Tannoy Windsors

Hi - I'm new so excuse me if I have posted in the wrong place or anything.

I have a pair of Tannoy Windsor speakers but the rubber around the cones has rotted away and eventually split. Tannoy make a kit to completely replace the cones but it costs a fortune (£280 per speaker or something). Does anyone know of somewhere that I could just have the rubber replaced, or an alternative solution?

Thanks

M James

 

Hi James, welcome.

Try contacting Lockwood.

 

Thanks, I have spoken to them and they will do a complete recone for a lot less than Tannoy, but still quite a few quid (depending on your outlook) about £380.

However, I only need the rubber rims around the cones replacing and i wondered if anyone did just that or if anyone had any suggestions?

 

Do you mean something like this

this one

Hope they help

 

Considering how good Windsors are, and what they're worth; £280 per speaker doesn't seem to be excessive.

 

You can try the following two companies for speaker repair:

David Smith
DK Loudspeaker Services
01708 447344

Doug Hall
Loudspeaker Repair Services
34e Aston Road
Waterlooville
023 92 233332

Although I have never used them, both of them are recommended by hi fi magazines. Good luck.

Regards
Hon

 

Is it Wembley Audio that's often recomended for this. Someone help me out here...

 

I had my Gale 301's woofers done at Wembley Loudspeakers (who are actually in Shepherds Bush). I was very pleased with them.
They are at
http://www.wembleyloudspeaker.com/
If you want to email them they replied to me pretty quickly.

 

That's the dobber, cheers tribbles. My wifes got some slippers that look like tribbles

 

Personally I have had great experience with Lockwood. But would also be worth giving Wembley a call to see what they can do for you. Dont think that speakerbits has the correct surround for the Windsors dual conc unit (10" i think - part number can be found at http://www.users.bigpond.com/tunnelgap/Tannoy/modelarchive.html)

There was a guy mentioned in an article in HIFi World once who was supposed to be pretty damn good at repairs. Not sure if he's one of the 2 mentioned by hifienthusiast.

 

Guys, thanks very much, this is a great help, I will investigate these options.

 

I've repaired three sets of Tannoy HPD's with surrounds from speakerbits.com, the surrounds are genuine replacements (unlike everywhere else except Lockwood, not sure if Wembley use genuine or not but think I've heard not....) and the instructions they supply are excellent. It's a realistic DIY job although a bit nerve wracking at times, but all my repairs have worked well and have cost less than £100 per pair.

But, as someone else pointed out, your speakers are worth repairing and worth spending serious cash on as equivalent replacements would be very expensive, so do whatever is necessary!

 

hmm might be relations I suppose

 

Hifienthusiast mentioned Mr Doug Hall of Loudspeaker Repair Services. I have a pair of Goodman Magnum K speakers which were designed by Mr Hall before he retired from Goodman's where he was chief engineer. Goodman at that time was British owned unlike now, when it's Japanese owned. When Goodman's stopped designing their own speakers in 1976, the Magnum K speakers were £27O (which ain't hay). Mr Hall, in a telephone convo i had with him, told me that the Magnums were the best speaker he ever designed. Even after he retired from Goodman, he still had the use of all their equipment and all Goodman speakers returned to Goodman were passed to Mr Hall for repair. Mr Hall soon became very busy repairing speakers for other people too (local rock bands etc) and subsequently started his business (Loudspeaker Repair Services). I had occassion to need repair to the bass speaker in one of my Magnums which Mr Hall repaired for me and it's still going strong many years later!
I do not know whether Mr Hall is still with us.
Loudspeaker Repair Services is now run by Mr Ron Ellis, and I believe that the phone number and address has also changed.
If Loudspeaker Services still repair speakers I can heartily endorse Hifienthusiast's info.
To make a long story even longer, if you own a pair of Magnum Ks and you're gonna scrap them, DONT ! send them to me instead !

 

Dave smith from DK loudspeakers Great bloke!

 

roger at lockwood audio, super. nando.

 

I read somewhere recently that replacing the surrounds costs more than replacing the whole cone because it is much harder to do, takes a long time, requires jigs to get everything centred, etc.

Perhaps La Toilette would enlighten us as to the degree of skill and ingenuity required?

 

If you order replacements from speakerbits, they arrive with pretty detailed instructions on how to complete the procedure, although there are one or two places where a couple of extra tips could be included IMO. Basically it's all about patience and time, if you don't hurry it's not really difficult.

The hardest part, or rather the most time consuming part, is getting the remains of the old foam surround off; it degrades to a sticky tar-like consistency and you really need to remove as much as you possibly can. To do this you have to scrape it off the chassis and cone with a scalpel. It takes ages and obviously you don't want to inadvertently stick your tool through the cone , so much care is needed. You may need to un-solder a couple of wires to remove the cone from the chassis, but that depends on the driver model - some have different connections. Glueing the new surround on is easy enough, but if the cone has the ribs on the reverse (i.e. all HPD's and several subsequent models) you need to snip bits of the new surround out to get it to fit correctly. Attaching the cone to the chassis is simple enough, but it's important to try to make sure the cone is centered at all times (the surround fits very snugly onto the frame so this shouldn't be too much of a prob, but always do each stage cautiously). Centering the voice coil is done with the use of plastic shims, and if your voice coil and former are straight and in good condition is easy enough.

The difficult bits: removing all the old crud and removing the dust cap (necessary to centre the voice coil). If your voice coil is damaged then you're up shit creek - and allegedly damage can occur if the speakers have been used when the surrounds have degraded to a point whereby the cone is not supported properly. Definitely worth checking the condition of the voice coil when you remove the cone, if it's knackered you'd be better off buying a complete recone kit from Lockwood.

Each pair I've done has taken me probably 2-3 hours a day for three days, the last pair looked better than any professional surround replacement that I've seen yet, if I do say so myself, and all pairs worked flawlessly afterwards. And if anyone is contemplating doing this, then ignore the bit at the end about adding ink or whetever to the glue when you coat the outside of surrounds, it looks crap and it's impossible to get an even finish. .

P.S. kit includes surrounds, glue, and shims.

 

Nice one LT. Thanks for that :beer: