A 416 dilemma. What to do?

[DaveCan]

Speaking of re-magnetizing etc.. A tiny bit OT, but check out the zap that it takes to magnetize a driver, wow what a zap!
YouTube - PHY-HP famous speakerunits made by Bernard Salabert of France.

[Panomaniac]

I'm wondering if GPA knows whether their magnatizer is even working?

I've wondered the same thing myself! If there were a local shop with a magnetizer I'd pay to have them zapped again, just for a sanity check. But I don't want to pay round trip shipping somewhere on a gamble.

FYI, I use the Dayton WT3 for my measurements. It sees to be very good, reliable and repeatable. Most known drivers I measure come out close enough to spec. It is always possible that it's wrong, but so far it checks with other drivers and methods. And from what I remember GPA telling me they measured, it's the same. Unfortunately they never sent me the measurements for my drivers.

Maybe it's time to search for a near by speaker repair shop that can zap them.

[bfish]

I'm wondering if GPA knows wether their magnatizer is even working? How does one measure the magnatization when done.

Ron

I'd imagine they know it's working, for new production, the mags aren't charged till assembly is complete, so there would have been a bunch of new drivers with dead magnets.

If they're still holding them in the mag fixture by hand like they used to, the guy doin' the holdin' most assuredly knows.

For production, you don't measure 'em, you saturate 'em and go to the next one.

[robertbartsch]

I thought there were only a handful of folks that have motor recharge capability.

Orange County Speaker is one that I have used a few times without incident. My reconer, Erik of Gabriel Sound in NJ, uses a chap in New England to remag drivers that he repairs, but I have not had any experience with him on this service as everything I have given him so far, has had ferrite motors.

[GM]

I'd imagine they know it's working, for new production, the mags aren't charged till assembly is complete........

Herein lies the crux of the matter, if the magnet isn't completely drained, then it doesn't take a full charge and it's not proportional either. I've zapped/re-zapped thousands of pairs of AlNiCo slot car motor magnets and when not completely drained can wind up not being as powerful as a cheap ceramic. Fortunately, they can be redone a bunch before residuals? forces a replacement. Bottom line, if they aren't being checked before and after re-zapping as we did with every pair, no telling how many folks have paid for relatively weak re-cones.

GM

[Panomaniac]

Know anyone down in Atlanta who can recharge? If shipping is not too far, I'd take another chance.

[GM]

Not anymore, the two re-coners I used are long gone now as is the one in Tenn. I used after they shut down, but I'll hopefully be talking to a ~ local re-coner I've known for awhile on Wednesday about all this. Stay tuned..........

GM

[Earl K]

Herein lies the crux of the matter, if the magnet isn't completely drained, then it doesn't take a full charge and it's not proportional either. I've zapped/re-zapped thousands of pairs of AlNiCo slot car motor magnets and when not completely drained can wind up not being as powerful as a cheap ceramic. Fortunately, they can be redone a bunch before residuals? forces a replacement. Bottom line, if they aren't being checked before and after re-zapping as we did with every pair, no telling how many folks have paid for relatively weak re-cones.

I'll have to take your word on this ( a complete discharge before recharging is necessary ) / it does make sense .

- I guess your assumption is that GPA didn't discharge the alnico first before recharging , correct ? Maybe that didn't happen, I dunno .

- OTOH, Robert Bartsch's' earlier posts within this thread ( about getting misaligned 2402s returned to him from GPA after a recharge ) suggest that GPAs' SOP actually is to discharge the alnico magnets before recharging .
- His misfortune was seemingly caused by a different form of poor operating procedure ( GPA didn't check the alignment of the drivers' gap before shipping them back ) .

- Nonetheless, there are enough testimonials ( here, within this thread ) that I would now be quite wary of sending my stuff into GPA for refurbishment ( blissfully thinking that all will be well upon the gears' return ) without some new operational guidelines having first been put in place by GPA .

- It's a real drag ( for a few reasons ) to find that one is now in the position of having to impose new SOPs onto any outfit ( like GPA ) // I usually just take my business elsewhere to avoid the hassle .

<> cheers

[airboss]

I'm becoming increasingly uncomforable with this thread for a variety of reasons. But that's not important right now.

What is important, is GPA is the only supplier of the stuff this forum depends on for it's existance. Let me underline this before the fight starts; FOR THE MOST PART.

So we have a lot of comments, a video of a speaker manufacturer clearly hand holding new driver frames while juking them, and a lot of opinions from a lot of folks about slot cars motors for one thing, and mostly just a lot of CONGECTURE about GPA being incompetent.

All this without some form of defence from Bill or the Captain, or Todd, who is after all the marketing director of the operation.

So, awhile back I asked, how long does alnico remain at usable strength after re-charge? No answer.

I'm sorry about your bad luck Pano, but you admitted at the outset that the frames were beaters when you got them. That's not GPA's fault. My frames came out of a Dual Showman box. one coil is open with heat damage apparent. I elected to go with the 416-Cs for that reason.

I think it is time Todd, to get some idea of the SOP for re-cone at GPA, and some defence here. Bill H is not the devil. Somebody even suggested they don't own a gauss meter. Eh?

Ok, got my flame proof suit on. Go ahead.

[Earl K]

I think it is time Todd, to get some idea of the SOP for re-cone at GPA, and some defence here. Bill H is not the devil. Somebody even suggested they don't own a gauss meter.

I agree ( good suggestion ), it would be quite helpful if Todd W. would look into what is the SOP over at GPA ( for recones in a case like Panos ) and then post that info here .

<> cheers

ps ; I think everyone knows that Bill H. is a very personable/approachable guy .