Help with making a decision - Fried Studio V mars

The Studio Vs with the Gefco drivers all work perfectly.

One of the Studio Vs with the Focal drivers has a bad woofer. It is a Focal 8V412db, which is a 4 ohm 8-inch woofer with a dual voice coil. I have considered trying to get it repaired, but I don't know who to trust with it. It has a bit of an oddly shaped basket (frame) and the speaker baffle has been set up accordingly. I don't think Focal currently makes an 8-inch DVC woofer and I haven't been able to find any other suitable replacement.

By the way, the 6-inch midranges are Focal 6V011dbl (also DVC). They still work perfectly.

Thank you. I was originally going to make a suggestion, but after thinking about it overnight, I recommend sending both of your 8" Focal drivers to Bill Legall of Millersound http://www.millersound.net/service.htm for repair. Bill's a very close friend of mine, and THE best loudspeaker driver repair person in the world. The price will be most reasonable.

Here's a couple of stories about him
http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/forbidden/forbidden_9.html

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/roadtour13/roadtour13.html

Can Bill do more than refoaming and reconing? The reason that I ask is that I think it may be a problem with the voice coil because the woofer looks fine but sounds bad (distortion and other extraneous noise).

Yes, Bill can fix most anything that wrong with a driver. Voice coils, magnets, cones, spiders, etc. He replaces spiders when he installs new surrounds because both work together and form the driver's suspension. Though the driver will work again after a simple refoam, in Bill's eyes, the job's only half done (actually less), and the driver is still broken.

Regarding voice coils, Bud Fried left me his very own loudspeakers prior to his passing. After using them a bit, I discovered an issue with one, and took them to Bill. Bud's speakers obviously had some "hot rod" in them; in this case, a 1" dual voice coil in the 6.5" Gefco. Bill hunted around through his incredible supply, and actually found a pair, which he claimed was only the second time (though, obviously common in larger drivers) he'd seen this in more than 40 years. In no time, he had installed new ones in both drivers. I figured he wasn't going to find these unusual voice coils, and wondered if my next move would be to shop for new drivers. But he assured me he could have them made up for him by his supplier within a week or two.

They are posted FOR SALE in the classified area. I appreciate everyone's advice, and thoroughly agree that I will have to spend 3-4 times as much to replace these speakers but I am leaving the country and don't want them to rot in a storage unit somewhere. Special thanks to Trelja, I still have your number as well.