Most dissappointing thing I have seen in a long time.

[alexkerhead]

Today, I get a package from bakersfield california, and I was excited, I paid more for these than usual, and I did so in hopes they would be packed well, hell no, I opened the box and looked in, and there were my 2 123a-1 woofers there all messed up, with busted styrafoam all over and in them, and the cnes were in positions where they were being pushed on one side really hard.
So, I cut the ties that held them front to front, and did an excursion test to see if I heard any kind of rubbing, or anything like that, both woofers seem to have voice coil rub, and one makes aweful squeak noises.
I hooked them up free air to check em, one sound "ok" the other makes the squeak noise, the one that works, stopped the "coil rubbing after 20 seconds of running, so it is fine, the other I fear is not so lucky.
What should I do, try to break em in some more? or send em back, which is expensive?
They have recently been reconed, and I think they could use a little break in time, but I am worried about the squeaky one, becuase it have half the excursion as the other one and mine, and looks as if a retarded beaver did some kind of repair to the spider mechanism....

 

[alexkerhead]

Looks like they are as is, SO, I popped off the magnet to see the extent of the damage to the coils, to my utter suprise, jbl quality reined supreme, and the coils survived with minor scratching, so I got out the compass and bent the coils back to perfect circles, and to my amazment, they sound great now.
I did send an email to the seller explaining to him how to ship speakers next time.
One is a bit tighter than the other, becuase someone use too much glue on the area where the coil meets the cone, but i think it will loosen up over time hopefully, but they sound pretty darn good, and I am happy, seeing as while I was in the mood, I discovered what was wrong with the old "bad" woofer, was the tensil connection to the terminal was bad, I resoldered it, and it works fine as well, SO, I am planing on building a set of project L100s, seeing as I have the woofers already.
Anyway, that was my shipping horror realized today.

 

[shelby1420]

Alexkerhead, glad to hear things worked out ok, nothing worse then somethin gettin broken cuz someone did not take the time to pack properly, or just did not know how!!!!

 

[rek50]

"One is a bit tighter than the other" Over at Lansing Heritage Forum (audioheritage) is a post by "Edgewound" that touches on using synthetic grease to lube tight voice coils. Do a search and check it out. Edgewound is a JBL factory authorized repair guy. The post is one of his earliest. Good show on fixing the shipping damage!

 

[sydsfloyd67]

Packaging looks correct to me from here. I'd have predicted that the magnet/housing shifted from plain old "G"-force when a well-packed speaker is thrown around. I've had mounted woofer baskets sheer clean off from the force of slamming the box down. (Shifting the magnet would be a lot easier.)

If you get a speaker you really care about and a capable seller, I'd say remove the drivers other than tweeters, and pack them seperately. I'm not sure how anyone can be expected to do a lot more than shown above. -sf

 

[alexkerhead]

syd, the issue was that the acking was completely inadequite.
The bottom foam was cocked up on the other side, pushing on the cone very very hard, that is what messed up the coils, and I scrapped them when I tested them, and had to fix em.
To correctly pack any large drivers, a crate should be ,made with a 1/4" peice f mounting board on top, and cut the hole out, and screw the sub in, and have a suport board under it, and a board on top. to protech the cone, that way, there is no way the shipping company can mess it up.
I know it is a lot of trouble, but $175 is a lot for these wofers.
If I shipped a speaker, I would do it the way I described.

Thanks for the kind words shelby.

Rek, thanks for the advice and compliment, i'll check it out.

 

[rek50]

I got a pair of 2213's (heavier frame) shipped from California. They were in perfect/intact condition. The thoughtful shipper used three boxes. Each speaker was sandwiched between 1" thick styrofoam, with four big blocks of foam, glued to the inside of the box, to prevent the speaker from shifting, side to side/front to back. The two boxed speakers were inside a large box, sitting side by side, not face to face. There was foam around all sides of the two boxes, to cushion them inside the larger box. The outside was marked FRAGILE-GLASS. Shipped by Fed-X.

 

[Andyman]

To correctly pack any large drivers, a crate should be ,made with a 1/4" peice f mounting board on top, and cut the hole out, and screw the sub in, and have a suport board under it, and a board on top. to protech the cone, that way, there is no way the shipping company can mess it up.
I know it is a lot of trouble,

I think that expectation is prolly a bit much. I've seen NIB factory drivers not packed that bombproof. I've shipped dozens of drivers and your shipper had the right idea, but messed up with the Styrofoam; it's to hard and will transmit shocks, which is exactly what happened to you. It may work well against solid wood cases, but on delicate items you need a padding that will absord the shock, not transmit it.

When I ship, I either mount a single speaker to a piece of corrugated cardboard or a pair face to face and wrap it in about 1 1/2" of bubble wrap, the 1/2" bubble kind. Then that get packed into a carton with at least 3" of clearance on each side and stuff it full of used shrink wrap. The shrink wrap is an excellent material as it conforms to the shape of the item, immobilizes it and will absorb shocks. Plus I get it free and do not have to pass that cost on to the buyer.

Glad you were able to resurrect those driver though; they're some might fine woofers.

 

[alexkerhead]

I got a pair of 2213's (heavier frame) shipped from California. They were in perfect/intact condition. The thoughtful shipper used three boxes. Each speaker was sandwiched between 1" thick styrofoam, with four big blocks of foam, glued to the inside of the box, to prevent the speaker from shifting, side to side/front to back. The two boxed speakers were inside a large box, sitting side by side, not face to face. There was foam around all sides of the two boxes, to cushion them inside the larger box. The outside was marked FRAGILE-GLASS. Shipped by Fed-X.

Humm, excellent idea, would save a lot of time in comparison of what I did.

 

[rek50]

The S-Foam used (White) in my packing had some "Give" to it. It wasn't the "Rigid" (Pink/Blue) insulation type found at Home Depot, but rather the cheaper white stuff they have.