How to tell if old speakers (Snell E.5) are still OK?

[ratnermi]

I use Snell E.5 floorstanding speakers as my mains. They date back to around 1998, but I cannot hear any deterioration. They've been in storage much of the time. Their close mic measurements (using UMIK-1 one foot away from the tweeter) are below. No visible sign of damage. I turned off the rear tweeters. Is there any way to tell if they are still performing to spec without sending them in to a local repair shop?

 

[Blumlein 88]

Just based upon your measurements they have to be more or less fine. If a tweeter was burned out or something you'd see it in that frequency response graph. As long as the surrounds look fine and you don't hear any clicking/distortion on drum shots or something they cannot be to far off.

 

[ratnermi]

As long as the surrounds look fine and you don't hear any clicking/distortion on drum shots or something they cannot be to far off.

What do you mean by “surrounds?” What should I look for?

 

[Philbo King]

The rolled foam around the edge of the woofer. It deteriorates over the years and turns into petrochemical dust. You can tell by examination, or by woofer distortion measurements with a mic and REW If they're bad that can be fixed though. You can get woofer surround kits for that

 

[AlfaNovember]

The surround is the ring of soft material at the outer perimeter of the woofer. It allows the stiff cone to move in and out to produce sound. It needs to be both flexible and air-tight, without any holes or tears. Over time, materials used for the surround can become brittle and crack, or otherwise degraded or damaged. The problem is worst with foam-type materials, less so with synthetic rubber types.

I had Snell Es that needed the surrounds replaced, but I don't recall the type of surrounds they needed. Snell were very proud of the close-tolerance matching of all their parts - try to find a genuine proper replacement, rather than a generic. The process to replace the surround material is fairly straightforward, requiring only a suitable replacement part, proper adhesive, and steady hands. Often you can find folks to do it for a reasonable price as a small business. There's a fellow local to me who advertises on Craigslist, for example.

 

[MrNice13]

Just smell in it

 

[ratnermi]

Here are the pics of the woofers from both speakers, they seem in perfectly good shape, from the outside. The outside rubber rings are pliable to the touch. Is there foam on the inside that I should also be checking?

 

[LTig]

Looks good for me too. I don't think there is any foam behind. Just enjoy!

 

[Philbo King]

Yeah, looks good.