30 yr old speakers- time to replace drivers?


I have a pair of NHT VT1 speakers. The drivers seem to be in good shape. They have paper cones and rubber surrounds. After 30 yrs, should I upgrade crossovers and replace drivers?

pureclarity

I have a pair of Boston Acoustics A150’s. I’ve re-coned the woofers but sound excellent still. 40 years old! Point being yours can sound great, too. If the woofer surrounds are not disintegrated and they sound good I’d say leave them alone.  If you can eye-ball the caps would be good to make sure they're not leaking.

I have a pair of Bozak Urban 301 that are 60+ years old that I enjoy the heck out of.  After I inherited them from my father circa 1993, I have had both 12” woofers reconed, and refoamed; replaced one tweeter ( because I damaged it accidentally) bought on eBay; replaced the crossovers with OEM with the Pat Tobin mod, also bought on eBay; rewired internally; and, refinished the cabinetry. Total cost—not counting my own labor—I estimate to be less around $1000-$1200, spread out over a period of about 20 years because I didn’t do it all at once. For instance, I just had one of the woofers reconed and refoamed for about $75 plus shipping. And, these speakers sound fabulous. I have no way of comparing them to contemporary speakers, but as long as I’m happy with their sound, that doesn’t matter.

As an aside, I recently had my Thorens TD124, that I also inherited from my father, rebuilt to look and perform as if brand new, but for about 3 times the cost of the speaker refurb. I still have his Pilot amplifier to have rebuilt, but for now, I’m enjoying playing music on my vintage turntable, through my vintage speakers, attached to my “modern” Yamaha home theater amp. 

My point being: if one derives  pleasure from  “vintage” speakers, it doesn’t cost that much to have them refurbished when and if necessary to keep on enjoying them. 

Thx for all the input. As of right now, I think I’ll go on the one thought, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. They still sound pretty good. Besides, they’re only used as my surround speakers at this point, so thanks everyone. Down the road if necessary, I’ll upgrade with modern technology 

If the speakers are all working, with no defects, not sure it's worth touching. 

However, the XO might be in need of an update. yes, caps can last decades, even out of spec can work almost perfectly. Just replaced the caps in my XO's, while my speakers sounded just fine, after swapping out the 10 caps (5x per speaker) WOW, like OMG WOW, sounds like a new set of speakers! Way more bass, way tighter bass, silky midrange, high top end. My tone controls needed to be reset, tweeter went from +3 to 0 bass went from +6 to +3. 

It was the best $50 and 2hrs of work ever spent in my system.