[jamiebeedy]

I've got a pair of VMPS MiniTower IIA Speakers that I've had in storage for the past 15 years or so.  According to the stamp on the inside of the cabinet, they were manufactured on June 27th, 1988. I purchased them new in late 1988 or early 1989. From what I remember, the cost somewhere around $1200 new. And I know that they sounded great!!! Better then any other speaker in that price range that I listened to at that time.

While in storage, they got some water damage to the bases - the MDF is all swollen and coming apart. Also, the foam surrounds on the Woofers, 4197's, and the Passive Radiators are pretty much gone. So, they'll all need to be re-foamed.  And one of the grills, over the Super Tweeter, KSN-1039's, is cracked.

The upper parts of the cabinets, the Tweeters, MDT-29's, and the 3915 Mid-Ranges all appear in good shape, and I don't don't think I'll need to do anything to those, short of maybe sanding down the cabinets and refinishing those just to fix some little nicks.

So, I guess my questions are, before I get in to rebuilding these - is it even worth putting any time and money in to these speakers??

Other questions - For the KSN-1039 tweeters, does anyone happen to have a any ideas on where I could pick up a grill to replace the broken one? Or 2 full ones to replace both? Or, another tweeter that would work as a replacement? Or could I just remove the grill from the other one??

For the MDT-29 Tweeters, they seems to be working fine. But, do I have to worry about the ferrofluid being almost 30 years old?? I've found those online for about $50 each. Is it worth replacing these??

On the 3915 midranges, they're in fine shape - a couple of minor dents in the dust covers. Any thoughts on how to remove those dents??

The woofers, 4197's need to be re-foamed and I think I'll be good on those.

For the Passive Radiators, they don't have the Moretite, or any kind of Putty on those. But, it looks like Hot Glue all around the Dust Covers. Should I think about removing the hot Glue and replacing that with Moretite, just so that I can more easily make any adjustments??


And on the Cross-overs, is there anything these I should be concerned about, with these being 30 years old??


Any other things that I should be concerned with or be thinking about before starting any work on these??? I know these were the base model of the MiniTowers without any upgrades to the twitters or cross overs. So, are there any drivers I should think about replacing, just to get a better sounds from these??


Thanks in advance for any help and advice that anyone can give. I'm looking forward to getting these back together and hearing these great speakers again.


Jamie

[Evoke]

Hey, Jamie -


You have a pretty large punch list of things that need to be done to bring your speakers back to life. While they were pretty revolutionary in value/performance in 1988, a lot of advances have been made improving all areas of performance in speakers - tweeters, woofers, cabinet design and crossover parts. I think you should work up some numbers on the cost to restore them keeping that in mind. As for the crossovers, they don't have too many parts being 6db/oct. Minimally the caps should be upgraded. That's a couple hundred per speaker +/- depending on what you choose.


I suggest you contact John Casler. He is the VMPS guru. He can pretty much tell you anything about VMPS. Good luck with your project.


Mark
Evoke Loudspeakers

[FullRangeMan]

30 years of evolution.

[ST86]

Hi Jamie,

I suggest the following:

Please post some pictures of the cabinets to get a better idea of the damage.  Also pictures of the drivers and crossovers would help as well. If you can get the values of the crossover components in the pictures, even better.

Refreshing the crossover capacitors with new ones of the same value would be a good idea after thirty years.  Inductors can also be upgraded but they don't degrade in performance over time like capacitors.

The MDT 29s probably still work but new replacements would likely sound better.

Sometimes you can remove dents in dust covers with masking tape.  Crumple a strip into a pingpong size ball, *gently* press against the dent and pull.  The idea is for the sticky tape to pull the dent out.  With some patience this gets rid of the dents.

The hot glue on the passives likely was to attach the Moretite.  Again pictures would help.

Cheers,

Ed