Long ago, when I was readying for college, I drove to an audio store in Connecticut and bought a pair of good compact speakers to take with me. For some reason, at that time, when we needed to shop for music or audio gear, we went across the border to Danbury or Bridgeport to these huge locally owned superstores and haggled with salesmen on the floor. I picked up a pair of Baby Advents for $150, which was big money at the time. They served me well through college, following me from apartment to apartment and house to house. Now the foam on the driver cones has disintegrated and the speakers sound like shit.

I did a little looking online and found other folks have been having the same problems; there’s a repair kit on Ebay for my very speakers for $15. I also looked around to see if there are replacement drivers available. Apparently the OEM drivers are 6ohm, which is very unusual (most home speakers are 8ohm, while car speakers are generally 4ohm) but there are affordable 6.5″ 8ohm replacements available.

I think before I bite the bullet and buy new drivers, I’m going to give the foam replacement a shot and see how it works out. I’m also considering using a little of my vacation time to rebuild the boxes on my homemade speakers in the basement—but now that I’ve seen the Parts Express site, I’m thinking about designing a new set of smaller speakers for the living room. Hmmmm….