gelid

I have both woofers freed up and moving as they should. I've decided to not screw the assemblies together. Rather, I'll run a thick bead of construction adhesive around the perimeter of the square plates top and bottom, to keep things from sliding around. I do have one question: Does it matter if the magnet is flipped upside down? I'd like to know before I glue them in place. My last attempt at the alignment, I forgot to pay attention to the magnet orientation, and the face that was originally up is now down. Edit: I think I now know that it does matter. Before I undo the 2 hours of careful positioning of the assembly, I need to verify for sure the polarity of the magnet and compare it to the other woofer.

I may have found something to try. Discovered a closed thread here titled "Glued Magnet Assemblies" that asks why not bolt the mag assembly to the basket. I thought of that myself, but it seemed too simple of a solution... an obvious thing that for reasons unknown to me just hasn't been implemented. Well, turns out it is done on some speakers, so that is what I will do. 35+ years as a skilled machinist, I have machined all sorts of materials, but I don't recall ever drilling a magnet. I assume these on the EPI M50's are iron magnets, based on their gray color. I do have some other stray speaker mags to practice on when I return to work later this week.

Looks like it could be just an open-baffle speaker, albeit an old one.

Re-starting a topic that I began in a thread of "Norman Nicolai" about his EPI M50 speakers. I recently found a pair of these, and returned here to learn something about them. I found these at a local thrift store for about $16.00. They looked old, ugly as hell, and when I turned one around to check the manufacturer, I discovered they were way-heavier than they looked. Lucky for me that old, ugly, and heavy are exactly what I look for... in a mystery-to-me speaker. Norman convinced me that I may just have something that's worth putting a bit of work into. The surrounds were in really great shape, I learned, because they are not foam, but a rubber-material. A bit of research and I read that it was common to have the dual magnets shift over time and restrict or even prevent the movement of the cone. Sure enough, both of mine were stuck tight. After removing the woofers, I found that the magnets were visibly out of alignment, and I couldn't move the speaker cones in nor out. I was able to shift the magnets of one into a close-to aligned state by hand and that freed up the cone a bit, but not totally. Almost a week later I returned to the EPI's. I clamped the one I haven't messed with yet into a bench vise by the metal backing plate and tried to shift the mags around with some c-clamps. Then, I tried pulling on the basket and found that it could be spun around. Still, no movement in the cone, so I shifted it left-to-right, forward and back. no improvement. Then I pulled up on the basket and it popped off, exposing the voice coil in all its magnificent perfection. Yup, all that messing around with it, and (luckily) the basket just freely pulled off the magnet with no damage. Short story long, can someone please tell me what I need to do next... I was not expecting the basket to just pull off like that; looks like they were glued together, but with what? Is there a better way to attach them? How do I re-assemble the basket to magnets without further risk of damage to the voice coil? I have restored two pairs of vintage speakers (KLH Model Thirty-One and Jensen Model 2, both documented on this site) so while I have experience, I don't have a lot of it. Any help would be greatly appreciated Pictures:

Yes, when I try to gently push on the woofer cone, it does not move inward. When I reach through the basket to push the cone up (outward) it does not move. I have not tried the battery because I simply cannot find my alligator-clipped leads. (setting up a proper workbench for this sort of work, and things are presently in a state of disarray) I had read that this is a not-unheard-of condition, caused by the glue between the two magnets failing with age, and allowing them to shift and interfere with the in-out movement of the cone, even to the point of pinching the voice coil.

Right. Here are the pics of the drivers. They seem original to me, but the good condition of the surrounds have me wondering, now. The numbers 39 and 40 written on the back plate are from me, so I know which cabinet each driver came out of.

Update: Both the woofers are stuck. Cones would not budge in nor out, and they even look tilted. I removed the drivers from the cabs and the dual magnets were shifted out of alignment. This probably has the voice coil jammed. I tried to shift the mags back into alignment by hand and they did move enough to free up the voice coil a bit, but it still drags and hangs up. C-clamps got the edges flush, but still not good enough to free the voicecoil. I will look around for replacement original drivers, but I fear I will be performing surgery on these.

Hello! Tonight I bought a pair of these EPI M50's at a local thrift store for $16.00. I've got to say they look very rough, but the cabs are solid and the foam surrounds are decent. Still, the only reason I bought them not knowing anything about them, was that they were so heavy for their size. As soon as I got home, I discovered the Human Speaker webpage and learned they are at least worthy of restoration. I am a fan of what they refer to as "the New England Sound" and can't wait to hear these.

Finished, and they sound pretty good. If they were my only speakers, I would be totally fine with them. Turns out all I did was to refoam the woofers. Midrange drivers sound fine, so because I had a bit of a hard time settling on a suitable replacement for the capacitor, I kept the originals. Vinyl veneer will be able to be re-glued down with contact cement. I left off the weird blue screens that covered the mids, as they sound fine without them.

Thanks for responding, Chris. They are 8” woofers, and the veneer is peeling in places. I think I will replace the cap after all. The veneer will be a learning exercise for me, as will the re-foaming. Looks like I found a good pair of “lab-rats” to perform my experiments on! 😁

Today was my first trip to a thrift store since the pandemic was declared, and I brought home what turned out to be a pair of Jensen Model 2 loudspeakers, build date Dec 1973. I'm no stranger to vintage speakers, having rebuilt some KLH Model Thirty-One's a few years ago, but I'm far from being able to say I know what I'm doing when buying an old pair of "mystery-to-me" speakers. The manufacturers' logo plate on each grill was unknown to me at the moment. I removed a front grill to reveal a woofer with decayed foam surround, and a mid-range driver; the latter being covered with a blue woven fabric. Made me think of KLH tweeters, so this was a good sign. The tone control on the back was another good sign. Long story about what I hope is at least a mid-level speaker, but for $10.00, plus $15.00 for the re-foaming kit I will have another pair of vintage acoustic suspension bookshelf speakers. I removed one woofer to check it with an ohm meter, which gave me a 5.1 ohm reading. I will not be replacing the crossover capacitor (one each) unless it is advisable to do so, or if I feel the need after the re-foaming. The vinyl veneer will be coming off to be replaced with wood veneer, which for some reason I have on hand. Any words of caution, encouragement, or discouragement will be welcomed. Thoughts? Are these worth the effort?

I have the Albany, and they are an excellent speaker to my ears. Prob not as efficent as advertised, as my 12 WPC Pioneer SX-424 struggled with them. Currently, I have them connected to the receiver I bought them for... a 20 WPC Rotel RX-202 MK II. The Albany are a well-balanced speaker, if highly directional. Nice extended bass, full-enough mids, and clean highs. The bass is what surprised me the most, as I hadn't ever heard such a natural resonate bass before.