you replacments for your Tweeters !!! :yes:

Thanks, Mike! The tweets work perfectly, it's the woofer on the right that needs repair. My Tech said he'll refoam it for $62.00 parts and labor. I can buy one from HUMAN for $60.00 plus shipping, or, being brave, I could buy a foan kit and attempt to do it myself. Decisions, decision.......

Let me see what Grumpy's got, just in case.

 

[Toasted Almond]

$60 to re-foam one 8" is nothing less than a rape. You can ship it to my guy here in South Jersey and he'll do it for $21.50.

 

[bolly]

vintagestereo- I just finished refoaming my AR9's. It was fairly easy, if you do your homework. BTW, I only refoamed a couple passive radiators previously so this was my first kick at the cat as far as voicecoils are concerned. I'm ecstatic!

 

[GordonW]

$60 to re-foam one 8" is nothing less than a rape. You can ship it to my guy here in South Jersey and he'll do it for $21.50.

Damn right. I regularly do 8" refoams for AK members for $25 each. If he's charging $60, it most likely is that he doesn't REALLY want to be doing re-foams, or something...

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[SPL db]

There was a single one of those cabinets at one of the local GW
here in my hometown...

I posted it on the Audio Asylumn to see if anyone wanted it and I got
a nibble so I bought it ($9.99)...

Turned out the woofer had separated from the basket and the L pad
was more on/off instead of a control...

Ended up taking it back to the store after the the other member decided
against it.

That was about two weeks ago and I haven't seen it back on the shelf,
so I guess it went in the dumpster.

Scott

 

[vintagestereo]

Damn right. I regularly do 8" refoams for AK members for $25 each. If he's charging $60, it most likely is that he doesn't REALLY want to be doing re-foams, or something...

Regards,
Gordon.

Gordon -- I live in Souther California and I don't know if you'd do mine, but I would be honored, since you are held in such high esteem. I don't want to ruin these by screwing it up myself.

 

[luvvinvinyl]

vs, these woofers would be the perfect first refoam project. They are pretty easy to work on, and the long throw gives you lots of room to work. Don't forget that you should do both of them, as the other one will be not long for this world, either. If they are both butyl rubber surrounds, they will differ in sound, one old rubber, and one new foam. Just do 'em both. BTW, I have a pair of the little brother M50's and 3 pair of the 100's. Two pair running in a 'double stack', an homage to bolly's HPM100s. The Marantz 4300 pushes them with ease, and they sound great. If I lived in your neighbourhood, you never would have made it to the curb!

You might want to pick up a throw-away pair from someplace, to practice on. You can get individual surrounds for a couple of dollars each. the kits have the foam, shims, glue and dust caps. I used a business card, cut in strips for shims, Weldbond glue, and re-attached the old dustcaps, so all I bought were surrounds, 2.95 each. I have some extra, if you would like a pair. PM me.

p.s. I can understand if you would rather GordonW do them. Like having a maestro touch up your living room wall.

 

[GordonW]

LV's got it right about the EPI woofers being relatively easy... very open-clearance inside the voice coil motor assembly. A lot more clearance between the coil and the pole piece and top plate, compared to, say, a vintage JBL driver or a poly-cone Boston 'A'- or 'T'-series woofer. With the EPI 8's, you have quite a bit of "wiggle room", so misalignment-related rubbing problems aren't too much of a worry, if you're even reasonably careful. One of the easiest refoams, as long as you don't have stuff going on that I see with EPI woofers on rare occasions, such as spiders loose from the voice coi/cone joints, or spiders loose from the basket. As long as the spider is firmly attached at both joints, they're cake, relatively speaking.

That said, I'd be glad to refoam as many of them as people want to send me. PM me...

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[Andyman]

I'm with Gordon. I've done a dozen or so of these.

Get some 8" surrounds from MAT as they're like a buck apiece. Might as well get some 10"s too. MAT does have a $25 min, but you never know when some Advents may come your way!