The PHILCO Phorum

I have a philco jr speaker in excellent original condition but it has a voice coil rub. Can anyone on here suggest a speaker rebuilder-service shop that does good work and is familiar with these type speakers.

Thank you

Ron lists a number of speaker repair guys on his resources page.

Rich at Sound Remedy did a great job for me more than once. Good prices and didn't take too long.

You can fix the rub in a lot of old speakers by making adjustments to the spider.

Do you have a picture?

Really?  Please tell me more.

I can get a picture posted.  It is the original Philco 80 speaker...looks like this

OK, this takes a little patience and a soft touch.

The challenge is to find which side the rub is on.

Loosen the screw in the center of the speaker. In this speaker that paper thing in the center is a spider. Use you fingers to gently move the cone in and out listening for the rub. Gently move the cone in the direction that makes the rub stop. Hold the cone in place and tighten the screw in the center. For your first try, this might take a little trial and error.

Notes: The cone will move pretty easily and does not have to move much to clear or MAKE the voice coil rub. The cone is old paper, be careful not to rip or put a finger through it. Sometimes these noises are made by foreign objects in the gap. When the screw is removed the cone will move much more (in and out) than normal. Lay it on a table face down and gently move the cone in and out. Crud and dirt will often fall out. Blowing lightly with "canned air" NOT an air compressor hose, might help but usually stuff just falls out. Your speaker looks good but sometimes this stuff is rust on the pole piece. Sometimes enough will clear to cure the noise sometimes it takes removing the whole cone. Again BE GENTLE.

Interesting, I did not know the voice coil was adjustable on these.


Would like to see pics of one of these taken apart to see the workings...


Thanks
T

Just curious as well....is that small spider attached to the speaker cone by any means, glue etc...?  Is it removable? 

Thanks

The spider is part of the voice coil assembly and is glued to the voice coil in the originals. They come as one part number.

Ok I get the idea now...

Took a peek and removed the bolt and two washers. I did not see any play available whatsoever in the speaker-spider assembly. I have seen some speakers of this Philco style have the cone loose from the frame and held in by screws. This one the cone is glues all the way around the frame.

I am 99% sure my issue is probably some light debris in there. I turned it upside down and moved the speaker in and out while that spider bolt was loose. Then played it a while LOUD upside down as well. Seemed to help some so I reinstalled the bolt-washers. Did not feel the rub really anymore but the buzz on this is only on occasion on really loud low bass frequencies.

Since the speaker is out I left it play at about 3/4 volume on a strong station speaker face down on some thick shims to keep it off the table. Figured it might help work any debris out by doing that. Will see what happens.

Good.

It only take a very small movement around that mounting bolt to make or break a rubbing problem. We are talking 1/100 of an inch or 2.

Buzz when loud is often a loose cone around the outer suspension (rim) and only a small section need be loose.

Installed the speaker back in the cabinet and she seems to be doing quit well. I am not hearing any buzz at low level volumes as I did on occasion before. Thought I heard a bit on a really strong station-commercial but the lack of AVC on these 80s makes for serious gain on strong stations and could have just been the speaker complaining about that loud burst.

Very happy...this speaker is original and mint mint mint. Would have hated to have it re coned to fix a stupid voice coil buzz.

T

Well done!

Congratulations ! That feeling of accomplishment when you finally get it fixed is always great.