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Boston Acoustics A150 Mismatched Woofers

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patchouli01

New Member
I just picked up a pair of Boston Acoustics A150s for $50 that need new surrounds, but when I took the front cover off I noticed the woofers were mismatched. The owner supplied me receipts showing that he got the woofer replaced by Boston Acoustics in 99 (He even had the original receipt for when he purchased them!)

I was just curious if it will be fine for them to be matched together, it's my first set of vintage speakers I've picked up so I'm not entirely comfortable going off my own


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Welcome to AK!

Glad you posted pictures. That always helps.

Are there any markings on the back side of the drivers? Post pics if you can.
 
Thank you for the welcome and taking your time to reply!

The newer driver has no markings on the backside, The most noticeable differences is that it's a bit shorter and the magnet isn't painted.

Here's the markings on the original woofer as well as the backside of the newer woofer, I can post the service receipt from BA if it helps, but it at least lists the woofer as being for both the A100 and A150.
 

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I do know that the factory replacements were not identical in appearance. Some even had a poly cone instead of the original fiber.
 
These do seem to be paper. I assume the recommended filleted foam would work fine for both woofers? That's really my main concern.
 
The A25GU30-51F woofer with the black-painted magnet and six spokes is NOT a Boston Acoustics woofer.

According to this older AK thread, the A25GU30-51F woofer is a Pioneer woofer, sometimes re-branded as "GOLDSOUND" and unfortunately doesn't match the sound of the original BA woofers:

Boston Acoustics A-150 Woofer Replacement

So, I purchased a pair of Boston Acoustics A-150's off of Craigslist pretty recently, and due to oversight on my part, did not bother to look at both speakers with their front grills off. One of the speakers has the original woofer with the square magnet. The foam in obviously shot, but that's...
audiokarma.org


On the other hand, your silver magnet woofer with the center vent hole and four spokes looks like a genuine Boston Acoustics woofer.

BA150woofer2015-05-19 12.51.05.jpg


If you want to hear how the speakers originally sounded, you should look for another OEM BA four-spoked silver magnet woofer, and it would be best if you could make sure that both of your woofers are eventually re-foamed with proper original filleted profile foam surrounds.

Boston Acoustic 10" woofers from A150 and A100 speakers occasionally show up on ebay.

In fact, right now there is a refurbished OEM woofer from a pair of A100's on ebay that would be a much closer match, but it has an older style square magnet with no vent hole (BA switched from square to round, vented magnets in the early 1980's) Also, the foam surround is the wrong profile (it is not filleted)

Despite the differences, it would probably sound indistinguishable from your other BA woofer:

Refurbished Boston Acoustics A 100 10" Woofer
www.ebay.com

Refurbished Boston Acoustics A 100 10" Woofer | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Refurbished Boston Acoustics A 100 10" Woofer at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com


AudioKarma member, Ricky Cobb (ebay ID: looneytune2001) has been selling proper filleted Boston surrounds for decades on ebay, although I have also had good luck finding BA filleted surrounds from Simply Speaker and Midwest Sound as well.
 
Well that helps clears up a lot. Unfortunate it's not an OEM driver so I'll probably order this woofer, though I do wish it had the correct surrounds. At least I'll have the kit for in the future.

I'd done a bit of research before picking them up and heard a lot about Ricky Cobbs kits, so planning to pick up one of those. Thanks for the help!
 
The refurbished woofer arrived today, and I stuck it in both cabinets to test each one. One works and sounds great, crystal clear. The issue is the other didn't produce a single sound out of any of the drivers. I tested the resistance of each driver and they're all good in that department.

I checked continuity from the inputs in the back and while the woofer leads match up both positive and negative, both the midwoofer and tweet had continuity on both leads to the ground input. I'm honestly not that well versed in electronics so I'm not entirely sure what would be causing this, so any help would be appreciated.

I do plan a recap in the near future but for now I'd like to just enjoy them for a couple days before I have to, but if push comes to shove I'll get it done :)

Edit: Forgot to mention there was no continuity to the positive input on the back for the midwoofer or tweeter.
 
Okay I did some testing on the caps and components, seems just one of the caps is bad but I may as well order a set for both crossovers.
 
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