What's Your Opinion and/or Experience with Re-Coned Speakers?

PurityS.L.G

PurityS.L.G

Well-known member
I've been vintage speaker shopping for the past 2 months and its really hard to find an ALL original speaker from the 60's/70's without it being re-coned, let alone for a reasonable price, which I've learn to accept to a degree.

Do any of you ladies or gents here have experience with OG vs. re-cone tone differences?
 
My experience of reconed speakers has been just with JBL’s. The reconed D120F’s and K120’s I’ve had didn’t sound as good and also weren’t quite as loud. Some of my reconed E120’s though to me are not as far off from the original ones I have
 
I own a reconed Altec that was done by the same guy using the same equipment that Altec Lansing used. There is literally no difference between my other speakers and the reconed one. I did a ton of research before I bothered sending this out and everyone I spoke to who had their speaker reconed said the same thing. They were all spot on.
 
braintheory said:
My experience of reconed speakers has been just with JBL’s. The reconed D120F’s and K120’s I’ve had didn’t sound as good and also weren’t quite as loud. Some of my reconed E120’s though to me are not as far off from the original ones I have
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I'm glad you brought up JBL's. They were just recently added to my list a few days ago thanks to the Satch thread LOL. Good to know. I've been mainly looking for vintage black back and green back speakers....shocker I know.
 
I've gotten an EVM12S Pro-Line reconed by Speaker Repair Pros, and it sounded fantastic after. I can't really compare it to an original-cone one though as I didn't do that comparison before dropping it into a 2x12 with a celestion for a friend. The 2x12, which previously had a pair of celestions, improved so much that based on the differences I'm wondering if getting the original cones on my own EVM's replaced would give an improved tone. At the very least, the original suspension is sagging a bit compared to the recone. Do note that in this particular case I was informed by the shop that it is still possible to get OEM cones for the 12S, despite the speaker itself being out of production. For JBLs and some other speakers, you can't.
 
braintheory said:
My experience of reconed speakers has been just with JBL’s. The reconed D120F’s and K120’s I’ve had didn’t sound as good and also weren’t quite as loud. Some of my reconed E120’s though to me are not as far off from the original ones I have
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Where did you have it reconed, if I may ask? I know Speaker Repair Pro's uses a non-OEM but to-spec kit since the OEM parts are unobtainable now apparently, is that where you got yours re-coned?
 
7704A said:
Where did you have it reconed, if I may ask? I know Speaker Repair Pro's uses a non-OEM but to-spec kit since the OEM parts are unobtainable now apparently, is that where you got yours re-coned?
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I bought them all already reconed. Not sure who did them. Never brought in myself speakers to get reconed
 
If you are looking for vintage greenbacks, don't bother with recones UNLESS they were re coned long ago, with the original Pulsonic cones or Kurt Mueller if they are BBs.

Guys try to sell those for 'almost' vintage original prices, and there's nothing original anymore since the cone is the most important thing. A reissue is just as good.
 
In terms of sound, it's hit or miss. Seems to depend on who did it and what cone was used.

For a vintage piece, I would always pass on a recone unless it's sold for really cheap. Anything wrong with the cone completely defeats the point of it being a vintage speaker and tanks the value. An old frame/magnet is just a conversation piece. The value is the cone.
 
PurityS.L.G said:
I've been vintage speaker shopping for the past 2 months and its really hard to find an ALL original speaker from the 60's/70's without it being re-coned, let alone for a reasonable price, which I've learn to accept to a degree.

Do any of you ladies or gents here have experience with OG vs. re-cone tone differences?
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Yes, quite a bit. At best, a reconed speaker will sound like the modern equivalent - because it essentially is. There's no real advantage of grabbing say a pre-Rola Celestion that has been reconed over a new model, except for the cool sticker,

At worst, a recone is an unusable fiasco. This isn't super common, but bad recones (wrong parts, wrong guy) do pop up. Whatever you do, ask them to video this cone test before packaging and shipping - I learned this the hard way.

https://www.bygonetones.com/how-to-test-a-vintage-celestion-greenback-speaker.html
 
braintheory said:
My experience of reconed speakers has been just with JBL’s. The reconed D120F’s and K120’s I’ve had didn’t sound as good and also weren’t quite as loud. Some of my reconed E120’s though to me are not as far off from the original ones I have
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From my understanding only the "E" cone is available for recone kits. I still think a reconed JBL sounds great.
 
braintheory said:
Yeah they still sound very good and there's no JBL reissues that I'm aware of, so no other choices for that
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Beyma Liberty is supposedly an exacting E-120 copy but it costs as much as a working used E series $320. My favorite is the K. Take a beating better than a D and still has that alnico D series goodness for the most part. Really hard to find ones with sane pricing.
 
VonBonfire said:
Beyma Liberty is supposedly an exacting E-120 copy but it costs as much as a working used E series $320. My favorite is the K. Take a beating better than a D and still has that alnico D series goodness for the most part. Really hard to find ones with sane pricing.
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I heard of Beyma, but didn't know they made that. I wonder how good it is. I've got 4 K's too. All the 12" JBL's were great, but favorites are the D and E's
 
VonBonfire said:
From my understanding only the "E" cone is available for recone kits. I still think a reconed JBL sounds great.
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The repair shop I went to said that certain JBL's shared the same frame and they are able to recone a specific cheaper one as a more expensive one for less than you can buy the expensive one for. I'll have to ask them for details again as it seems that may be of interest here.
 
Update: I dropped off one of my EVM 12S Pro-Line's at Speaker Repair Pros today, and asked about the JBL stuff. The guy said that JBL K, D, and E series are all after-market parts kits for the recone. As far as converting one to another, he can recone a K series as a D series since the frame and magnet are the same. Re-cone cost for JBLs are $165-$175. Not sure if that includes tax.
 
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