Old speakers worn out?

P

PSGuitar

Active member
Any of you find that older speakers start to get too worn out?

I bought a speaker from the 90s, and it sounds flat and dull like it's worn out. I read that a lot of pros will buy new speakers before a gig to avoid the worn out nature re of older speakers...
 
PSGuitar said:
Any of you find that older speakers start to get too worn out?

I bought a speaker from the 90s, and it sounds flat and dull like it's worn out. I read that a lot of pros will buy new speakers before a gig to avoid the worn out nature re of older speakers...
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Yep that's happened to me a few times. Luckily I could return them. Both cabs and individual speakers. But all in all that's been a pretty rare occurrence for me. I have a lot of vintage cabs, in fact the newest is from '88 (Mesa halfback). Oldest is '72 (Marshall 1960a). They all have some life left.
 
Cool!
I bought a MESA V30 from a Mesa Trans Atlantic combo from 2011.so 10 years old.
Should have many years left..

Still best to buy newer and break in myself?
I have listened to broken in speakers and to me the difference is amall
 
PSGuitar said:
Cool!
I bought a MESA V30 from a Mesa Trans Atlantic combo from 2011.so 10 years old.
Should have many years left..

Still best to buy newer and break in myself?
I have listened to broken in speakers and to me the difference is amall
Click to expand...
I think so. Long ago I was a proponent of 'British V30s only' until I compared my Fender Tonemaster cab (British V30s, 90s) with a Bogner cab (Chinese V30s, 2000s) and realized the cab construction of the Bogner just blew away the tone of the Fender.
 
It all depends on how they were used during their lifetime. Pound them hard endlessly, they're going to wear out. In the 80's with my club band, I pounded them 5 hours per night, 5 nights a week for three years (minus two weeks off per year for vacation). They sounded good. But I didn't run them full blast, either, maybe 30-40w max, unless we did a really big club.
 
Racerxrated said:
I think so. Long ago I was a proponent of 'British V30s only' until I compared my Fender Tonemaster cab (British V30s, 90s) with a Bogner cab (Chinese V30s, 2000s) and realized the cab construction of the Bogner just blew away the tone of the Fender.
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I totally get that! I just found with my Bogner, Stone Age and Splawn cabs, the UK V30s disnt have the annoying stuff about the China that bothered me.
 
Scumback Speakers said:
It all depends on how they were used during their lifetime. Pound them hard endlessly, they're going to wear out. In the 80's with my club band, I pounded them 5 hours per night, 5 nights a week for three years (minus two weeks off per year for vacation). They sounded good. But I didn't run them full blast, either, maybe 30-40w max, unless we did a really big club.
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Good point...
This speaker is ten years old but not sure..
 
Scumback Speakers said:
It all depends on how they were used during their lifetime. Pound them hard endlessly, they're going to wear out. In the 80's with my club band, I pounded them 5 hours per night, 5 nights a week for three years (minus two weeks off per year for vacation). They sounded good. But I didn't run them full blast, either, maybe 30-40w max, unless we did a really big club.
Click to expand...

Does speaker life also depend on the wattage of the speaker vs the amt you are regularly throwing at them? For example would a quad of 65 watt Creambacks last longer than a quad of 25 watt Greenbacks eating the same identical output for the same identical amp night after night? Just thinking that running 25 watters at 90% of their max load would tax them more than running 65 watters at 40% of their max load.
 
Storage and transport play a huge role in longevity of speakers. Transport them standing up, as they are when playing, and every bump you hit has the weight of the speaker trying to go sideways. If you ship them flat on their face or back, then when bumps are hit the speaker is moving in its natural motion, and life is longer. Extreme heat or humidity, or extreme changes of temperature and humidity also shorten life, as the cones are just doped paper.
 
PDC said:
Does speaker life also depend on the wattage of the speaker vs the amt you are regularly throwing at them? For example would a quad of 65 watt Creambacks last longer than a quad of 25 watt Greenbacks eating the same identical output for the same identical amp night after night? Just thinking that running 25 watters at 90% of their max load would tax them more than running 65 watters at 40% of their max load.
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If you run your speakers near their power limit, they usually wear out faster. A quad of 25w will get more exercise than a quad of 65w given the same amount of power sent. It's like driving a car...it's not going to last as long at 120 mph vs 60 mph due to the increased rpm. Same type thing happens when you have low power speakers vs higher power handling speakers.
 
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