Repairing a Ripped Speaker Cone

If you have a pair of speakers that have a rip or small tear in the paper material of the speaker cone you can repair it with a little watered down Elmer's glue and some tissue paper:

• Cut or tear the tissue paper so into pieces a little bigger than the tear
• Soak the pieces in the diluted Elmer's glue
• Apply pieces, one at a time, over the tear
• Let each patch get tacky then, apply a second layer
• Repeat until you have applied three to five layers on each side of the cone
• Let dry overnight

You may have to play with the glue mixture and application to get it right, so experiment on a dead speaker, if possible, before going prime time.

* This trick only works on woofers with paper cones, but can save a pair of speakers.

The Open Baffle

The open baffle speaker cabinet is the most basic design. It is simply a speaker mounted to a board, or baffle. This design was popular in the early 1900's when theaters began experimenting with amplified sound systems. These early systems usually consisted of a 12 or 15 inch woofer mounted to large piece of plywood, accompanied by a large horn tweeter.

Although not seen much today in the commercial speaker market, there is a large audiophile and Do-It-Yourself community that praise the open baffle speaker design as the purest, most accurate sound attainable with cone speakers. Open baffle speakers are inherently dipole (that is they project a front wave of sound into the room, and also a back wave from the rear of the speaker, which is out of phase with the front wave). In the right listening room, the dipole affect gives an added sense of spaciousness. There are many great resources online for open baffle speaker designs if you feel like experimenting.

Speaker Box Freedom

One advantage to building your own speakers is the freedom to make the speaker enclosure the exact size, shape, and color you want. Not being constrained by the bottom line, you can use top quality materials to construct your speakers, and optimize the size and shape for their intended use.

*There are great sources for exotic wood veneers online and locally which will give your speaker enclosures the looks to match their sound.

Acoustic Suspension Speaker Cabinets

Have you ever wondered how Acoustic Suspension Speaker Cabinets work?

• A speaker mounted in a small box will compress the air inside when the cone moves inward
• The air then pushes on the cone harder than the air on the outside
• The speaker will expand the air in the box when it moves outward
• The outside air will be pushing harder than the inside air

By using this pressure to restore the speaker cone to neutral, a much smaller box can be used to get deep bass. The trade off is efficiency (it is lower). Acoustic suspension dominated the speaker designs of the 1960's and 1970's as big, solid, state amplifiers were being developed to provide the needed power.

How To Hot Rod Your Tweeters

If you've already bought your speakers but your ears find them fatiguing, you can experiment with your tweeters to improve their sound and increase your listening pleasure.

Try placing different fabrics in front of the tweeter (like silk or cotton) to diffuse the high frequencies and make the speakers sound softer. If you're feeling adventurous, you can get inside the speaker and change the passive crossover. If all else fails, you can always try replacing your tweeter with an aftermarket model. With a little patience, some tools, and the internet as a resource, you can replace your old and busted tweeters with some new high tech models, and enjoy smooth, non-fatiguing high frequencies. You also have the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

Accidents Happen

Time, water, sunlight, humidity, pets, and children can all take a toll on speakers. Ideally, the original manufacturer will be concerned about the longevity of their speakers' performance quality and agree to repair or replace damaged speakers. How long a manufacturer supports his products gives you a good indication of their concern for quality.

If you are the least bit mechanically inclined, you can perform a little home surgery and do you own speaker repair. It's next to impossible to find a 'speaker repairman' but, with a little online exploration, you can learn how to:

• replace a blown tweeter or woofer
• repair rips in paper cone speakers
• replace rotten foam or rubber surrounds
• refinish or build your own speaker cabinets

*Many companies sell speaker repair kits to handle these types of jobs and even have online tutorials to help you along the way.