Are my speakers worth refoaming?
Is the refoam job difficult?
Who made the manuals on this website?
How to test a refoamed unit?
How much time will the refoam take?
What will my speakers sound like after a refoam?
Will the sound of my refoamed speakers change after a while?
How long will new foam surrounds last?
I only have one speaker that is in need of a repair; does it make sense to repair only that one?
Use foam or rubber?
What are dust caps?
My dust caps are fine; do I still need to replace them?
The foam surrounds included seem to be a bit large for the outer metal frame; can they be trimmed?
I can't find the correct foam surround for my speakers anywhere, where can I find them?
Can I see an instruction video first to see how difficult it is to do the repair?
How to order, how to pay?
Can you provide me with 99,99% of all speaker rings that's out there?
Do I need rings with a flat edge or the angled ones?
What glue to use?
Can you
guarantee I can refoam my speakers?
How long will it take to
deliver your goods?
Who is Good Hifi?
Are you different compared
to other ring-resellers?
Do you repair speakers?
What are your terms and conditions?
Some speakers are always worth repairing, such as JBL, Acoustic Research, Bang &
Olufsen, Dalquist,
Dynaudio, Infinity, Kef, Tannoy, Rogers, Bowers and Wilkins etc. Others are worth repairing assuming
that everything else works and the speaker is in good condition. You
should check your tweeters and midranges before you think about
refoaming the woofers.
Then there are other factors such as sentimental value, what would new
speakers cost, and then finally....the sound! New speakers just don't
have the same sound as some of the old vintage/classic speakers. If you
like your sound, you like your speakers or don't want to spend a
fortune on new ones refoaming can be the right decision.
Who made the manuals on this
website?
We, Good Hifi, did. The video instruction is also ours. Some pictures may be web-linked, but
most pictures are our own.
How to test a refoamed unit?
Once you've refoamed your units you can test them. You can test them by
pushing the woofer membrane an listen, or by playing music over your woofers.
When listening to music it's hard to hear if they are faulty, because you can define a faulty woofer by its scraping sound. On this website you can find
sound samples - consisting of very low tones. They
will make the woofers work hard, but you will hardly hear anything. Play the
samples over your refoamed woofer and listen carefully. If you hear any 'scraping'
sounds you have attached the new surround in a wrong way - it's not centred.
The voice coil scrapes the magnet. Remove the new ring and refoam it again. This
will be the case in about 1% of all refoams.
How much time will the refoam take?
This varies. It depends on your speed, the size of the speaker (most
time is spend on 'cleaning'.... removing the old surround......). In
general you can count on 30 - 60 minutes per speakerunit.
What will my speakers sound like after a refoam?
After a refoam your speakers will sound more or less like they sounded when
you bought them. You probably won't remember what that was like, because
remembering an exact sound is very hard! Expect a different sound though,
returning to the sound you were used to after a few weeks.
Will the sound of my refoamed speakers change after a while?
Yes!!!! The foam or rubber surround will become more flexible in a few days
/ weeks (depending on how much you use your speakers) and you will notice a gain in bass-weight and a less bright delivery of
sound after some time. By the way.... the same will happen if you buy a
new pair of speakers.
How long will new foam surrounds last?
How long the new foam surrounds will last depends on many factors, such
as, their quality, humidity, temperature, sunlight, etc... The foam
being manufactured nowadays is polyether and is expected to last longer than
the original ones. You could assume that if the speakers are in the
same environment, that they will last at least as long as your original
foams lasted. Generally the foam surrounds will last 10 - 20 years. In
many cases you can replace a foam surround with a rubber one. A rubber
surround will last 30-50 years. We only deliver the highest quality foam
surrounds
I only have one speaker that is in need of a repair; does it make sense to repair only that one?
If one of your surrounds has deteriorated from age... then the other
one will crash tomorrow or the day after - guaranteed!. You should
always repair the woofers in pairs. Another reason for this is that a
refoamed woofer will sound slightly different from the woofers with a
deteriorated surround.
Use foam or rubber?
Many people wonder what ring to
use for woofer-repair, a foam surround, a rubber surround (or a surround made of
fabric). In general: repair the woofer with the same kind of ring the
manufacturer uses. This way your woofer will perform according to the original
specifications and sound / result will be predictable.
Foam really differs from rubber or fabric. The way it controls the speaker cone
is different, and the weight is different. Rubber rings can weigh up to 10 times
the weight of a foam ring. When tou attach a rubber ring to a speaker with a
very light membrane (cone) this can lead to a different sound.
But....... There's many people who had their speakers repaired (or did it by themselves) and were very happy with the result, even though rubber rings rings were used. Infinity Kappa woofers are mentioned in this respect quite often, but also Tannoy comes to my mind. Many of my customers have repaired BOSE 4,25 inch units (901, 802 etc) with rubber rings with great results.
I have repaired many woofers with a rubber
ring (even though they originally had a foam ring), the results differed. I find
it hard to predict what the outcome of a change of material will be. In general
I had good results with rather big woofers with a heavy cone and a very stiff
spider (for example Kappa 9).
Many people prefer rubber over foam because rubber lasts longer. That's true -
there's no doubt. Some foam rings break down in five years, some even sooner!
Modern foam rings - and all of my foam rings !- are made of moderne durable
foam. These rings should last for at least 10-20 years - depending on the
situation (temperature, sunlight, smoking). I selected all my foam rings because
of their exceptional quality and durability. Hence my general advice to repair foam with
foam.
What are dust caps?
The dust caps is the dome (sometimes an inverted dome) in the centre of
the speaker. The dust cap protects the voice coil and the magnet from
dust and debris.
My dust caps are fine; do I still need to replace them?
