A 416 dilemma. What to do?

[Panomaniac]

Here's my dilemma and saga. GM knows it well, as he followed it step by step.

About a year ago I bout a pair of 416As off eBay. They were reasonably price for the shape they where in. Had come out of a pair of A7s somewhere in Jersey. But had been reconed with MI cones. They were pretty beat.

As bought, they worked, but definitely needed a recone and remag. T/S parameters showed weak magnets. So I dropped then off in OK city into the hands of Bill H. He remagged, reconed and sent them to me. Lovely cones, but.... magnets still weak. Qts of about 0.5 on one, 0.4 on the other. No good. Vas not close either. They're way out of spec.

I called Bill to ask about it. He said he was pretty sure they remagnetized them, but they could have slipped thru. So I sent them back. They zapped them again. But they hardly changed at all. So I had to pay for the 2nd remag. Both Bill's measurements and mine show weak magnets, one more than the other.

So here they sit, fresh cones, weak magnets. What to do with them?
I can not honestly sell them knowing the magnets are shot. Or may I can list them on eBay cheap with full disclosure? Really don't know what to do with them. Would like to get a little money back out of them, but do not want to cheat the next owner. Right now they're just taking up shelf space.

[Nipper]

I gave it some thought and couldn't come up with any practical use for them.

I will commend your honesty for not trying to pawn them off on someone else.
Good man.

[mah]

Seeing the magnets will not recharge they were probably from a bad batch. I wonder if there are more out there from a similar build date?

[Altec Best]

I have to agree with Nipper Good Man.:2thumbsup: Pano there are too many of those people out there already.If you try to sell with full disclosure then nobody probably would buy them,and then your stuck with more cost in Ebay fees.If it were me I would save as much parts from them as I could the new cones,etc.. and eat the cost and move on lesson learned.If you sell them knowing that they can't be repaired, I couldn't do that to someone knowing how hard I work for my paychecks.Do you remember who you bought them from I would want to have a chat with them.Who knows maybe you can get a refund.Although it was a year ago.

Pawning them off from one person to another just makes for a whole bunch of pissed off folks.Tough Call but if anyone can make the right one it is you my friend :2thumbsup:

[Audio_by_Goodwill]

What did Bill say? Had he ever heard of such a thing?

[robertbartsch]

You probably have incurred a lot of shipping charges on these already but I would assume Bill could fix them, perhaps with new mags since he is manufacturing new alnico woofers of similar design. ....just a guess - really...

[GM]

Seeing the magnets will not recharge they were probably from a bad batch. I wonder if there are more out there from a similar build date?

I communicated with a few knowledgeable folks recently and they all ~scoffed at this possibility.

GM

[speakerdave]

. . . . They were pretty beat . . . .

Possibly the problem is somewhere in the "return circuit." That would effect the reading in the gap as much as a problem with the magnet (I would think).

[Panomaniac]

Not to worry bfish, that's pretty much what I've done for the past year. Written them off.
But every now and again I think "maybe."

Dave - return circuit?

[bfish]

Just a tongue in cheek comment on my part, Pano. Analogous to the great satisfaction and closure I felt at a mock ceremonial burning of my ex's wedding veil after the divorce.

A return circuit failure could be a loss of good mechanical contact in the "shell" components, pole-to-plate, plate-to-pipe, and/or pipe-to-plate. The shell is steel, so cracked welds or hidden rust is a possibility. Just as a poor electrical contact adds resistance, poor mechanical contact adds reluctance.