Kym Eden
New Member
Hi friendly audio people, I'm here to get some advice on restoring a pair of B200 SP1014 speakers. They come from Heathkit AS-9560 cabinets built by my grandfather back in '72, so something of an heirloom. The sound is mostly fine but I decided to give both the amp-tuner and the speakers a once over with the circuit diagram to see if any caps were bust. The thing I hadn't expected is that the dust cap from both the B200s has lifted and delaminated some of the Plastiflex, identically on both. There is also a split in the rubber surround on one.
Much research later I've come across only one person talking about delaminated Plastiflex, and they were facing the prospect of peeling the whole lot off and redoing it with PVA. This doesn't appeal because they are mostly still intact and I'd never get the coating even close to original. It looks like it's shrunk or something because there's a little ridge of dope along where it has pulled up to. If I push it down, the doping does stick back but the dome doesn't sit straight and doesn't stick at all. I'm pretty sure the floating cap will be doing something weird to the sound, so any ideas how to stick it down?
The best I could think to do for the rubber was to dope some tissue paper in rubber cement and carefully bonding it back to a flexible membrane (not pretty but seems stable and hopefully won't mess the sound).
Much research later I've come across only one person talking about delaminated Plastiflex, and they were facing the prospect of peeling the whole lot off and redoing it with PVA. This doesn't appeal because they are mostly still intact and I'd never get the coating even close to original. It looks like it's shrunk or something because there's a little ridge of dope along where it has pulled up to. If I push it down, the doping does stick back but the dome doesn't sit straight and doesn't stick at all. I'm pretty sure the floating cap will be doing something weird to the sound, so any ideas how to stick it down?
The best I could think to do for the rubber was to dope some tissue paper in rubber cement and carefully bonding it back to a flexible membrane (not pretty but seems stable and hopefully won't mess the sound).
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