Xmas 2015 Restoration project - Heybrook HB2 v1 speakers -Saved from Henpecked Hubbie

[Wakefield Turntables]

These little gems got saved from a friend who decided to move. The wife was all for skipping them as she was sick of seeing them. They had previously entertained many people over many years functioning as a pair of "dinner party" speakers. All I can say they must have had some fantastic parties as the poor things were certainly bashed around.

A few little mods

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Firstly speaker surround foams were checked and found to be ok. Tweeter and bass driver were measured on the old multimeter and output was found to be bang on. I desoldered all the old wiring and crappy older solder. I soldered direct from the XO onto the speaker drivers bypassing the connectors shown in picture 4. Finally crappy old binding posts replaced with chunky solid copper jobbies capable of taking >6mm solid core copper if needed.

[Wakefield Turntables]

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The XO's in various states. Picture one shows the old XO undressed and stripped down removing old wiring and caps. Middle picture is how the XO looked freshly removed from the cabinet and final picture shows a recapped and rewired XO (1mm solid core silver).

[Wakefield Turntables]

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Some of the cabinet damage. First cabinet just suffered sun bleaching, scatches and the old dent or two. Nothing too hard to repair. Second cabinet had a much harder life. The cab was cracked, this was repaired with a few G-Clamps, much wood glue and a small amount of wood filler, see thord and fourth picture. Both cabs suffer from knocks to the edges so these will need repairing. The wood finish is shot so this is being recovered in Zebrano veneer in the next few days. Both speakers will need a black paint respray.

[Wakefield Turntables]

A little more work and some more mods. First picture shows newly fitted binding posts. Seconds picture shows the remainder of what looks like a dampening material for the port in the speaker, this proved to be very brittle so I replaced with 3mm homo-copolymer whch I superglued into place. Third picture shows resprayed speaker front. Fourth picture shows the cabinet masked up for spraying.


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So whats left?

Well they need re-veneering (already ordered) and they'll need finishing off probably with Danish oil or something similar. Both speaker work very well and sound excellent. The final job will be re-attachment of the velcro which to this day is still in good order. Stay tooned for the delights of re-veneering!!!!

[Folkboy]

Lovely job, that.

[shane]

They've got the wrong bass units in them! HB2s were originally fitted with bextrene-coned units from Audax.

http://images36.fotosik.pl/35/56949734b0f55fafmed.jpg

[Wakefield Turntables]

I wondered when you'd pop up! I wondered why I couldn't find any pix of the weird bass driver in the set I saved. I just see it as another bit of kit saved from the landfill!

[agk]

Weird? Soundlab provided much entertainment in my yoof. Decent drivers in the main.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Weird? Soundlab provided much entertainment in my yoof. Decent drivers in the main.

I'm not complaining they do sound very very good. You get lot of noise from these little speakers. I've been using them with with Sondex S100, they really sing. I'll be keeping them for the time being until something better comes along.

[YNWaN]

Have you done much veneering before? Something makes me suspect not.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Have you done much veneering before? Something makes me suspect not.

Yep once or twice. But its for FUN, remember that?

[karma67]

Yep once or twice. But its for FUN, remember that?

lol good reply!
he's obviously not that good at it :)

[Mr Kipling]

They've got the wrong bass units in them! HB2s were originally fitted with bextrene-coned units from Audax.

http://images36.fotosik.pl/35/56949734b0f55fafmed.jpg

If you do an image search you'll find a number have the wrong drivers fitted. A pair sold on Canuck Audio had Vifa ones. On Boxing Day a seller had a pair for sale with blown tweeters and again with different bass drivers and was wanting £170. I sent her a message mentioning the drivers, and as such weren't worth the figure she was asking. She said she would remove the ad (which she did) and investigate and thanked me.

[Wakefield Turntables]

If you do an image search you'll find a number have the wrong drivers fitted. A pair sold on Canuck Audio had Vifa ones. On Boxing Day a seller had a pair for sale with blown tweeters and again with different bass drivers and was wanting £170. I sent her a message mentioning the drivers, and as such weren't worth the figure she was asking. She said she would remove the ad (which she did) and investigate and thanked me.

