Cerwin Vega D9 Restore Help

Willtexas07

New Member
I picked up a set of Cerwin Vega D9 speakers today for $15 total at GW. The speakers look mostly intact and the cases are very nice. The woofers cones are gone. I have not plugged them in yet and was hoping to get some advice on how to go about bringing them back to life.
Any help is very appreciated!20170527_215341.jpg
 
Absolutely do not plug your speakers into your receiver/amp.! The risk of damaging your equipment is severe. I'd try to source replacement woofers, EBAY, etc.
 
At $15, you certainly have some budget to restore these guys. And they are certainly worth restoring - the D9 remain a favourite with almost all CV fans.

First thing I would do is assess the other six drivers to see if they are all working, and see if the dials for the mid and tweets are working. If you remove and unhook the woofers (put some electric tape on the leads so they don't short) you can hook up the speakers to a source to check them out. I usually keep an old BPC receiver around for this sort of thing.

Secondly, I'd put the woofers each on a multimeter to see if the coils are shot. Looking at their condition, I'd guess "yes" but I've been surprised before.

If the coils are shot, we're in a replace situation. This is best achieved by finding another used set of CVs with donor 15s locally, or hunting down a set online. To get the best value, you may need to buy a set that needs reforming.

If they're not shot, reconing and reforming is an option, based on your comfort with the skill needed. Or you could do a replace anyways.

Looks like a fun project for a fun set of speakers.
 
Thanks to everyone for the great replies! I pulled one in from the garage last night and started checking it out. The mids and tweeter are fine. I ran it for about 10 seconds on very low volume. Wish I had seen the post about not doing so before hooking it up. The woofer of course could not produce sound with no cone, but sound like it was functioning. Just curious on how to test it with a multimeter. I am hoping that both just need reconing and refoaming. They appear to have been very well taken care of other than the missing cones.
 
Just pulled woofer on first one and voice coil is good. Yipee! Assuming the other one is good, then I would be looking at refoaming and reconing right? Any recommendations on a particular kit to use? There is a great video showing how to do it. It strikes me as a pretty straight forward process as long as one goes very slowly and studies each step prior to doing it.
 
Just pulled the other woofer and tested with the battery. It jumped really good. Double yipee! I feel like I just won the lottery! I did not test the rest of the second speaker for fear of messing something up. I guess it would be a really bad idea to connect it with no woofer. Any advice on refoaming and reconing is very appreciated by me (not my next door neighbors, lol).
 
No issues hooking it up with no woofer, assuming you insulate the leads so they don't short. I mean I wouldn't run them for long periods like that, but they should be fine for testing purposes.
 
If you like, please get with me on a set of 152 woofers- soon to have new foams!
PM me for details.......... If not, Midwest Speakers does very good recone service.
DC
 
Recone kit includes new voice coils etc.

http://www.simplyspeakers.com/cerwin-vega-speaker-recone-kit-152w-rk-cv152w.html

RK-Vega-152W.jpg
 
Helluva a deal for $15. I run the same speakers. Reconing is a major pain PITA, I would just source a used or new set of ready to install correct woofers. Surrounds are easy though, had to do mine. That bullet horn tweeter will drive you nuts, I hated them so found a pair (with the help of an AK'er) of Heppner Dhorm soft domes from the original CV HED series. They were also used by Altec and Polk IIRC. HUGE difference in sound, no more horn shriek or listener fatigue
 
Recone kits, you have to know the voice coil depth, set the VC exactly perfect in the gap, set the spider and VC perfect, etc. If you never have done it I would think twice and twice again!!!!
DC
 
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I reconed a 152wr a week ago. Easy to do. Simply Speakers sells the kits and has a instructional video for a JBL model woofer but the principal is still the same. I set the bottom of the voice coil about a 1/16" above the magnet. Plenty of travel in both directions and sounds great.
 
My CV 15" speakers excursion zone is way more then a 1/16th" in either direction. Glad I don't have to mess with mine. 1/16th" and I would bottom out quick
 
Thanks for all the great new informative replies! Just checked speaker 2 and the mids and tweeter are working. The mids sound nice, but I agree the tweeters have to go. I have decided to pick up some tweeters and swap them out. I have started cleaning the woofers and it is a time consuming affair, but a labor of love. I am going to pick up the suggested kits and do the recone/refoam with a buddy of mine that has a very steady hand and a lot more knowledge than me. If successful, with new tweeters and the redone woofers, I may actual have something. The wife may even appreciate that I will be cutting the number of speakers I am running from 4 to 2, even if the new ones are nearly the size of my clothes washer!
 
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