Dali speaker cone repair

[Scally]

I have a good pair of Dali speakers.

The rubber around the edge of the bottom cones (17cm diameter) has perished.

The speaker boxes are:
H-900mm x W-250mm x D-300mm.

They are about 15 years old.


Can they be repaired and is it worth doing?

I saw similar new Dali speakers and there were none under $2000?

[Master Splinter]

Have a look at Jaycar's website - they have rubber surrounds.

Or
http://www.speakerhospital.com.au/foam.htm
http://www.adelaidespeakers.com/spea...-upgrades.html

[Scally]

Thanks, that's great.
I will check the web site.

the Speaker Hospital is an Sydney so I can get there.

I didn't see any price guide. Do have any idea what it might cost?

[GraemeCook]

Hi Scally

For high quality speakers like Dali I would be a little wary of using generic surrounds from a discount supplier like Jaycar.

A couple of years ago I re-did the surrounds on my 1976 Tannoys with a kit from www.speakerbits.com in Melbourne. Tom Manning at Speakerbits also gave excellent phone advice and assurance.

Detailed instructions came with the kit and the first one took about 45 minutes, the second took about 30 minutes. The next should take less than 20 mins.

The speakers now sound like new - much more detail in the music than before the repair.

Cheers

Graeme

[rrobor]

The ones from Jaycar are as good as any other, but if you want to know what a lot of Djs use for their huge speakers its shamois leather. From new the glue strips of shamois leather around their speakers. My workshop speakers fell to pieces and thats what fixed them. Big circle of shamois, V it out for no overlap and glue it over what is still there. When dry paint the bit on the cone with aquadhere to make that hard. $2000 for speakers is for the fairies. And Tanoy had a standing order for a new Rolls Royce each year. Never made a thing, just had it rebadged.

[Zaphod]

The ones from Jaycar are as good as any other, but if you want to know what a lot of Djs use for their huge speakers its shamois leather. From new the glue strips of shamois leather around their speakers. My workshop speakers fell to pieces and thats what fixed them. Big circle of shamois, V it out for no overlap and glue it over what is still there. When dry paint the bit on the cone with aquadhere to make that hard.

Bad idea for hi fi speakers. Such a procedure alters the characteristics of the speakers. Much smarter to fit the same type of surround material as the original. In 15 years, do it all again.

$2000 for speakers is for the fairies. And Tanoy had a standing order for a new Rolls Royce each year. Never made a thing, just had it rebadged.

Incorrect. Well, I don't know about the Rolls Royce thing, but the rest is bollocks. Tannoy have been designing speakers for many decades. Like the vast majority of modern speaker manufacturers, they source their drivers and crossover components from outside. Tannoy did, once, manufacture their own drivers however.

[rrobor]

Yes perhaps I did overdo it a bit. As to Guy Fountain, he belonged to the same rotary club as my uncle, and yes he did get a new roller each year. As to speakers, I trained with 35 other blokes and the college I trained at had a distortion meter. Only one guy out of 35 could pick distorrtion below 2% the rest of us were between 4 and 6%. That was young ears, nice soft ear drums, not the tough old leather things that most men get when over 40. So spending a couple of thousand on speakers for a male over 40 is buying the kings new suit, "It looks good, Feels good, is good". (Hal Todd).
If you look at the posters speakers they will be flapping and vibrating, you have rear mixing with front and the distortion of those will be over 10% but thats not his issue, he didnt know that because he didnt hear that.

[Scally]

I have done some running around.
I COULN'T FIND MY WAY AROUND SPEAKERBITS SO GAVE UP. Caps Lock , sorry.

Jaycar didn't have the right size, Custom Audio recommended eBay and Speakerbits.

There is a local speaker specialist who said his expert will be back at work next week. I think they do the repairs so may not supply the parts.

I sent Dali an email. They suggested I get a professional to replace the surround.

If I can get the right rubber surround from the local specialist then I will try to do it myself.

The model is 4A MkII.

Thanks for the advice.

I wouldn't mind a new Roller every year.

[rrobor]

Actually to tell the honest truth Fountain was a very smart man. He had his standing order for a roller. There was a waiting list for rollers from memory it was 3 or 4 years. When some pop star wanted one they couldmt get a new one, best they could get was a well maintained year old one. So Guy Fountain sold his year old at new price. Those that have get.

[GraemeCook]

I have done some running around.
I COULN'T FIND MY WAY AROUND SPEAKERBITS SO GAVE UP. Caps Lock , sorry.
.

