- My model of MX-5 is: lemans
- I’m based near: Shropshire
- I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: refoaming speakers
Are there companies out there that repair speakers, my 13 year old JL audio 81B4 subs have fell apart and are no longer available.20210511_213510|281x500
I guess there must be someone out there that will repair? However, I’ve had great success in repairing several sets of retro hifi speakers over the years DIY. The foam rings in all sizes are available on the likes of Amazon, eBay etc for not much money and also glue. Loads of YouTube videos on how to. Depends on your confidence and skill levels but it’s not a difficult job really if you cannot find a repairer.
Barrie
1 Like
I don’t know if these were budget lines JL’s or more expensive ones, but have you contemplated getting new ones in case there are budget ones?
Confidence and skill level good, two young kids and wife= no time to have a go. 
They were quite expensive at the time and equivalent jl ones now are out of my allowance limit.
I found some jbl ones that look like they will fit so might take a gamble, my issue is the jl ones are in a custom shelf so replacement ones must be near identical in size, also they are 8ohms wired in parrallel giving me 4 ohms and they connect to my amp that’s bridged at 4 ohms.
The jbl ones are 4 ohms so if wired the same will give me 2 ohms and I’m not sure my Alpine v12 will like that.
If these are high quality and budget is limited then refoaming is not a bad idea at all. I’d check that as a first option. If these were mid-high segment then buying budget JBL woofers would really be a downgrade I think.
theres a jl audio repair shop in the US who do full rebuild kits including the dust caps … there are some youtube videos showing you how to do it to with a link to their shop
seems straightforward enough
1 Like
I will send them a message and see if they can supply what i need.
If so it’s probably a job for the winter.
Thanks for everyone’s advice.
If they are going to be replaced anyway, then there will be no great loss in first attempting to re-foam the surround as Bettabuilder (Barrie) suggested. It just needs patience, and having watched a few how-to videos (but beware, some can be better than others).
I have always been happy to try this, and have repaired other speaker cones over the years, surrounds, tears and mouse holes, mostly successfully, even replacing the flexy wires.
However, by far the most difficult repair is in the centre, setting-up the voice-coil perfectly in the middle of the gap when fitting a complete new cone while keeping stray bits out of the magnet gap - once in there, that’s where they stay! In the past I have happily paid the professionals to do this, usually a full re-cone.
1 Like
Jbl subs arrived, now fitted with a couple of mm to spare as the magnets were huge, just missed the petrol tank bulge😥
I was able to use all my previously made stealth covers with no mods required, they sound good but not like the JL ones I removed, but I’m very pleased none the less.
Just need to tweak the gains and crossovers then it should be fine.
1 Like
What model subs are they ? What size ? Bass improvement opinions?
JBL STAGE 810
SPECIFICATIONS
DIAMETER: 8" (200MM)
SENSITIVITY (2.83V @ 1M): 88dB
POWER HANDLING: 200 Wrms (800W PEAK)
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 38Hz ~ 200Hz
NOMINAL IMPEDANCE: 4OHMS
VOICE-COIL DIAMETER: 1.5" (38.8MM)
I’m very happy with the performance of them, they are mounted free air I think they call it infinite baffled now? So I’m not experiencing the full potential.
Now I have set the gains and crossovers they actually seem better than the JL ones so I am probably just going to dispose of the old JL ones.
If the car was not a Le Mans edition I would be in the back and fibreglass up some enclosures but I need to able to revert to standard if I ever decide to sell the car.
1 Like