No, in my opinion you can leave the dust-caps just where they are as
long as your speaker is centred by itself. There's a simple test to
check if you need to remove your dust cap to center your speaker again:
Test:
Put
the woofer on its back (horizontally). Move the woofer membrane
downwards in a straight line. If you do feel resistance (other than
normal with a woofer like this) or you hear a scraping sound - remove
the dust cap. If not (i.e. you can push the woofer without feeling a
'scraping' resistance or hearing a sound) the 'spider' is still OK and
you don't need to centre your woofer again. Leave the dust caps in
place. This is the case with most woofers. Please note that some very
nice woofers (i.e. Dynaudio) have fixed dust caps that cannot be
removed....
The foam surrounds included seem to be a bid large for the outer metal frame; can they be trimmed?
Yes, you can trim on the outside if you want. The inside fit (roll to toll) is by far the most important part.
I can't find the correct foam for my speakers anywhere, where can I find them?
You probably can't - maybe your speaker company (for instance Dynaudio)
can provide them. This is unfortunately a very expensive way to get new
surrounds.
Some people I met bought a surround just a little bit bigger than
needed and cut it and fitted it to their size by
gluing the ends
together......
Can I see an instruction video first to see how difficult it is to do the repair?
Sure, you can see it
here.
How to order, how to pay?
You can order your parts through e-mail, or Ebay etc. Payment can be made in
cash, through PayPal or bank transfer.
If you live outside the EU is prefer PayPal because the banks will charge me
like crazy!
Please transfer the money to:
Bank: ABN AMRO
BIC: ABNANL2A
IBAN: NL12ABNA0623610337
Acount holder: M. J. Schneider
City: Heerhugowaard
Country: The Netherlands
If you use PayPal you can transfer the money to good_hifi@zonnet.nl.
Can you provide me with 99,99% of all speaker rings that's out there?
I wish I could. I can't. We usually have about 230-250 different rings in
stock, about 20-30 of them are regular sizes that fit more than 3000 different
speakers. Unfortunately - whatever others may tell you - there are units out
there with very odd sized rings. If you're in doubt, please try! We will do
whatever we can! We can provide you with more than 300 different foam rings
and more than 230 differen rubber rings!
Can I take a look at the manual to see how difficult it is to do the repair?
Here it is! Klik
hier voor de Nederlandse versie.
Do I need rings with a flat edge or the angled ones?
Well.... The bigger the rings, the less it
matters. Rings are pretty flexible, so you can make a ring with a
flat
edge fit on an
angled woofer.
The trick to make this work is to put something heave on the inner part of the
ring when gluing and applying pressure for some hours this way. The ring will
then fit
perfectly to the speaker cone. That's the same way speaker manufacturers do
it........
What glue to use?
There's many glues one can use to refoam. There's also glues to avoid!
First of all, try to avoid any quick drying glues or 'contact glues'. It's great
to use a slow drying (white) glue so you can move around a bit before
gluing the ring for real. Many contact glues 'use certain chemicals that can
damage the rings (for instance: Bison kit). I recommend these glues:
Most of the times I can provide you with a suitable white water-based rubber containing glue. We buy it directly from a speaker manufacturer
.
or this one, also suitable for rubber & dust-caps, used by manu repair shops and bough from a speaker manufacturer:
Please note delivery will be more expensive if you choose to use my glue. Many people have a suitable glue in their home, so contact me if you're in doubt. A discussion about refoam-glue can be found here.
Can you guarantee I
can refoam my speakers?
No, I can't. Many people did the job just fine, their speakers work again
and they are very satisfied with the quality of my products and my service (you
can check
here). However, every now and then (my guess is about 1% of all refoams)
someone can not do the job properly. Most of the times it's caused by working to
quick...... Taking your time, especially during your first refoam(s), is
very important! Please note that I take no responsibility for a refoam performed
by you. Of course you can ask questions any time - we are an experienced refoamer
ourselves.
How long will it take to deliver your goods
We will dispatch the rings as soon
as we have received payment. If we receive payment before 16.00h. we will
dispatch the same day.
We always use a priority delivery service by TNT because it's relatively
cheap and very reliable. Within the European Union,
delivery will typically take about 5 working days, less most of times. To the
USA, Middle East and Asia delivery will take about 7 working days, but customs
can slow down the process (especially USA!) significantly! We will always include the right
documentation for customs, but sometimes a delivery can take as long as 10 to 14
(working) days. Most of the times our goods are delivered in a day or 7. If you
have not received our goods after a fair amount of time please contact us and
we will inform you about the delivery process.
Who
is Good Hifi?
We are two HiFi-enthousiastics. We were non professional sellers when we
started in 2006. On a normal working day we are
professional secondary school teachers (Geography, Computer Science and Arts)
with a HiFi-hobby (and a speaker hobby in particular) helping out other
HiFi-lovers. On januari 3rd 2008 we have registered our sales in the Dutch trade
register and started a company.
Are you different
compared to other ring-resellers?
We offer a large very range of surrounds, some of the surrounds are made according to
our specifications. We choose the foam quality, we own special moulds en we
order special rings according to our specifications. Our rings are made of the highest
quality of foam, have sharp-cut-edges and are extremely durable. Because we own
some special moulds, we can sell rings nobody else sells. Besides, we offer a
website dedicated to speaker repair, we offer special glue etc.
Do you repair
speakers?
No, we donīt. After a day at school we donīt have the energy to repair speakers.
We can repair, of course, we just donīt want to do it professionally. Sometimes
we repair a speaker for ourselves, just because we buy a defective speaker and
we are curious about it.
What are your terms
and condition?
In general, we deliver the highest quality of speaker parts in the shartest
amount of time after we receive payment. If you want to read the legal stuff,
it's here.