I didnt realise they were fetching that sort of money. :eek: This project was mainly done for fun and to improve my basic soldering, veneering and diagnostic skills. I'm happy working on passive bits of kit, amps and active kit is best left to those with far more experience than myself. These will live in my "charity shop system" which is a system of components that have been bodged together purely to test charity shop purchases before comitting the vinyl to either valve or solid state system.

[Mr Kipling]

Well, earlier in the year a pair went for about £70. Originally they cost £185, I think. A one-time mate got a pair and used them with a Nad 3020. The bass came as a bit of a shock after his previous Wharfedale Linton XPs.

I gave my sister a pair with a Linn Basik and a Denon system. She doesn't really appreciate what it is. A couple of times I've tried to set the speakers up but she later moves them. Has one bunged right in a corner between a wall and bookcase and no space right now. I've given up.

Oh, I saw grills in 3 colours for them on ebay for about £50

[Wakefield Turntables]

Im not bothering with Grills I've liked them.

[Mr Kipling]

Oh, it was a Google search that presented the grills and not eBay. £52 + VAT in Black, White or Dark Brown from Wilmslow Audio.

[shane]

The original bass units were definitely chosen for sound rather than robustness! They had a rather thin pressed steel basket supporting a large and heavy magnet assembly, so it didn't take much of a knock to put the whole thing out of alignment and end up with a rubbing voice-coil, and quite a few had to be replaced under warranty. I think Audax subsequently produced a similar unit with a cast alloy basket that was used in the short-lived and rather unloved HB2R, but there never was anything similar after that. Still, at least they didn't have foam surrounds to rot away so the ones that survived undamaged will be as good now as they ever were.

[Wakefield Turntables]

The original bass units were definitely chosen for sound rather than robustness! They had a rather thin pressed steel basket supporting a large and heavy magnet assembly, so it didn't take much of a knock to put the whole thing out of alignment and end up with a rubbing voice-coil, and quite a few had to be replaced under warranty. I think Audax subsequently produced a similar unit with a cast alloy basket that was used in the short-lived and rather unloved HB2R, but there never was anything similar after that. Still, at least they didn't have foam surrounds to rot away so the ones that survived undamaged will be as good now as they ever were.

Thanks, it's posts like this which flesh out the history of the speakers. I wonder if this is what happened to this pair? I'm now wondering if it might be worth while trying to source an original pair of bass units?

[shane]

Best of luck! Definitely worthwhile though. Heybrook themselves in their later AGI days offered a paper-coned bass unit as a replacement, but I think it was chosen solely on the fact that it fitted the same hole! I fitted a pair for a friend and whilst they sounded superficially more lively, they lost that beautiful airy cohesion and spaciousness that made the HB2 so special.

[sq225917]

Andy, you might want to square off those cabinet edges and rebuild the corners before you think about going anywhere near veneering them.

[YNWaN]

Yes indeed, though that will not be easy now.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Andy, you might want to square off those cabinet edges and rebuild the corners before you think about going anywhere near veneering them.

Thats something which I intend to do just before the veneer arrives.


Yes indeed, though that will not be easy now.

I've rebuilt speaker edges before so if it turns out ok - fantastic, otherwise, I guess they will look a little shit! I don't care as I think I'm keeping them.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Veneer has arrived. All pieces cut, let the veneering begin. I'll post more pics later.

[Wakefield Turntables]

This project is still on going but got put on a back burner. I've since restored a Thorens TD160 mk1, significantly upgraded my Croft Epoch, had my Sondex S100 serviced and my Quad 405-2 lightly modded as well as a few more upgrades on the 301 :eek:. I'll probably start to spend some time on these over the next few weeks.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Thread from the dead! I think I've sourced a pair of midrange drivers. Paid £35 for a pair of "heybrook speakers" supposed to be trashed HB2's with drive units. Sold as "unseen" in my case. Ah well, if they turn out to be duds I have another pair of speakers to decorate the house. ;)