Audio LHS of old Altec Lansing speakers died.

6pack

ex-Mod
The left hand speaker of my old AL VS4121 died. Only the tweeters work, the bottom one doesn't. No way to open it up.

I saw some really old post by someone on reddit, saying the speakers are glued up completely and cannot be opened for maintenance.

https://superuser.com/questions/536469/altec-lansing-vs4121-dismantling-the-satellite-speaker

If you see the imgur pics, it seems about right too. I tried poking around the edges with a screw driver, and only the plastic gave way. Seems it is glued permanently.

Can a heat gun be used without destroying the plastic? I think heat will melt the plastic grill and make it worse.

Another idea i had was to use a dremel and cut near the bottom of the speakers. Only problem is how much deep and what damage it will do. Any ideas on how to change the speaker or test it?

Google search showed me vyral's thread on this topic too.
https://www.techenclave.com/community/threads/replacing-my-altec-lansing-vs2321.152808/
 
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You can try to melt the glue with heatgun. Try it in a test patch and see if it works. I have no doubt dremel will work If you just stick to edges and don't cut too deep. Also you would have to glue it back again but in that case fevikwik will do the trick.
 
Vs4121 was the best if all models. Don't know why the hell AS scrapped its production. I have one working since past 11 yrs now with some knob issues with the main speaker.
 
I was thinking of using a hot knife to open it up. But looking at the size of the grill and speaker, the speaker seems to be a bit bigger. Maybe they stuck the speaker to the grill and then stuck the grill to the body.

Looks like it's made to be thrown away. It's a pity, since it was such a nice system.
 
Are you saying that your woofer conked off?
Woofers mostly got no screws to open as they come glued with a wooden cover. To open, use a big mouth minus size screw driver along with a flat metal ruler if you got one and it will open. While assembling back use fevikwik or fevicol.
Done this on mercury and some unknown woofer yrs ago.
 
I was thinking of using a hot knife to open it up. But looking at the size of the grill and speaker, the speaker seems to be a bit bigger. Maybe they stuck the speaker to the grill and then stuck the grill to the body.

Looks like it's made to be thrown away. It's a pity, since it was such a nice system.
hot knife will definitely melt plastic and if plastic deforms, it will be harder to seal the woofer with fevikwik after the job is done. Best method would be to use dremel, next best would be to use heat gun
 
Are you saying that your woofer conked off?
Woofers mostly got no screws to open as they come glued with a wooden cover. To open, use a big mouth minus size screw driver along with a flat metal ruler if you got one and it will open. While assembling back use fevikwik or fevicol.
Done this on mercury and some unknown woofer yrs ago.
Not woofer, the left side speaker. I'm talking of that tiny 3 inch speaker.

hot knife will definitely melt plastic and if plastic deforms, it will be harder to seal the woofer with fevikwik after the job is done. Best method would be to use dremel, next best would be to use heat gun

i decided not to do anything to it now.
 
Not woofer, the left side speaker. I'm talking of that tiny 3 inch speaker.

3 in?

upload_2018-8-13_18-34-43.png


I hope you talking of this exact model
It got no such small speaker at least with 3 in size.

https://www.whathifi.com/altec-lansing/vs4121/specs
 
Exact model. Turn one of those satellites with tweeters in them upside down and you can see the tiny 3 inch satellite speaker. See below image. While taking the pic, i noticed the speaker cone probably blew. There seems to be a tear in the material.


speaker.jpg


Edit: In the link you gave its written as Satellite Speaker Width - 10.2 cm

Not 3 inches. Its 4 inches according to google conversion. I measured only the grill so it was short.
 
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Had to tear the speaker plastic apart from the top to get at the speaker inside. After testing it, looks like the voice coil is gone.

And the real size of the speaker is just 7 cm in width. Diameter counting the metal bracket is 9cm. On eBay these speakers are being sold as vintage speakers with a $14 price tag. :S

Will post pics afterwards.

Pics of the operation.

cropped01.jpg

cropped02.jpg

cropped03.jpg

Searched a lot for voice coil or similar size and wattage speakers. Found none. Even the car speakers are too costly for a pair since they come with built in tweeters. This audio system was made to be thrown in garbage if it failed.
 
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