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Advent 400 radio--what replacement driver?


JKent

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Well, I just bought an Advent 400 FM radio speaker cabinet. That's right, just the empty cabinet. I'm not sure why--thought I could use it. This is getting out of hand...

Any suggestions for a full-range driver? The hole is about 4 3/4" and the 4 mounting screw holes are about 5 1/4". Any suggestions?

I had thought I might use the spare driver I have from a KLH Model 21 radio but it's too small and I may make a custom wood cabinet for that.

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and while we're at it==anyone know how to restore the yellowed cabinets to white, other than spray paint? I'm thinking sanding is the only way, IF that would even do it. Nasty UV!!

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Guest gkentsmith

From one "Kent" to another,

I have a number of the speakers for that radio. A pair of them makes a nice low volume background type stereo speaker. As to the yellowing - good luck. I have removed the worst of the yellowing and god knows what else from a pair that was advertised on eBay as "butt ugly" and that was an understatement.

If the yellowing is severe, you'll have to sand starting at about 80 grit and working up through the grits to about 320. At this point you should have a pretty smooth surface. You may want to go one notch higher on the grit, but after that you'll need a fine finisher like a woven dish cleaner - yes, they make one for sanders.

Beyond that, it's buffing time. This is where I have given up. I get a smooth even blemish free surface and quit. Buffing plastic to a sheen is near impossible and time consuming as well.

One last thing - DON'T put ANY acetone on it. If you must use a solvent for some reason. ethyl alcohol will do what you need. Acetone will make it gummy.

No offense, but you may be more crazy than I am! What a project!

Kent

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thanks Kent. And it's G Kent, huh? I'm J Kent. What makes people use their middle names?

I ordered a Foster speaker from Madisound. It was on sale for 3 bucks so I figured I'd take a chance. I understand Foster made drivers for AR.

As for the yellowing., I haven't tackled it yet, but I thought after some light sanding I might try an abrasive cleanser with bleach--like Comet.

Worth a try...

J Kent

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Guest gkentsmith

J Kent,

If that comet approach works, please, by all means, post the results here.

As far as the middle name thing is concerned, it was once a very common practice. I'm a junior and my dad was G Kent Smith, Sr. His dad was A. Dwight Smith. And remember F. Scott Fitzgerald? There are tons more, but the practice sort of became moot when computer databases required First Name, Middle Initial.

My trivia for the day - lol

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  • 2 weeks later...

>J Kent,

>

>If that comet approach works, please, by all means, post the

>results here.

no, I'm afraid the Comet didn't work. It cleaned it up a little, but then I gave up and went the sandpaper route. Almost done. I'll use the Coagain in the polishing stage, then Novus polish.

btw--the Foster speaker sounds good! a little less efficient than the original driver, but you only notice that in a side-by-side comparison. I wonder if the Tang Band mentioned elsewhere in this forum would have been a good choice too, but that would have meant fabricating a baffle.

All this for a speaker I'll end up selling on ebay, and probably getting next to nothing because it's not the original driver. Oh well, it was really just an experiment.

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>J Kent,

>

>If that comet approach works, please, by all means, post the

>results here.

G Kent,

Nope--the Comet didn't do the trick. I ended up using sandpaper, as you described, with the Comet used as an abrasive toward the end, before finishing with Novus polish. I tried a wheel chucked in my drill, but it made a mess so the polishing was done by hand. All in all a very time-consuming and labor-intensive exercise. If you're interested in the results, here's one pic. I posted a few more pics on ebay (trying to recover some of the money spent, but I don't have high hopes)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...72131&rd=1&rd=1

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