DSR Audio

The Process

Let’s face it, not everyone treats a vintage speaker with kid gloves! even under the best of conditions, the ravages of time and years of use will degrade even the best made speaker. In the following shots, we show a speaker undergoing the transformation from “tired and worn” to “shiny and like new”:

(Click on any pic for enlarged view, if available).

Before

In these pics, we can see that this speaker has had a rough life: the cone has punctures, chunks of gasket are missing, and it looks like it has had several beer and slime baths over the years.

Disassembly and Re-calibrate

The speaker is brought down to its core, cleaned (and re-surfaced where appropriate), all tolerances are measured and restored to original specs, painted and treated surfaces are restored, and the unit re-assembled

Re-coning, Artwork and QA

With the critical internal components, frame and dimensions restored, we then re-cone the speaker, add a brand new gasket, dust cap etc. and, where requested by the customer, original artwork and labeling (or custom printed reproduction artwork) applied. The result: a lovingly restored vintage speaker

NOTE: Please do not try this at home. Despite their appearance, and the way they are often treated, a vintage speaker is a precision, hand-crafted item, with very tight tolerances and delicate parts. Additionally, some of the materials used in the process are toxic, caustic and/or otherwise dangerous.

Even with time and much experience, the the precision specs required of these speakers are difficult to re-produce without the right tools and custom templates. DSR Audio has, on more than one occasion, received speakers freshly re-coned by famous speaker experts that needed rebuilding to operate as originally designed.