Changing The Fabric Of Your Vintage Speakers And Changing The Surrounds

Revamping My Four (4) Large Advent Speakers

Changing The Fabric On the Large Advent Speakers

This year I decided to put my Advents back in full working order. I own four Original Large Advents. Two of them were in storage for over 2 years, the other two were functional in the living room. I started by cosmetics. Not only was the fabric stained and discoloured, the cats had a field day piercing little holes in them.... The result were speakers that had lost their mojo. So I decided it was time to change the old fabric on the speakers. Since I intended to restore all 4 speakers and stack them, I had to make them look good as well as making them fully functional. So, I bought fabric. I looked around and tried to find a fabric that would look good on vintage speakers. Of course this had to done without braking the bank, I could always change them again later. So, I purchased the least expensive, best looking fabric I could find. I found a good source in China. Other places asked for just too much money for my budget. The photo below show the "silver". colour of that range of speaker fabric. I all worked out well except for one thing...

How To Secure The Fabric To Your Speaker Grills

I couldn't find the proper staples to secure the fabric. The original staples are very short, and, try as I may, I couldn't find the equivalent in any hardware store!... Amazing! Then I decided to use tape, the idea of using glue didn't appeal to me at all somehow.

So I went off to get some double-sided tape. Last time I remember it was an easy thing to find... But not this time. It's not called simply "double-sided tape" anymore it seems. I had to try so many variations in order to find the right stuff. Well, I managed to find something that worked, but what a pain it was. The photo on the left shows the tape that worked for me, on the right. The one on the left in the photo was not appropriate.

The shrink and seal did a fair job, considering it's not really meant to be used this way. The main thing is it's fairly easy to work with, cheap, and can be scraped off eventually without making too much of a mess. Also, I do recommend to iron out the fabric before installing it (on very low heat)...

Very inexpensive and elegant fabric. I think it keeps the vintage flavour while modernizing the look of the Large Advents.

Re-foaming The Bass Speaker On the Large Advent Speakers

The reason two of my advents were in storage is that one them had to be re-foamed. The infamous scourge of 1970's speakers had made another victim... After some time, the foam "surround" of the bass speakers had disintegrated. Perfectly normal phenomena that is cured by simply replacing it. If there is no damage to the rest of the unit, everything will work like new after replacement. I had been putting it off mostly because I wasn't comfortable doing it myself. I had asked around and responded to ads... They required that I purchase the kit, bring the speaker and pay them outrageous amounts of money for their time...

DIY Speaker Re-Foaming

I ordered a kit specifically made for these speakers. It included glue. Well, I must say, it went very well. I cleaned the material out of the speaker with the tip of an old screwdriver and a utility knife after taking it out of the speaker box. Then proceeded to align the new foam surround, glue it down and re-install/re-connect the speaker.

If you are going to do it yourself here are links to videos that may help you:

Advent Speaker Repair Replace Foam Edge Metal Frame Woofer

and:

Advent Loudspeaker Repair "Advent - 1"- Woofer Refoam. Part 1.


I bought my kit at Simply Speakers