Speakers with questionable "upgrades"... post your findings here.

[teal'c]

But here's the important difference. Neither pair I sold stating that they were "upgraded", and in my Craiglist listing, I stated that the woofers (and tweeters for the AT-12s) were not the originals. They still sounded fine, and would be ideal for a garage, or outside at parties. I think I sold them both for $20 a pair.

Lee.

Is it a difference though? They put in the new parts, and since new is better it's obviously an upgrade. Plus we should all know by now about the "I worked on it so it must sound better" even if it doesn't
effect.
When my brother spray foamed his woofers in place I explained how speakers worked, and asked how immoblizing something that is supposed to move is fixing it?
He insisted they were fixed well enough for him.

You know this stuff isn't an upgrade but my guess is many if not most of the people that do this stuff actually think they've done something impressive, and all without knowing anything about audio equipment.
That takes talent.
.

 

[Poultrygeist]

At the time stacked Daytons seemed like a good idea. Not!

 

[Poultrygeist]

Another experiment that went south and never made it out of the garage.

 

[toxcrusadr]

Well if we're counting stacking as an upgrade, that widens the playing field.

 

[Imprecise]

Well if we're counting stacking as an upgrade, that widens the playing field.

I though stacking would heighten the playing field.

 

[toxcrusadr]

However you slice it, it would make room for more of us idiots to play.

 

[leesonic]

Spendor SP-1s with Eminence woofers. Look to be guitar/pro-audio woofers, not car subwoofers.

 

[ic-racer]

I was gifted these PA speakers. Someone put car woofers in them...I actually use them for the 'wet' part of my guitar rig. I mic a medium size tube amp and run through a mixer and SS amp to these for the stereo wet sound on either side of the main tube amp.

 

[ic-racer]

When I got them I could see right through the horn, so I thought the horns were fake...until I opened it up and found the compression driver stuck to the Kicker's magnet...
I disconnected all the tweeters except one on each side and re-attached the compression drive. They don't sound that bad for how I'm using them.

 

[Nightwisher]

My HPM-1100s that came with car subs. At least they were cheap. I may never find replacements.

 

[cassette]

Pair of Large and Small Advents

 

[Imprecise]

Rare Infinities currently on CL in my area. One of these things is not like the other.

No image and direct url gets a 404

 

[NH-MAN]

I see what you mean about the woofers on the two Large. They do not seem to be the same unit.

I have seen these woofers on others as well a few times.

 

[Poultrygeist]

My HPM-1100s that came with car subs. At least they were cheap. I may never find replacements.

View attachment 1407429

You might call Parts Express and see if by chance they have a suitable replacement.

 

[FluxT]

Pair of Large and Small Advents

Honestly I like these. It’s EXTREMELY 70s, in the coolest way tbh

 

[RTally]

Here is another example of the duck tape surround modification. I picked up these Realistic Optimus 1000 speakers for free. Both the mids and woofers are modified.

Another modification was to replace the original tweeters that went to 20 kHz with bullet horns that only go to 16 kHz. Fortunately, the cones survived the duck tape removal.

 

[Tom Brennan]

Speakers are machines and if some fella gets his machine working with duct tape and caulking more power to him. If the guy was getting an old car back on the road with such simple repairs we’d praise his practical ingenuity.

And let’s not forget that many DIY speaker builders started out sticking Radio Shack woofers in KLHs and such; we had to start somewhere.

 

[toxcrusadr]

Kind of opposite of the spirit of the thread but:

I sold a pair of Advent 1's at the Habitat for Humanity Garage Sale on Saturday, in need of foam. Guy who bought them had heard of refoaming and had some kind of a shop, I thought he could do it. I helped him carry them to his car and encouraged him to get a proper surround kit for them and look on YouTube for some refoaming tutorials. And NOT to pull those woofers and stick something else in there. I was pleasantly surprised that he understood that Advents were pretty good and that the original woofer is important to the sound. I think he's gonna do it right. If they hadn't sold I would have had to bring them home to the speaker spa myself, but I have plenty of projects already so I was glad to find them a home where no questionable mods will be made.

 

[leesonic]

Realistic... errr... something

 

[maxhifi]

Speakers are machines and if some fella gets his machine working with duct tape and caulking more power to him. If the guy was getting an old car back on the road with such simple repairs we’d praise his practical ingenuity.

And let’s not forget that many DIY speaker builders started out sticking Radio Shack woofers in KLHs and such; we had to start somewhere.

Exactly - it's all just "stuff", and sometimes getting it going for free or cheap means more than restoring it like new.

The easy thing to forget, is 20 years ago there was a Radio Shack within a 5 minute drive of most people in North America, which stocked every size of woofer, sold crossovers, capacitors, L pads, etc. You could go there any time you want, buy what you need, and have the repair completed all in the course of a few hours.

Ordering something by mail meant getting a postal money order or a bank money order, filling out forms, sending letters, and then waiting and waiting... up to two weeks for them to get your order, and then another two to receive your product. This assuming you already had the paper catalog in hand - if not, add some time for that. e-commerce makes things so easy it's hard to remember how things were before. I used to buy things locally almost exclusively, save for tubes and special parts from places like antique electronic supply.

Given those two options, it's no small wonder why people went with the Radio Shack repair!