Creased speaker cone? Dodgy or not?

BowynMadley

Evening chaps/chapettes

I've been looking at a few high end speakers recently. Celestion alnicos, evm 12ls, jbl alnicos etc etc.... a fair few have mentioned a crease in the speaker cone. They have also stressed that it is not a tear or rip in the cone.
Personally I'm not happy parting with  £150+ for a potentially damaged speaker as i don't know enough about speaker issues to take the risk 

What are your thoughts on cone creases?

Thanks

Bo

MtB

I don't know if it's the same thing, but I noticed these marks on the cone of a speaker that was up for sale recently. Is this the sort of thing that you're talking about?

I decide not to buy the speaker in the end.

http://i.imgur.com/gND39Oo.jpg

ICBM

It depends what they mean by a crease. I would want good photos of it (which that one isn't) before even thinking about buying it for more than the scrap/recone value, and I certainly wouldn't pay any kind of full price for it.

Some small ones could be not an issue, but at best it's introduced a weakness into the cone and might cause odd overtones, and at worst it's a sign the speaker has been dropped and the frame twisted.

Bygone_Tones

You are right not to pay high prices for speakers in poor condition. There is a lot of this going on. Sellers price-matching with sold items but not looking deeper and accounting for condition and originality.

The markings on that tayden just look like chalk to me. Manufacturers often write on them like that. Looks harmless to me.

These are the two most common types of crease:



The small ones that form around the edge of the cone, and can turn into a tear or cut.
 

A long crease running along the rear edge of the cone.

Both are basically just 'wear and tear' from use in my opinion. Nothing to really worry about, but consider that the speaker has probably been very well used and may be past their best sonically. This is one of the reasons most speakers have doping, to protect / strengthen the cone from this happening.  You might want to get the cone edge professionally re-doped, as it will re-stiffen the cone movement and prevent them tearing further.

ICBM

Those little perpendicular ones usually turn out to be tears, if you carefully push them to see. At best, even if they're not torn right through the strength of the material has gone. (I'm sure you know that .)

I assumed by 'crease' that they meant something more like what happens if you carelessly throw a cable or a pedal into the back of a combo, but even then I'd want to see pics.

Now I can see it on a bigger screen I think the Tayden might be a bit of stray glue - so still nothing to worry about.

BowynMadley

Thanks guys. Think I'm going to pass on the speaker now.