Here's the precise Speakerbits site pages:
http://www.speakerbits.com/products/.../list-169.aspx.

If you cannot find something closer to home then you could ring Tom Manning at Speakerbits 03 9647 7000. He was very helful to me, and overnight delivery.

Cheers

Graeme

[Zaphod]

Yes perhaps I did overdo it a bit. As to Guy Fountain, he belonged to the same rotary club as my uncle, and yes he did get a new roller each year. As to speakers, I trained with 35 other blokes and the college I trained at had a distortion meter. Only one guy out of 35 could pick distorrtion below 2% the rest of us were between 4 and 6%. That was young ears, nice soft ear drums, not the tough old leather things that most men get when over 40. So spending a couple of thousand on speakers for a male over 40 is buying the kings new suit, "It looks good, Feels good, is good". (Hal Todd).

That is the most banal statement I've heard in a very long time. $2,000.00 buys a reasonable pair of speakers. $20,000.00 buys a magnificent pair of speakers. I guarantee you that anyone (even someone who is mostly deaf) will hear a difference.

Speakers are more than just how much distortion they create (or don't). Frequency response, phase response, maximum SPLs, etc, etc. In fact, the human ear is very sensitive to phase errors. Some speakers (like electrostatics) possess a superior phase response. Such performance is rarely available at low cost. Ironically, such speaker also possess low distortion (often less than 0.1%) too. And trust me: It can be audible to some people. Even people who are well beyond 50 years of age.

Lastly: I worked with a man who was 50+ years of age. He possessed very sensitive hearing. So much so, that he wore ear plugs every day. We measured his hearing and found that he could hear past 22kHz.

I suggest you pop into your local hi fi store and try listening to some high quality (say: $10k +) speakers. Then compare them to some $2k speakers.

If you look at the posters speakers they will be flapping and vibrating, you have rear mixing with front and the distortion of those will be over 10% but thats not his issue, he didnt know that because he didnt hear that.

That is a normal thing. Speakers deteriorate slowly. People often don't notice the problems 'till they become really bad.

[Scally]

Old ears or not I am taking the speakers to the local HI specialist tomorrow.

He said it will cost $165.
It sounds a lot to glue on two pieces of foam but I figured it would be safer to let the expert have a go.

He sounded like he knew what he was talking about and would make sure that the job was done right.

Thanks everyone for the advice and discussion.

I should have them back on the weekend so I will be able to see how they sound.

[Zaphod]

Old ears or not I am taking the speakers to the local HI specialist tomorrow.

He said it will cost $165.
It sounds a lot to glue on two pieces of foam but I figured it would be safer to let the expert have a go.

It's a little on the high side, but if the surrounds are unique, then that can add to the cost. Some JBL surrounds cost in excess of $120.00 each! That's without the labour to fit.

BTW: To re-surround a speaker PROPERLY, there is much more to it than just gluing the surrounds on. The speaker needs to be caefully adjusted using test equipment to ensure that perfec centring has been achieved.

He sounded like he knew what he was talking about and would make sure that the job was done right.

Thanks everyone for the advice and discussion.

I should have them back on the weekend so I will be able to see how they sound.

Good luck.

[GraemeCook]

$165 sounds like a pretty fair price - one hour of a technicians time plus OEM-quality surround (not discount junk) glue and dope plus commercial risk. Good value for money.

Zaphod is right when he says that the surrounds have to be carefully aligned, but I would not describe the aligning shims as "equipment".

I think you will be surprised as to how much better the speakers will sound once re-surrounded.

Cheers

Graeme

[rrobor]

Anyone ovr the age of 40 who spends $20K on speakers has too much money. There are always exceptions to every rule but a handy test is look at your eyes. If you need reading glasses because it seems your arms are not long enough, its due to toughning of part of your eye. If that happens, your ears are tougher as well. Up to the age of 30 I could walk into a house and tell if a TV was on, thats 15.625KHz. At 50 I was less certain if a TV was working and at about 55 that was gone.
I can tell on an audio unit what age the person is. Just look at tone settings. A kid has all bass low
treble. As you age bass goes down treble goes up. When playing music you rely on how good the recording is, how good your amplifier is and so on. $20K on speakers is the kings new suit, if it makes you happy, then OK. Many years ago there was a guy in the UK named Hutson who designed electronics. His wife wrote that his favourite speakers were modified toilet pans, Im sure Fowler would love selling those for 10K.