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Ariston Acoustics Image problem

dyche01

dyche01

"Buy high. Sell low"
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I offered to repair the mid/bass driver in a friend's Ariston Acoustics Image speaker. She noticed a lot of distortion coming from one speaker and, upon removing the grill it looks like the cone took a hit that ripped the rubber surround. My friend blames her rowdy nieces for the damage but good luck getting them to fix it.

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Anyway, the cone is some sort of polymer and should be fairly resistant to isopropanol, so I am confident I can cleanly remove the surround. Does anybody here know anything about this driver or have a good line on a replacement surround?
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I'd call it a 6-inch driver and it appears to have been made in Norway. Do these markings mean anything to you guys? Did Ariston make these drivers or did they get them from another vendor?
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Any info would be appreciated!
 
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Ah! I found the driver and, of course, it was made by Seas. Here is the specs sheet, downloaded from the vintage driver database on the Seas website.
 

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nexus said:
i once repaired a rubber surround torn in a move by using 3M weatherstrip cement.
Click to expand...

I was thinking about trying something like that as a first pass, but I hadn't thought of 3M weatherstrip cement.
 
I used the adhesive left over from an old refoaming project to repair the torn surround.

I first applied adhesive to the edges of the tear and then held them together until they set. After that I applied a coat over the top and another one to the underside of the surround to make sure everything sealed up tight. Later this evening I will test the speaker to see whether the repair holds.

repaired_surround.jpg
 
They belong to a friend so I haven't listened to them extensively. What I have heard I have really liked. I will give them a thorough listen tonight and get back to you.

EDIT: Tested them out tonight and they sound really good but, surprisingly, I don't like them quite as much as my old Polk Monitor 5jrs.
 
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Thanks, I haven't looked at the xover, haven't even played them yet. But they have a fine reputation and deserve a serious listen.
 
Thank you Dyche01. I hooked up my Images. Stunning speakers! They seem to embody many virtues of the classic Brit 2-Way. Refined and musical, never gauche, but with PRAT (hate to use that phrase). They sold as part of a very good budget system (amp, TT) for $1000 in the early 1990s — or, $1,900 today. The speakers were thus fairly cheap, and they look it — but don't sound it. They didn't even have grilles to keep the cost doesn — the money is all inside, I think drivers are SEAS and/or Vifa. New cabinets, or at least veneers, would increase their "perceived" value a lot. They're not efficient (guessing about 84dB, 4 ohm, and not much bass below 60Hz (from a 6" mid/woofer) — but crystalline clarity, detail and imaging. I added two 14" subs and it became a complete full-range system that blended almost seamlessly without even trying. I'll certainly try them over the weekend on a range of musical genres.

Thanks to you, I may have yet one more pair of speakers too good to part with. (Cost: $15 @ GW)
 
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