SoundSticks - Speaker replacement..not that bad

[LaPorta]

Just as an FYI for anyone, my 20 year-old pair of SoundSticks have always worked well. However, my two year-old son proceeded to push a pencil through the hole of one, lodging the tip inside the speaker foam. I cracked the  speakers open,a nd found out the the foam of all the speakers was completely and totally degrading. Even touching the speakers made them collapse and fall apart. I ordered some brand-new ones, and replacing them was pretty simple. The most time-consuming part was cleaning up the old foam. Might make a video on restoring these things.

 

[davidg5678]

I also have a pair of formerly broken SoundSticks II. My speakers were full of leaky capacitors, which were causing all kinds of speaker balance/volume related issues. Many of the capacitors were bulging and oozing red goop. I recapped then about two months ago, and they have been working fantastically ever since. I have been meaning to post about the repair/recapping process, as there is not any documentation online at all whatsoever. I had to figure out how the iSub subwoofer came apart too, but it wasn't very tricky, thankfully.

I hope the foam in my speakers isn't too degraded, but it certainly is possible at this point. I was disappointed to see my G4 cube speakers (also made by Harman/Kardon, I think) have lost their foam surrounds. I'm pretty sure that the foam itself can be replaced, as opposed to the entire speaker module, but I haven't gotten around to doing any further research about that.

 

[Byrd]

 ordered some brand-new ones, and replacing them was pretty simple. The most time-consuming part was cleaning up the old foam. Might make a video on restoring these things.

Hi LaPorta,

where did you source the replacement speakers, or foam?  I found some Soundsticks II some years ago but haven't use them as most of the speakers have fallen out.  

 

[LaPorta]

I found some on eBay from a seller that somehow had brand new, whole speakers. With their build, I think you’d have to be incredibly skilled to replace the foam. The entire thing is held together by it. Also, the glue that holds the magnets to the rest of the unit degrades and flakes off. Anything is possible but I think whole new units is the way to go.

 

[jessenator]

speaker balance/volume related issues

I'm having a similar thing happen with my SSIIs— I found some old post from various forums saying it was a Mac hardware problem, not a speaker problem, which is a weird oversight if it were true. But in my case, the speakers are plugged into a Presonus interface anyway, so even less credence to that :lol: Where are the caps in the speakers themselves? or do you mean the radial caps in the sub/amp unit?

 

[davidg5678]

do you mean the radial caps in the sub/amp unit?

These are the capacitors I was referring to. Here is a list of all of the parts I replaced in my SoundSticks II's:



View attachment HarmanKardonSoundSticksIICapacitors.pdf

 

[jessenator]

Here is a list of all of the parts I replaced in my SoundSticks II's:

Many thanks!

 

[LaPorta]

These likely differ From the originals. I wonder what I’ll find when I open my sub one day.