Anyone's tried repairing/upgrading original Vandersteen 1 speakers?

If you have to buy it, for those speakers, I would not take a chance.

The original Vandersteen 1 speakers sold for $600.00 a pair.  Unless you are getting them for under $50.00, I wouldn't waste the money.  I would call Vandersteen and see if parts are still available.  You will need to give them tthe serial# so they can determine the version.

To replace a woofer can be a cheap fix. In 1981 I bought a pair of ESS TranStatics I’s, introduced in 1970 and discontinued a few years later (with the success of the ESS/Heil AMT 1). One of the two speakers had had it’s KEF B-139 woofer replaced with a generic copy, so I called ESS to see if they had one to sell. I got the last remaining B-139 they had in stock---for 39 bucks!

Did you know Nelson Pass worked at ESS in the early-70's? Not designing electronics (ESS didn't yet offer any), but working on their loudspeakers (specifically their crossovers, I believe).

bdp24,

Nelson designed the "Ion Cloud" loudspeaker while at Threshold that put out a huge amount of ozone due to the ionized gas it used and took several kilowatts to get it to work. I've read it actually drove people from the room due to the ozone and caused power dips in the electrical grid due to the power draw but he said it was one of the best speakers he has heard! 

He also designed a device called "The Shadow" which was an active bass trap. It had a microphone built into it that sampled the acoustics of the room and put out an inverse signal to a woofer that cancelled/mitigated the high pressure acoustic bass waves. Brilliant design that for the life of me didn't catch on.

I real interesting article about his early days can be found here for those interested - https://www.stereophile.com/interviews/1191pass/index.html

@nmmusicman: Yeah, I remember that speaker. It and Nelson are pictured together on an old (digest sized, J. Gordon Holt era) Stereophile magazine cover. I need to dig out my copy and reread the report on the speaker.