Replacing Speakers Costs a Small Fortune – Speaker Kits and Repairs Saves Money
Unlike new and improved advances in computers and automobiles, audio speaker technology has seen its fair share of improvements in the past 30 years. Some of the best audio speaker designs and materials were produced in the 1970s and 1980s. While there are many excellent quality speakers available today, there are also a lot of substandard components which have saturated the market.
Quite often the big brick-and-mortar electronics chain will have a few decent quality speakers available to purchase. More often than not these retailers advertising their sales and best buys are just trying to move product for the sake of pure profit at the expense of carrying truly good quality. Service plans and inflated priced accessories are how these stores hope to boost the profits.
So what options does an individual have when their good quality speakers begin to develop a problem? The first option which can be the most expensive is to replace the old speakers with a new set. The problem with this is in order to approach the same quality of 15 or 20 years ago, the consumer is likely to pay anywhere from 2 to 3 times more at least. Even with assembly lines and mass production, it still costs a pretty penny to produce a high quality product. However, with assembly lines and mass production, quality control can suffer.
A second option which an individual can take is to either repair the speaker themselves or have a professional shop perform the repairs. Either of these options can yield exceptional results at a fraction of the cost of new speakers. In most cases great quality individual replacement parts such as cones, refoam kits and so on are readily available.
With regards to a do-it-yourself speaker repair kit, a little patience and reading can allow a novice to effect quality repairs. Many times the same shop from which the speaker repair kit is purchased will be very willing to answer questions and provide a few pointers. A do-it-yourself repair, however, will require some investment of time. If spare time is an unaffordable luxury then paying a professional will be the best way to go.
One thing to be aware of is even though only one speaker out of a set may have been failing or damaged, it is best to have the repairs performed on both speakers. The reason for this is much like replacing car tires in pairs. It is important to match the speaker repair materials on both speakers. If one speaker is experiencing a problem the second speaker is usually not far behind.
