Worthwhile first speaker repair project? (Sony SS-4200)

[Derick Light]

I'm extremely new to the world of audio equipment and repair, but have recently been bit by the bug to jump in! I currently have the chance to get a pair of Sony SS-4200 floor speakers for very cheap because they don't work, but there's no other diagnostic information other than that. I was thinking this would be a good introduction into the world of speakers if nothing else (cracking them open, figuring out whats what, how to test if things are working, etc.), but would also like to know if for someone with almost no experience would this even be an appropriate jumping off point?

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[Art Welter]

Derick,

With side by side tweeters, a woofer and midrange sharing the same chamber, the Sony SS-4200 would be a good introduction into the world of 1970's speaker design mistakes best to avoid.

They do have one capacitor, an "L"pad tweeter level control, two different inductor coils, and three different types of drivers that may be no good.

The original driver components that don't work may not be replaceable with anything close to the same specifications, so repairing them will result in something even worse than they were to start with.

I think a better introduction to speakers would be books like Speaker Building 201 by Ray Alden or the more advanced Loudspeaker Design Cookbook 7th Edition by Vance Dickason.

Art

 

[Mike Caldwell]

You could use the cabinets as a starting point to built up a new speaker with some re work of the front baffle.

 

[Paul Johnson]

In the 70s, when hifi was kicking off, most of the Japanese speakers were simply what looked good with the much better electronics they made. Working with hifi at the time, the first upgrade people were advised to do that made a real impact, was new speakers. Almost anything was better. Speakers were things us Brits could do pretty well, so tannoys, Celestion and others went out of the door quickly. I took Sony speakers home to use in my studio because we just dumped them. None were good. The japanese preferred sound at that time was dreadful. My view, looking back was that they were very much pretty speakers that looked nice, with very random sound. Even their really expensive ones just were very average. B&O, known for their looks had some cracking speaker designs that sounded really good. Sony had a few slightly better ones, but not really their best products.