The long-awaited HUMAN 81 DK is now available.
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Speaker services performed
In general, most woofers (low frequency drivers) are pretty straightforward to fix - if they cannot be replaced with identical new parts from the manufacturer, they should be reconed to duplicate the original sound and eliminate worn, tired, and deformed parts. Some use such oddly dimensioned parts that it is better to just replace the foam and keep the original internal parts intact, but in general reconing is better - or buy new speakers. The vast majority of higher-frequency drivers - tweeters, midranges, etc. - are weirdly unique in shape and size and can be very difficult to replace appropriately. This also means that they are virtually impossible to find parts that will match to rebuild them.
The vast majority of lower frequency drivers also cannot be effectively and properly reconed - as the process requires that someone spent enough money to have a few hundred of exactly the right voice coil made, and somehow was also able to source the exact cone, spider, etc. for the design of the part. The major exception to this are old musical instrument (guitar combos, etc.) speakers, and even many of them can only be rebuilt "close but not perfect" to the original.
In many of cases, sourcing used parts from strangers on the internet can be a good way to salvage an old speaker with damaged parts. If you do not see any examples out there of what you have, it probably means any other "solution" is also going to be impractical.
Remember that except for incredibly generic common dimensions of foam surrounds, there is almost no real "aftermarket" of parts or parts to rebuild parts of speakers made even ten years ago, let alone forty, fifty or sixty. Note that as of this writing, fifty years ago was the mid-1970s, right in the middle of the hi-fi boom. Most of those products were orphaned by their own manufacturers by the mid-80s, and of course even those companies are long, long gone now (with a few exceptions, and even the extant continuous-operation names tend to offer very little support - if any at all - for products they made even ten years ago). Modern companies rarely seem to stock spares for their current product, let alone keep an eye to the future. Much the same was the case back in the day.
All that said, I can do these sorts of things:
Rejuvenating
Something that can be very worthwhile doing is rejuvenating speakers that have "good" cabinets but lack the quality of sound that we would demand from a good speaker. By "good" cabinets, I mean ones that are solidly built, and usually very attractive. Often older speakers (say, pre-1968) just weren't capable of the great sound my drivers provide, but they were still manufactured very well, with wood veneered cabinets and very solid jointwork. These speaker cabinets will sometimes still have great nostalgic value to their owners.
This also can be very satisfying if you have some speakers with great sentimental value but, shall we say, less than stellar performance. I'll make them into something excellent you can cherish for their function as well as their form.
What I do is remove all the old speaker parts, wiring, etc., then I rebuild the speakers with my high quality parts, crossovers and terminal connections, test them thoroughly, and you can enjoy music like never before! Even if the holes cut in the front of the box are not convenient, this can still be remedied by attaching an extra layer of MDF to the front with the appropriate holes cut into it. A typical project would be to use my PRO 005 woofer and PRO 002 M2 tweeter in a 1.5-2 cubic foot cabinet. In this case I would be installing a "kit" of parts that costs $363.00 / pair. If not too much cabinet modification is required, labor costs ($72.00 per hour) should be in the range of an hour, or two at most. If you think your speakers would benefit by this process, please contact me and we can discuss it.
There are two interestingly similar examples of this, linked to each other, that you can see here.
The result when I am finished is essentially a current HUMAN Speakers product.
There are also some services that come with major caveats, in that they are often not worth doing, and even then require you to do the most arduous part of the work:
Reconing
This involves stripping an old driver down to the metal chassis structure (basket, magnet, etc.) and building it as if it was a new part. This is the most common repair required by damaged PA or musical instrument speakers. Duplication of the original performance is the goal. My materials and workmanship show the result of years of manufacturing experience. You can expect a reconed driver to sound like new if appropriate parts are available and give many years of satisfaction.
Refoaming
This process consists of accurately replacing the aged annular foam surrounds.
First the old surround and glue must be scraped off the cone, and with more random difficulty, the metal frame.
Then I remove the dust cap in order to perform the essential task of accurately centering the voice coil during the process. I will either re-use that cap when finished or replace it with a new, appropriate one.
You'll have to decide yourself if they are worthy (working well enough) of returning to service by this method.
This service is often incorrectly referred to as "reforming".
Magnet Structure Service
This is a relative latecomer to my offerings. Sometimes we encounter old speakers with magnet structure parts which have come loose and shifted, jamming the voice coil. This is generally unrepairable, and the part must be replaced. Sometimes replacements are very hard, or impossible, to come by.
What I do is strip the "soft" parts from the chassis, demagnetize the structure, take it apart, clean the offending surfaces, make a custom fixture to reassemble them on the lathe, reassemble the magnet structure, remagnetize the assembly, and recone the driver on the resulting clean, functional chassis.
This is limited to ceramic magnet drivers. The magnet must not be cracked or broken, although we all like a challenge. The cone, coil, etc. must not be removed, as I will need them to make sure that the reconing parts are correct and bring the driver back to originality. This is somewhat expensive.
Only one customer ever requested that I do this, which is why it is here. Let's assume it's never going to happen again.
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