Replacing studio monitor drivers with other brands

[rightintheface]

Has anybody had luck swapping out drivers for other brands/makes?
I have a pair of Yamaha MSP7's that I know very well and enjoy mixing on - one of which has developed severe cracking around the rubber surround. Contacted Yamaha and they do not carry spare parts or replacement woofers for this model.

Took it to Total Recoil who said it was impossible to repair as the cones are polypropylene - however the internet tells me otherwise. I did buy a new rubber surround from Total Recoil that will fit - not identical to the original but hopefully will do the job - and plan to attempt repairing it myself. Following internet info about it I've also picked up some Loctite All Plastics, which works specifically for tough-to-glue plastics like polyprop.

SO. Playing devils advocate here, if I stuff up the repair, or the result just doesn't sound right/good etc, I figure buying a pair of woofers for my monitors might be the only way to go - short of just buying new monitors. I imagine they will not sound like the stock MSP7 for obvious reasons, which could both be a disadvantage (if they sound crap with this amp/cabinet/tweeter) or an advantage (might sound killer???).

Has anybody done this, and with what result?

[lonearranger]

I would go the surround repair first - I restored a set of old JBL speakers I was given because they were distorting. Surround kit did a great job. Also glued up a loose surround on one of my studio monitors that got the rattle after being stored for a while - it has come up good too.

Found this service manual : http://www.go-gddq.com/upload/2014-04/1 ... 085430.pdf

If you google the speaker part number then you find one very mysterious match.

Alternatively you could try these : http://www.radioparts.com.au/product/39 ... cNXS_mqpBc

Ideally you would want something that has the same resonant frequency as your existing drivers, as the cabinet would be tuned for that. Perhaps a driver from another maker who has similar cabinet dimensions might work.

Pretty poor that Yamaha cant provide parts for products that you can still buy in the country.

Cheers

[jkhuri44]

you can certainly physically replace the driver....
but unless the electrical characteristics of the driver are not matched to a T....
you dont have a monitor speaker any more.....just a speaker....

[rightintheface]

Good news, I performed the repair yesterday and after a good day or so of testing it seems it's come up almost identical. Happy days.
For those in the future that do have issues, the Loctite All PLastics glue (from bunnings) worked perfectly on the polypropylene cone and rubber surround