Replace Dynaudio woofers?


Hello. I have a pair of woofer blown Dynaudio Contour 1.1s They have been sitting, unused, in a clean, temp controlled room for at least 15 years. I hooked them up recently and the tweeters were emitting sound.

Is it worth to source OEM woofers to replace? Is it an easy job I can manage myself? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance. 

xidnpnlss

@timlub Are these the ones you're referring to? https://www.parts-express.com/HiVi-D6.8B-6-Poly-Bass-Midrange-Shielded-297-444?quantity=1

They look the part. My concern (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that Dynaudio designed the woofers to work specifically with the tweeter. Wouldn't one run the chance of throwing off the speaker's sound with a driver that is not OEM?

But that may not be a concern after all...

So after trying and failing to remove the woofer with a plaster knife, I approached it from the rear, thinking I could push the woofer out from behind. The wire connector came off more easily, but it had definitely been glued. As I was removing the foam, this appeared:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ezr21z0dvga8k6814sbi0/2023-09-02-11.33.22.jpg?rlkey=4flggloj4xpbb00hz9gdkp2ml&dl=0

Burnt foam

 

(I'm not sure the picture is showing up, so I'll described it as a corner of the foam covering the crossover as burnt)

Lo and behold the component looks fried

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/oxd0kdj9hqopde1jq56br/2023-09-02-11.44.51.jpg?rlkey=nxh9irj6nb17p2m4d9re3uuqv&dl=0

Fried component

So maybe I can assume the problem is actually the crossover? It doesn't look good, either way. Do I replace only the component or the entire crossover?

I still need to figure out how to remove the drivers to be sure; plus I obviously need to get the crossover out through the woofer hole. And I want to change the Ferrofluid while I'm at it. I tried pushing it out from behind but it still won't budge: considering the speaker connector was glued, I can only assume it's glued (maybe they didn't glue it on the mkII...I'll contact Dynaudio). Any advice on removing a glued driver? I am honestly stuck ;)

Thank you all again for your help in this journey. For reasons I won't get into, it's been a therapeutic process giving these some TLC after all this time. 

Wow it looks like a short occurred on the crossover, is the other one like that as well? Best case scenario would be the crossovers sacrificed themselves and protected the drivers. Definitely get both crossovers out and give them a good inspection. You might be able to buy replacement crossovers from Dynaudio or even rebuild them better then new using modern parts with the same specs assuming you know how to solder. If that’s the case and it turns out the drivers are still good, this could be a rather inexpensive repair/potential upgrade.  PS. Mine are also Cherry. Love them, there’s something about the older Contour series.  Solid bass, and strong midrange.  They lack the detail of the modern Dyn models, but are almost agnostic to bad recordings.  

@xidnpnlss .   Email me directly.... I'll help you out,use my same name here, then add at live dot com

Whelp no sign of burnt component in the other speaker. 🙄 "Back" to checking drivers: if anyone has suggestions on how remove glued drivers, I’d love to hear it.

@perkadin Yeah, they’re just so lovely, aesthetically and sonically. My usual upgrade path is to sell units I’m replacing - these aren’t going anywhere ever. I was looking at the manual, and this was the last bit of text:

We listen to glue. “I know exactly what goes into this,” says Daniel Emonts. He’s the man behind Contour’s drivers. “I know all the materials and everything. But there’s magic behind it too, when you hear the result.” Daniel should know. In Dynaudio Labs, our R&D department, they listen to everything. Everything. Even glue. “We decided to change the glue between the voice-coil and the cone. We thought it would take two or three months, but we ended up taking a year measuring, recording and listening,” he says. “I think 80 percent of us could tell the difference between the glues. And now that’s going to be part of our R&D procedure. Listening to glue.” 

Maybe that something "special" you refer to is glue? :) I hope Dynaudio can tell me what glue they used; tips on removing the drivers.

@timlub Thank you so very much. I’ll email you directly.

I’d try a hair dryer and a small putty knife. Slowly work the putty knife along the edges while applying heat to loosen the glue.  The lip isn’t wide so you won’t need to go deep with the knife to see results.  It’s strange, my 1.1’s had no glue and both drivers came off freely with the screws removed.  The 1.8’s are definitely stuck on with something besides screws. I bought them separately, years apart.  
The 1.8s have been used daily for over 20 years (H/T setup) and still sound the same to me.  I had a recent Phish concert on last night and really pushed them, mid 90db peaks at my listening position.  The old Danes took it like a champ.  Btw- I added Lytmi led strip on the back of my TV and it really adds to the realism of concert video. 

@xidnpnlss  I’m vicariously following the repair with you and looking forward to future updates. Would it help if I took a pic of the area with the woofer removed so you see the underside?  Good luck!