Loudspeaker Reconing

www.recone.com

There are two kinds of musicians who use amplifiers, those who have blown a speaker and those that will. There is only one kind of person who can remedy this condition, a Reconer. Someone who knows how to recone loudspeakers properly is a valuable person. A Reconer can save the day in about 30 minutes rather than 30 days. Contrary to popular belief, reconing a loudspeaker is not as easy to do as some would have you believe. The mechanics of a loudspeaker are very simple and it's discovery changed the direction of the air at the surface of the earth! But that is where the easy ends. From the moment of its discovery, we have been trying to perfect the loudspeaker and it's ability to produce the desired noise. Hey let's face it, we like it loud and clear, mostly loud around here! Being a Reconer is much more than putting parts together and gluing "em up. A loudspeaker suddenly becomes a very special piece of equipment when you consider that your speakers are the "last chance" chin of electronics a system has to sound great. Still, loudspeakers are continually overlooked as a major player in almost every system for "the band" and repair to your loudspeaker system is eminent. Any time you have moving parts, you will have failures, that is where reconing comes in to the picture.

There are actually 12 components that make up the loudspeaker. They are the Basket, Top plate, Back plate, Pole piece, Magnet, Cone, Voice coil, Spider, Dustcap, Gasket, Leadwire and Terminal. When you look at a loudspeaker from the front you see the cone and dustcap, and it looks like a speaker. If you look at the loudspeaker from the side you will see the bottom of the cone has two wires coming out that run to the terminals. These two wires are the two ends of a single wire. If you look a little closer, you will see the cone is attached to another piece at the neck or bottom. This is called a Spider. The Spider is just as important as everyone of the other components. For the most part, a loudspeaker will not work properly if any of these components are weak or damaged. When your speakers blow, one of these have failed and weakened the rest of the speakers' parts, causing total failure.

There are actually 7 parts that you need to recone a loudspeaker, a Cone, Voice coil, Spider, Dust cap, Gasket, Leadwire and Shim. There is a fallacy that a heavy cone will produce better bass. WRONG! There is also the fallacy that a stiff cone suspension means higher power handling. WRONG AGAIN! The truth is that if the cone is heavy, it will not react quickly to the input signal. Hence without the application of considerable wattage, the signal will be gone from the line before the cone can move and thereby causing an undesirable noise, kind of a flopping honk sound. Not to mention the other restrictions placed on a speaker with a heavy cone. The same thing can happen with a suspension that is too stiff. When we are designing a true and correct loudspeaker, we look for a cone with light components. We do this because we want the amplifier to use as little power as possible to make the cone move so it will produce the sound we amplify. When we think about a cone being made of paper, most of the time, it is almost magic that it still works at all the next day given the abuse it gets put through during a gig! When a cone is placed in a loudspeaker frame and assembled with the other components, it is very strong. Holding a cone in your hand is by no means a measure of it's quality. Only by "hands on" experience can you fully appreciate the strength of a light cone. In many applications, even the dustcap adds a major stability factor to the loudspeaker's cone. Only by "hands on" experience can you understand this, but it is the absolute truth!

The dustcap also provides cooling air movement in the loading are of the loudspeaker to literally keep the voice coil from becoming a heating element and causing a fire. Some of us still find a way thought, don't we?! Did you know that a voice coil can reach temperatures of 400F during hard play? Don't believe me? After your next gig, put your hand on the magnet of one of the loudspeakers in your cabinet. If you can keep your hand on it for 5 seconds and not have a blister when you pull it away, you're not playing loud enough! 400F is nothing to play with. It isn't on fire during play because of the ventilation designed in to the loading are of the cone to vent the heat away. However, when you stop the heat is no longer being dissipated and remains insulated in the loading cavity beneath the dust cap. It is now at the highest potential for flame to occur. My point is, if someone recones a loudspeaker with so much as the wrong dust cap, it can spell early failure of the reconed loudspeaker. Here is where experience is your key to success. If a loudspeaker is reconed and fails, your faith in reconing will certainly be blemished, as most of us who have had loudspeakers reconed before know all too well.

When WVS began to offer their "Foundation of Understanding" video on loudspeaker reconing in 1994, reconing had become the last alternative for sound. The reason for this is the companies who were selling these reconing supplies were not keeping up with the changing needs and component failure was at an all time high with reconed loudspeakers. However, in 1994 there were new companies coming to the plate with high quality parts designed to perform under today's demands. Once again reconing a loudspeaker was quickly becoming the standard maintenance procedure for loudspeaker repair.

These past six years we have seen reconing move from the "Black Magic" secret, to a preferred practice. All over the world people are taking their speaker systems into the repair shop because they like the way they sounded before they broke. Originally you took your speakers to a TV repair shop, now you take them to a company that specializes in reconing. These specialty shops are fast becoming a player in the audio market. People who have always wanted to have their own small side business are getting educated and they are offering a professional service to customers who otherwise would be in the market for new speakers, spending 3-4 times as much as they should.

In 1997 www.recone.com opened their web site to help these businesses become more successful and offer customers the security of a small group of professionals who love what they do, recone loudspeakers. "Driven to excellence by the excitement of perfection." In 1999 the PARLAY (Professional Loudspeaker Reconers Association) began to offer extended education on the process of loudspeaker reconing. This was the beginning of setting standards for the reconing industry. WVS, www.recone.com and the PLRA along with vendors and manufacturers of these reconing supplies have begun a trend of standards that will last a long, long time.

Isn't it nice to know there is a group of people who care about your sound and success. Until next month, turn it up, we need the work.

Thomas P. Colvin