Call us: 508-881-9959
Call us: 508-881-9959
Snell Acoustics Speaker Repair
What's the difference between re-foaming Snell drivers and buying a new driver?
Installing a new, or re-coned Snell driver is the only way to ensure that your Snell Acoustics speaker will sound the way Snell Acoustics intended them to sound. While typically the foam surround is what is obviously damaged, the paper cone and other soft parts also break down over time. New and re-coned drivers have all of these parts replaced. And, when you buy them from Atomic HiFi and TV, each driver is hand-tuned to the original Snell Acoustics specification.
Should I repair my Snell Acoustic speakers?
One of the most-asked questions we hear from Snell speaker owners is "Is it worth restoring my Snell speakers?" And, considering how much we love the brand our answer is usually, "Absolutely!"
Of course there are a lot of caveats to this question. We have had people whose speaker cabinets deteriorated in home floods or have been gnawed by little creatures while in storage. There's not much that can be done in those circumstances. But, the main reason people need to restore or repair their speakers is due to damaged speaker drivers.
Is replacing the foam surround on my Snell drivers a good idea?
It has always been the policy of Snell Acoustics not to re-foam their drivers. The main reason is that changing any part of the driver will not produce sound according to it's original Snell Acoustics design and manufacture.
Technically speaking, the main reason for that policy is the difficulty of predicting a good outcome of re-foaming while maintaining the Snell Acoustics audio performance standard of +/- 0.5dB from the master engineering reference.
More technical reasons...
Here is some more technical information from the Snell Acoustics engineering team on why only replacing the foam on a damaged driver is not ideal:
- The compliance of the cone suspension is determined by the foam and the spider, obtaining the right foam compliance to properly work with the other materials is, at best, inexact.
- Cone excursion is a critical spec. Replacement surrounds can lack sufficient travel.
- Gluing the foam to the basket and woofer cone, while keeping it aligned is critical, and difficult to do. There can be no interruption of the glue seam or an air leak will result. Too much glue can cause added mass, or alter the compliance of the surround.
- The resting position of the foam can affect the location of the voice coil to the magnetic field. Therefore, the offset of the replacement foam must exactly match the offset of the original factory foam. This issue is often not considered when a new surround is installed.
What do you get when you buy “hand tuned” drivers from Atomic HiFi and TV?
When Snell Acoustics made their speakers, the technicians used a rigorous process to match all systems to within ±0.5dB of the corresponding Master Reference. Because Atomic HiFi and TV acquired all the Master References for all the product lines, we use them to follow that exact process when you order a replacement driver from us.
In addition to the driver itself, when you order from us, you receive a corresponding kit that includes all the parts you need to update your speaker to Snell Acoustics’ originally intended sound. We use the Master References to match your driver to your model, and sometimes down to the serial number of your model. Not all of Snell’s designs require an accompanying kit, but many do.
Lastly, when you buy replacement Snell Acoustics parts from Atomic HiFi and TV, we always offer free technical support to assist with any questions for installing the parts your purchased from us.
When I receive a kit with my new driver, what is in it?
Each driver model’s replacement kit matches Snell’s original Master Reference to within +/- 0.5dB. That means that any kit can and will have varying accompanying parts. However, in general, we would describe the kits by type. So, in addition to the driver itself, replacement kits include some or all of the following:
- Installation instructions
- Any hand tuned crossover parts required by the Master Reference
- A sealing gasket used at installation.
- And, sometimes, customizations to mass-load the driver as required by the Master Reference