Do speakers wear out?


I have a 15-year-old pair of B&W Matrix 803s that I bought two years ago. Do speakers wear out? If so, is it the drivers or the crossovers. My speakers sound good, but I have not heard a 2 - 3 year old pair to compare. Joel
joeldoss
Yes, speakers do "wear out". Electrical and mechanical components settle, shift or "change" with age. Since a speaker is a combination of those two aspects ( electrical and mechanical ), they are subject to frequency response abberations, loss of output, etc...

Much of this can be taken care of by updating / replacing the capacitors in the crossover and having the drivers reconed. Reconing a driver is VERY different than just "refoaming" one. Whereas refoaming simply replaces the old foam that might have rotted or been damaged somehow, reconing basically uses the original magnet and basket of the driver. This means that you have a new spider, voice coil, driven element, surround, etc... In effect, you've got a brand new driver so long as the original magnet was not damaged.

What you might want to check is linearity between the two speakers that you have. If you can put your system into mono mode and still swing your balance to one side at a time, place the speakers side by side and do some SPL measurements using test tones. Measure and chart one speaker and then do the same for the other. So long as the two speakers measure pretty close over the entire testing range, i would not worry about it too much. Sean
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Not really. The only thing that usually wears out is the foam/rubber surrounds on them primarily! The voice coils could melt, if you clip the speakers, but you'd hear it for sure!...sound buzzy, or stop working! Basically, if the surrounds are fine, and your speaker drivers aren't blown, they'll sound about as good as is possible. Your compontents and cables can degrade over time. Actually, check your "connections" to see if they have oxidized or need cleaning!...wires, cables, etc. I've had preamps and wires that got soft sounding over time, so you could check your system! good luck.
However, one school of thought is that your speakers are getting pretty old, and you might consider selling for newer models, before the value drops even more...and thus upgrade to newer models. Other wise, no worries...
Personal experience:
I owned four AR-LST's (later called Cello Amati's) for over 20 years. Other than replacing the woofers due to surrounds and the grill cloth, they worked perfectly and sounded great.
I now own B&W800's that are about 10 years old and (since actively bi-amping) feel they produce the best sound that I have ever heard at any price.
Richard