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Ampex 2115...blown?

Egregore

Egregore

New Member
Hi All,

I'll start by saying that I'm pretty new to the whole message board thing, so feel free to correct my etiquette. No offense will be taken.

I'm a budding vintage HiFi enthusiast, and I've been spending some time (and money) recently, trying to put together a late '60s/early '70s period HiFi system. I recently acquired a pair of Ampex 2115 with Goodmans 12" woofers, via craigslist at a pretty reasonable price. When I tested the speakers, they sounded good, although the grills seemed to be attached and no screws on the back, thus, no way in to look at the cones. When I got them home, I did some investigating and realized that the grills were held on with wire brads. I carefully pried the the grills loose, and noticed something odd about one of the cones. There was a slight bulge, or separation of the vinyl covering on the cone of one of the woofers. I'm not quite sure what this is. Am I looking at a blown cone underneath that vinyl covering?

Some pics:







 
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Well doing a quick search of " Goodman's woofer separation" brought up some info on this happening to others. Now to find out why and how to restore it. My guess is that the adhesive just gave around the coil pressure pushing the cone over the years. The search I did brought up a pair of B&O 3800 speaks with similar woofer and the separation was further along than yours. http://forum.beoworld.org/forums/t/6458.aspx
 
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I cannot tell much from the pics. Just looks like a normal dustcap to me.
How do the speakers sound? Do they sound blown? A woofer can be physically damaged and not be "blown"
 
It does seem superficial, maybe just vinyl bubbling. Injecting some glue into the void might do it but I am just thinking out loud here.
 
Thanks for the lead, Copper. The woofers in the Beovox do seem to be similar, if not the same, to the ones in my Ampex. It looks like, in that case, it was just a separation of the vinyl from the cone. It appears the owner was able to heat up the vinyl with a hair dryer and push it back against the cone. I'm going to give this method a shot, the next chance I get, and hopefully it will be able to re-adhere.

The speaker plays and the sound is good, however the bass seems to be a lot muddier than it is in the other speaker. After reading the other thread, I no longer think that the cone is damaged. I do think the separated vinyl is degrading the sound, however. Hopefully it will be easily repaired with the hair dryer..
 
It doesn't seem as though that little bit of bubbling would cause it to be a "lot muddier." Are you sure all tweeters are working? Check them by using a paper towel tube in front of each with your ears. After that is confirmed than the capacitors should be checked. It could be just your mind phsycoacoustically thinking it sounds muddier.
 
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