Jay H

For all you non-purists out there, I'd recommend just skipping this thread...

A few times over the years, there have been some discussions about the factory front 5.25" speakers deteriorating quicky. My front speakers had their foam surrounds severly damaged from age. The foam surrounds literally just fell off the speakers if you played them hard or touched them. I'm a concours guy and an originality nut, so even though I replaced my front woofers with new drivers, I still kept the damaged factory OEM Blaupunkt speakers and didn't toss them. I had a couple people ask if I ever repaired my speakers. I thought I'd post a new thread about this (in case anyone really even cares about 15 year old factory speakers).

I finally got around to getting a foam surround kit for $25 (USD) off an eBay store and replaced the foam surrounds on my factory woofers. All came out well tonight and it took about 30 minutes to remove the remaining surrounds and glue on new ones. They are drying tonight and I'll post how they sound and pics of the "new" drivers tomorrow. It was pretty easy to do (I've done larger drivers in the past for home stereo speakers) and $25 isn't the worst for an experiment.

Jay
90 964

kris

I thought Porsche only installed the Nokia speakers as I discovered recently in my car. The quality of the Nokia seems a tiny bit better, at least when it comes to the crumbling of the surrounds. I suppose they changed from Blaupunkt to Nokia at some stage. Mine are still in a very good condition and I can even live with the rather poor sound quality.

Jay H

My car's factory audio system is unmodified from stock and the speakers are clearly stamped 'Blaupunkt' in red ink on the back. So, they must have changed over to Nokia at some point. I have an early build (January 1990) C2.

More later when I install the drivers today.

Jay

Smokin

Jay... Yes... Pictures please and, of course, your take on how they sound!

Jay H

Here are pics of the damaged drivers:



Here is a shot of the drivers with their foam surrounds removed:



Here are the "new" drivers with the new foam surround kit installed.



None of the companies I worked with had OE Blaupunkt surrounds, so the company I chose sent me an aftermarket foam surround kit that matched the dimensions closely of these speakers. This particular kit has cut outs for screw holes in the surround that are not needed on this application.

Jay

DarrylH

Mine were exactly those Blau drivers, surrounds identically moth-eaten. Installed Infinitys, kept the old ones to do what you've done. Coincidentally, a few segments of the display on the Reno II died this morning on my drive out. 680 now looks like 68 l. Darn. Not crazy about having to replace the head unit for want of a few dead display elements. Anybody ever hear of repairing 'em?

Bill Gregory

Jay,

Which company did you get the surrounds from? Which did you order from them?

Jay H

Hi Bill:

I got this particular kit from a company called "M Sound" in West Virginia. They have an eBay store that is pretty helpful. You have to measure the speaker and they'll send you a kit that will fit (their Part Number SF 4.504). I can forward anyone some links to their store if you are interested (I'd rather not post their link here so as not to violate Rennlist rules...though I don't think any Rennlist sponsors sell re-foam kits). This company shipped my kit very quickly, I could pay via PayPal or credit card and their instructions are first rate. PM me for detailed links/info.

I've also done business with www.simplyspeakers.com in Florida and have gotten good kits from them as well. They even shipped a re-foam kit for a different set of home speakers that I had during all those damn hurricanes last fall without delay.

Hope this helps,

Jay

Jay H

I've installed the re-foamed factory drivers in the doors without troubles. The drivers work perfect. The bass response is now back and the system sounds better than it ever did (I bought the car in 2000 with the front drivers failing). The system probably extends to 60 hertz pretty easily and there is decent bass response in the car when parked.

However, this entire system (I have the factory, optional system with the 4 channel amp under the passenger seat with a Reno 2 cassette deck, front separates and rear plate speakers) is truely just average at best. The FM section sounds O.K., though the cassette section is just marginal at best and the front door tweets are annoying to my ears. The rear plate speakers are just average. I believe this system was about a $400+ option when the car was new. I've been into high end car audio since 1988 and I've heard tons better, even back in the '80's.

If you value originality like I do (or just want a working system again for not much time or money), I would definitely recommend this process. But, if you like good audio in your 964, I'd just yank all the factory components, put them in a box on a shelf in the garage for safe keeping or eBay sales and buy some real gear...

Jay

DarrylH

Thanks for the idea, I've messed around with audio gear for years so maybe I'll pull the head unit and have a go. The only other option that appeals is the CD head unit from Becker that came in the later Porsches, a la Bill Gregory's recent post. OTOH, I just did a 500 km run this weekend and turned on the radio exactly once, for the traffic, so it's not a very high priority.