Royd Minstrel foam kits

gone_deaf

Hi. I found this forum via the roydaudio.com site.

I have a pair of Minstrels which require refoaming. Does anyone know where I can find a foam kit for this speaker or if there are any generic ones that may fit. I found a German seller on Ebay that sells kits for the Royd A7 but doesn't have for the Minstrel. If no foam kit then I'd consider replacement drivers if they can be found anywhere.

I'd love to keep these speakers going if I can.

uglymusic

Hi GD, and welcome to Chews - what should we call you, BTW?

I thought we'd had this question come up before, but I can't find it. So maybe it's my listening habits laying waste to my brain cell again :-)

We have quite a few Royd users here, so I hope we can find the answer for you.

I ran a pair of Minstrels for many years on the end of a pair of NVA TDS power amps and they were great. I sold them on after getting my RR3s.

Cheers

Dave

Alan

Hi gone_deaf,

I SAID HI... never mind.

I think refoam kits for Minstrels ain't never gonna fly, for the simple reason the standard surrounds are rubber. They do not perish, ergo, there is no large market for direct replacements.

Most any loudspeaker repair outfit could repair/replace the surrounds, it's not too hard. If you were going to have a bash yourself, it's likely that a supplier could indicate how close his kits would be to original.

gone_deaf

Sorry for the late reply. No internet due blown router.

Of course you're right Alan. The Minstrels do indeed have rubber surrounds. I got it confused with my Royd Topaz which do have foam surrounds. The foam has completely disintegrated. The speakers were in storage since 1995 still in original packaging but when I tried playing them they didn't work. Removing the grill revealed the perished foam. I have 3 sets of Topazs plus stands all brand new unopened which I assume will have suffered the same fate.

My Minstrels have a problem too. It seems they are suffering from the black sticky residue from the cone gunking up the voicecoil causing the cone to stick. I noticed that something was up when I tried playing some music at a moderate volume and found that on any bass notes the speaker would produce a farting type sound. I've found an article on Roydaudio.com that details the cleaning of the driver so I'll give that a go.

I'll open a new thread for the Topaz refoaming to avoid muddling this thread.

uglymusic

FWIW There's lots of info out there about gunk on Minstrel drivers.

Not something mine suffered from, but I do remember looking for info for someone who was having the problem.

gone_deaf

Yes, the article I mentioned above goes through in quite good detail on how to clean the gunk. It seems pretty straight forward if you take your time and are careful. Hopefully that will fix my problem of the farty type sound when listening at slightly higher volumes.

Yomanze

I followed those instructions for gunked up Minstrel drivers,  I used the paper method for a while (slowly pulling out strips of paper), and finished the job off with an earbud and some acetone nail polish remover.  Worked great!  Apparently this 'gunking' only happens when Minstrels are left unused for long periods of time.

gone_deaf

Good to hear that the technique works. My Minstrels were in storage for around 10 years without use. Only one of the drivers seems to have been affected by the gunk. I'll give them a clean this evening and see how they sound.

uglymusic

Good luck!

Yomanze

Good to hear that the technique works. My Minstrels were in storage for around 10 years without use. Only one of the drivers seems to have been affected by the gunk. I'll give them a clean this evening and see how they sound.

Don't forget to push the drivers in gently 'til you feel something on the other side, clean the voice coil's top half with the earbud, and don't be afraid to (VERY) gently rub the gap in the top centre where it's seeped through.

gone_deaf

OK will do. Thanks for the tip.

gone_deaf

Just to update this thread. I cleaned my Minstrels on the weekend and they sound much better now. Now I need to give the cabinets some TLC. They are the grey painted ones and the paint has rubbed off on some of the corners. I'm thinking of sanding them down and veneering them if I can fins some suitable veneer at a reasonable price otherwise will repaint them.

uglymusic

Fantastic!

I love Minstrels (and the chocolate ones :-) ).

Yomanze

Nice to hear I wondered why my Minstrels sounded 'plasticky' and there was a huge difference once any rubbing was gone. Try sitting on the carpet with them he he.