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Studio monitor damaged.. live with it, replace or re-cone / repair.. ?

Heya's, suffered an unfortunate mishap over the weekend with a drunken guest knocking over one of my mackie MR8 monitors.

It resulted in a crack/split in the driver cone from the centre right out to the surround, including a small hole in the edge of the centre cap near where it joins the cone.

I just wired it up and ran some audio through it, it isn't too bad, the impact doesn't seem to have affected the internals and it's hard to detect any difference just playing mp3's through it, but if i load up cubase and put a deep sine wave through them panning left and right to compare the difference there is some obvious fluff/noise coming from the damaged monitor.

Playing high end source through them the damaged one actually sounds a bit dull or slightly flatter than the undamaged one, but i can't see how the high-end could have been affected by the damage i can see, so i'm thinking that is possibly my hearing or the room dynamics or perhaps the filter section was never perfectly matched to begin with.. any thoughts on this?

Anyway just wondering what to do, i got a local quote for a driver replacement of AUD$174.. or $130 just for the driver if i can install it. I'm not sure how much it costs to have it re-coned but is that a good option or is a new driver much preferable?

Cheers

The drunken guest is paying for it, right? Get it done right - i.e., by professionals, and with a warranty for the parts/service.

Replace the whole driver imho. I'm always concerned that reconing slightly alters the driver's original performance.

my speakers (Adam A7's) have a 5yr warranty on them, i've blown 3 drivers/woofers and had all replaced for free look into your brand more if you haven't already

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Originally posted by Zombie0729 my speakers (Adam A7's) have a 5yr warranty on them, i've blown 3 drivers/woofers and had all replaced for free look into your brand more if you haven't already

Which is fucking wicked of Adam as nearly every brand will not do driver replacement unless it's for their top of the range models.

Sometimes if a driver just goes (without someone damaging it) if you speak to their return department they will be nice and either repair it or send you a new driver (as it's kind of a warranty issue) but I don't know a single brand that will replace a driver when damage is clearly present.

Mackie though are pretty good with spares, especially having drivers in stock - shouldn't cost you that much (about $80) and replacing them are easy - done it a few times so let me know if you need help.

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Originally posted by DJ RANN Which is fucking wicked of Adam as nearly every brand will not do driver replacement unless it's for their top of the range models. Sometimes if a driver just goes (without someone damaging it) if you speak to their return department they will be nice and either repair it or send you a new driver (as it's kind of a warranty issue) but I don't know a single brand that will replace a driver when damage is clearly present. Mackie though are pretty good with spares, especially having drivers in stock - shouldn't cost you that much (about $80) and replacing them are easy - done it a few times so let me know if you need help.

yah, Adam's warranty is awesome, i've had them send down parts (i replaced the front panel volume/power control) for me to replace and i have sent things up to LA for them to do. They have downsized so it took a bit of time to get a hold of someone but i sent the speaker up on a Friday and got it back 10 days later.

quote:

Originally posted by Zombie0729 my speakers (Adam A7's) have a 5yr warranty on them, i've blown 3 drivers/woofers and had all replaced for free look into your brand more if you haven't already

i have mixed feelings about this. while its really good with such serious warranty-offer, its not good to hear that u blown them three times. im looking for monitors and one of the things i need is the option to play loud from time to time.

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Originally posted by 19503 i have mixed feelings about this. while its really good with such serious warranty-offer, its not good to hear that u blown them three times. im looking for monitors and one of the things i need is the option to play loud from time to time.

I haven't personally blown them but my studio partner has. In our old studio we were in a building with 10 bands and 3 other studios so when there is bleed he would crank it to compensate. They go plenty loud for me although i'm usually at moderate levles

How do speakers break ? Is it just a life expectancy thing ? I've had my genelecs for 11 years now and wonder if they have degraded somewhat.

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Originally posted by Mad for Brad How do speakers break ?

They can break or wear for a number of reasons. Overdriving them is obviously a killer as it can push their coils beyond their limits and rip or dislodge cones. Other factors like prolonged exposure to pure square waves and clip-distortions can also cause damage.

what about phat beats. Sometimes my beats are really phat, wonder if the cones can accommodate such girth.

.. ok so not hearing a lot of support for re-coning.. I sort of feel the same, would prefer a new driver. but my girlfriend is offering to pay because it was her drunken friend that knocked it over and she doesn't want to ask her for it, so i want to do it as cheaply as possible without sacrificing the quality of the repair.

I will take the advice of contacting mackie about it directly before accepting the repair quote i think, might be worth a shot.

I wouldn't mind doing the labour myself to save the ~$50 or so, not sure how to actually get it apart and replace the driver though the front of it is all flush, no screws. Anyone know if the driver can be removed by taking off the back panel (where there are some screws) or does the cabinet have to be re-glued or something?

quote:

Originally posted by Mad for Brad what about phat beats. Sometimes my beats are really phat, wonder if the cones can accommodate such girth.

very good

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Originally posted by Osmodiar .. ok so not hearing a lot of support for re-coning.. I sort of feel the same, would prefer a new driver. but my girlfriend is offering to pay because it was her drunken friend that knocked it over and she doesn't want to ask her for it, so i want to do it as cheaply as possible without sacrificing the quality of the repair. I will take the advice of contacting mackie about it directly before accepting the repair quote i think, might be worth a shot. I wouldn't mind doing the labour myself to save the ~$50 or so, not sure how to actually get it apart and replace the driver though the front of it is all flush, no screws. Anyone know if the driver can be removed by taking off the back panel (where there are some screws) or does the cabinet have to be re-glued or something?

tbh, reconing is simply not worth it on monitors that a few hundred dollars - it's just cheaper to replace the driver.

In london I have late 70's 15" Tannoy speakers that are incredible rare (because they no longer can make the coil and magnet) so I got them reconed but for speakers that cost $400 a pair it's simply not worth the man hours,

It's really easy on the mackies, just take all the screws off until the driver comes off, disconnect the jumper cables and pop in the new one.

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Originally posted by Mad for Brad what about phat beats. Sometimes my beats are really phat, wonder if the cones can accommodate such girth.

phat beats in classical compositions?

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Originally posted by Mad for Brad what about phat beats. Sometimes my beats are really phat, wonder if the cones can accommodate such girth.

then not only will your phat beats blow my speakers, they will blow my mind!

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Originally posted by 19503 phat beats in classical compositions?

I wasn't always a square.

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Originally posted by DJ RANN It's really easy on the mackies, just take all the screws off until the driver comes off, disconnect the jumper cables and pop in the new one.

Just wondering, do you know that for sure with the MR8's, ie from experience ? The supplier said it would be tricky to remove the driver and involve some soldering, whether they are just guessing though i don't know.

The only visible screws are on the back.. i guess i'll take the back off and see what it looks like from there.

I don't have a soldering iron.. so if it uses plugs that would be easy. but i can handle tricky as long as it doesn't involve specialised tools to remove screws from inaccessible places.

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