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Refurbishing 30 year old speakers

Looking for advice on refurbishing speakers. I have owned a pair of KEF R107's since new. They are still some of the best sounding KEF speakers ever made IMO, but after 30 years they most likely could use some refurbishing. I'm not hearing any obvious deterioration of sound, but over time, I might just not be noticing the degradation. I would re-foam woofer surrounds, change ferro fluid in the tweeter, upgrade the crossovers, and possibly upgrade wiring. I'm Interested in anyone's experience and results with doing this. Did the refurbished speakers sound better than original, or even sound different? Of course the other option is to go speaker shopping and buy a modern speaker, but I have grown accustomed to the vintage KEF sound.....My only real beef with these speakers is the use of the outboard equalizer device called the KUBE which runs in the processor loop of the pre-amp. Never been real fond of having an active device like this in the system but admittedly the results still sound amazing. Thanks for your thoughts. 
dmiller01

Showing 1 response by cd318

cd318
2,636 posts
 
I once cleaned up and then soldered the heavily pitted driver tags on a pair of 1970s Celestion Ditton 44s for a friend who had kept them in storage for too long.

We both felt that the sound was noticeably better afterwards. Cleaner, more dynamic, with a faster bass. Just more 'modern' sounding.

On the other hand I also felt that some of that warm vintage sound character (coloration?) had been lost in exchange for the extra clarity.

Unless you have a very good memory it will be difficult to do a before and after comparison - unless maybe you do one speaker at a time.
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