Hi Fi help - broken speakers

jairaj

My old speakers Focal Chorus 707s have stopped working correctly. Not sure what happened, possibly got damaged while moving home and now there is very noticeable distortion in the bass on one speaker. I opened them up to see if there was any visible damage. All looked fine on the driver and cross over circuit.

I took them to my local dealer who contacted Focal and said they will cost about £300 to fix.

I can't remember exactly but I think the speakers cost ~£450 back in 2005.

I'm not sure whether to get them repaired or to just buy some new ones?

Has speaker technology moved on enough to make my 8 year old speakers out of date and I would be better off spending a bit more and getting the new equivalent to my speakers?

nicklouse

what is your amp? what stands do you use?

I would be tempted to Ebay them and add that to the 300 and get new.

jairaj

Creek Evolution Amplifier on Soundstyle stands.

So you think newer speakers of the same price range will sound a lot better?

I was happy enough with the sound before so happy to get them repaired but if similar money will give a better sound then rather do that.

nicklouse

well lets put it this way I would not be ruling it out.

there are some very good stand mounts out there for 500.

I was having a listen to the B&W 685 and was very impressed. circa 400

looking to add to the B&W 703s to go to one set up for music and AV.

so to sum up get the listen ears on but i would only looking to get them fixed if i could not find another set to replace them.

lostboysaint

No, speaker technology hasn't moved on, in the sense that they are very traditional speakers and most of the products that use similar design theory (95% of the market) will utilise the same technology. If you like the sound (when working properly) then why change?

I have a variety of speakers including a 40 year old pair of Tannoy Lancasters which are still by far the best sounding.

jairaj

Cool thanks for the advise guys. I'll have a quick pop round the local shops and see if there is any particular bargains otherwise I think I'll get the old ones repaired.

mrmonkfinger

jairaj wrote:

All looked fine on the driver and cross over circuit.?

Couple of things I'd try:

1 Remake all the solder joints, just in case something has fractured. It'll cost nothing to do.

2 Bypass the cross over, and temporarily wiring the amp directly to the bass cone, just to see if the cone itself is happy. Replacing a few electrical bits in the crossover is probably significantly cheaper compared to replacing a 15 year old bass cone.

supersonic

I assume you have swapped speakers over from left to right to isolate it as the speaker?

jairaj

yes I swapped the speakers round and even tried a different amplifier and source at the shop. ;-)

The shop is looking after the speakers at the moment. They said they checked everything again and couldn't find anything wrong. The woofer is a relatively sealed design so they think something has broken in there but they can't accesses it to see exactly what. So going back to the manufacturer for repair.

I had quick browse to see what I could replace my speakers with and at the moment I'm leaning towards getting the speakers repaired.

jairaj

A little update on this thread.

The shop I'm dealing with TomTom Audio in St Albans, gave me a fantastic offer on some ex demo Focal 806VW speakers. Let me take them home for a demo first too. These things sounded fantastic and combined with the good price I decided to go for them. Must say big props to the guys here, great customer service, happy to hold onto my speakers while I took ages making my mind up and gave me a home demo.

I also had more of a poke around on the faulty speakers (now I wasn't scared of damaging further). I think the problem is a fault woofer cone. The voice coils seem to be catching and rubbing on what ever is surround it, I'm guessing the magnet? I may try and repair these my self at some point and either sell on ebay or just hang on to them for other uses.

nicklouse

new cones can be found and dont need to be exactly the same if you do the pair.

I would try swaping the current cones over to see if the broken one can work.

Like you say nothing to lose.

jairaj

Yep noticed the cones had some numbers on them so did a quick search. Luckily Focal manufacture and sell driver cones just as much as full speakers. There are a few places in Germany with the exact same cone for 130 euros delivered to UK.

I also swapped the cones around and the fault appears on the the other speaker now. So I'm confident its just the cone that is faulty and crossover circuit is fine. Its on my todo list but I'm in no hurry to sort it out.

Unfortunately I got tempted by the Focal Chorus 806W which normally retail for almost twice what my current speaker cost and so are of a much better quality. The very good discount made them very affordable and within my budget so decided to go for them as I'm unlikely to come across a better offer in the future.

nicklouse

time to start a second system for the kitchen/garage with you old speakers then

mrmonkfinger

jairaj wrote:

Yep noticed the cones had some numbers on them so did a quick search. Luckily Focal manufacture and sell driver cones just as much as full speakers. There are a few places in Germany with the exact same cone for 130 euros delivered to UK.

good detective work

maybe worth fixing & selling to offset the cost of the new speakers?