Has anyone ever attempted repairing their speakers and how was your experience, how difficult it was to repair it and if you did any modifications to make it better? Also, care to give others advice on how to repair speakers?
I plan to in the future (no money, so emphasis on the future part) repair a pair of Pioneer CS-G305s I got. One speaker has its tweeter blown and one speaker's woofer makes a knocking sound at higher volumes (assuming it's just reaching its Xmax so probably nothing). Might just replace whole speakers because I don't have the knowledge or the experience in doing thing like re-foaming surrounds or refurbishing voice coils (if you can do that).
Patching the diaphragm is near impossible. Don't even bother. As for that knocking sound that means the diaphragm is soft and needs replaced. If you are lucky the suspension is the thing that's blown on the tweeter which isn't so hard to replace but it's a pain in the ass and you can fuck it up and make the speaker sound like shit. If it's any of the electrical parts that's not too bad you can go on flea bay and pick something up for pretty cheap. All in all just find a new set of drivers. It's as simple as unscrewing the driver and then unclipping two wires. Then putthing the new one in. Just do that. It's most likely cheaper and less of a pain in the ass to do.
From my experience, audio nerds are sort of a crazy eclectic bunch. Not quite always chasing after the latest and greatest like us PC guys since the point of diminishing returns on audio happened decades ago.
If you are in a big city, just google "speaker repair", if there is one near you that is reputable, it will definitely be discussed on an audiophile forum. They will know where to source parts, or tell you where to get them. And will let you know if the part is even worth the repair cost or not.
Depending on the quality of the speaker, it shouldn't be that hard to find replacement parts for it without altering the sound any (Of course if it's broke to begin with, anything done to it would be an improvement.) Also, look for good quality replacement parts, and look at reviews for those parts. I'm in the process of replacing some blown out drivers on an old set of Sony speakers for a friend. As easy as unscrewing the driver and unclipping it from the wires in the inside. Not too difficult at all.
A friend of mine once blew his tweeters, for the fun of it we removed the voice coil, searched for the broken spot, and bridged the gap with solder. After that the tweeter was functional again, but much quieter than before. Replace the whole tweeter or get replacement parts for it.
Some of the older Pioneers (If I remember correctly) used a hybrid foam/fabric surround which is good, and would be worth while fixing, I learned along time ago to stay away from foam surrounds If I can. Some WILL swear by foam and say nothing sounds better, some don't. IMO it's a pain in the ass.
Buying new elements is the easiest choice, and imo, the most realistic. Do not buy anything expensive though, unless you want to go the whole ordeal of measuring the efficiency and frequency response of the current tweeters, and redesigning the crossover, as the midrange/bass drivers and the new tweeters won't be a match.
As for just replacing the tweeters, it's not too hard at all electronically. You just need to desolder and solder the two wires again. Do note which color of wire goes to negative and positive post on the original tweeters, because, depending on the order of the crossover, they can be wired either in or 180 degrees out of phase (meaning + and - terminals might be switched.)