I recently was visiting a community “give-away” event and this pair of Advent Graduate speakers caught my eye. The giver said they were in good condition and was appreciative that I was interested in them.
I didn’t even bother to remove the grills to check them out, I just snagged them and headed back to the truck. Externally, at least, they were in pretty good condition, for sure. The flaws, so to speak, were signs of age and some neglect.
However, when I returned home and examined the speakers I discovered that they were definitely not in good condition, although they did look nice. The photo on the rights shows the condition of the speaker surround foam. In fact, the foam in this photo is missing as it simply fell out. I had to vacuum the mess to that it didn’t spread around the work table.
This is where the question of repair gets tricky. Is it worth replacing the foams? Is there some other hidden damage, such as blown tweeters? Do the crossovers work?
Running speakers without foams can be problematic. The foams hold the cones in alignment, and if the speakers are played at too high power the moving parts can actually be welded together. I tested these Graduates at low power and sure enough, the tweets, woofers, and crossovers worked.
I checked my usual resources and discovered that new foams are only about $29 including the proper glue. I already have the clean-up supplied to take care of the cabinets. According to listings on eBay, speakers such as these in good condition have a fair value, so it seemed to me that repair and refurbishment was in order.
Oh, and one other thing, the specifications are pretty good, too.
In the next post I will tell you how I handled the cleaning.
