Proud Of Myself! I Reconed My A60's!

[Franksta]

I recently found a pair of Boston Acoustics A60 Series II's at a SA Thrift store for $2.99 each. They had a busted corner and also needed refoaming. I got them home and discovered that one of the woofers was also burnt out.

I went ahead and repaired the busted cabinet. I dug out the loose material filled it in and then recovered them with black vinyl. So now they looked good but I had to find a replacement woofer.

I put a WTB ad here and I saved a search on Ebay. There were some Series I's that were available but no II's.

One day while I was bored I decided to see if I could disassemble the bad woofer. I was actually able to separate the plastic cone from the adhesive and pull the voice coil out and clean out the gap. So, I ordered a couple of voice coils and a spider from Matelectronics. I already had the foams and dust caps.

I was actually able to attach the voice coil and spider to the cone using fast set J.B. Weld. I only eyeballed it to set them straight so I was lucky. I set the coil in the gap before everything set up and put shims in. I had attached the foam before lowering everything in. I had to glue the spider in and glue the foam to the speaker edge. I thought..."There is no way in the world that this will ever work!" I also had to run the speaker leads through the openings in the cone and solder them to the voice coil leads and glue them down. Lastly the next day I glued in the dust cap after pulling the shims. Believe it or not they worked! No scraping , no distortion! I'm kind of proud because I have seen an original replacement for these sell for over $30. My cost for everything had to be around $5-$6.

Here's a picture of what I started with. If anyone is interested I can show you what the finished product looks like. They SOUND great by the way. Especially since I did it myself! Thanks! Franksta

 

[dennismiller]

Here's a picture of what I started with. If anyone is interested I can show you what the finished product looks like. They SOUND great by the way. Especially since I did it myself! Thanks! Franksta

I would like to see the final finished product. I have replaced surrounds but have not attempted this.

And yes, they do sound great when you do it yourself.

Congrats!

 

[nissan guy]

Excellent work. I have never tried myself either but have done many refoams. I currently listen to a set of a-60-ii's that i refoamed every day at work.

 

[Ohighway]

Awesome ! That's a job I still have not done, but I do have a few drivers that need reconing.... So I'll get there at some point down the road.

Glad to hear you did it yourself AND that they sound great. Rewarding feeling, eh?!

 

[Renzor213]

Heck, I'm proud of you too, as done lots of stuff, but never a voice coil change out. Curious how it sounds now, as getting everything to match up with the original factory design, can be quite difficult.

 

[Big Tuna]

Galdurned, you are a pro, Franksta! Great Job there! :thmbsp:

 

[Hifirob2]

Way to go, Franksta!! :thmbsp:

 

[Franksta]

Thanks for the compliments! I think I was a little lucky actually. When you order a recone kit the spider and the VC are already attached to the new cone and I think in most cases so is the foam. You just have to clean everything up good especially the VC gap and then glue in the spider and foam after shimming. Attach the leads and glue them in and attach the dust cap and you're good to go.

The reason I didn't think my project would ever work was because everything needed to line up just right and that is hard to do when you put each piece in individually.

As to how they sound I can't tell the difference between the two. I was afraid that maybe the spider was stiffer on the reworked one or there may have been a difference in the VC but there wasn't. The VC that was pulled out looked just like the new one. Check out page 29 of a Matelectronics catalog for these parts.....voice coil 1"--$1.25 dust cap--$.50 110mm spider--$.69 8" foam--$.99. I believe that's $3.43 total. If you had to replace a paper cone for an 8" they are $1.49. just a little tacky glue or Elmer's and some J.B.Weld quick and it's worth a shot. Thanks! Franksta

 

[Renzor213]

I never even knew these types of speaker repair parts were availible. I checked the Mat site, and ordered a catalog. Think your actual dollar figures are bit off though. Recently replaced some cracked flex tinsel wire with parts from Orange County Speaker, and with glue and shipping, was $25 bucks for that.

 

[kb9qkc]

great job and as well i didnt know you could just buy vc's and spiders. cones like this ill have to check out the site.

 

[Franksta]

I think that the number of woofers that can be done this way is limited. The first thing is that if you try to salvage the original cone it is very difficult. Getting the hard glue off of the original paper cones without destroying them is nearly impossible. If paper cones are involved count on buying new ones. Then trying to match the weight and volume/mass of the originals with the replacements would have to be difficult too.

The A60 woofer cones are plastic and getting the glue off was difficult but not too bad. The other thing is that some woofers have double or more wound VC's. I took apart a burnt Bose 4.2 woofer which is the same as a 301 Series III and that voice coil was very thick. It was wound 3 or 4 times and the speaker had a huge VC gap. The VC's like I got here are a single wound generic type. In spite of that I get the feeling that they may have been used on quite a few speakers.

So if you think you want to try this I suggest pulling the speaker apart and seeing if the VC is single wound and be sure to measure the spider to see if you can get one that fits before ordering parts. It may still be easier to find a good used replacement. Thanks! Franksta