Help with bad speakers, Roadster 2x12 combo

[tzoranski]

I own a 2008 Roadster 2x12 combo and recently I noticed that it started sounding toney and brittle. After a lot of troubleshooting turns out it was the speakers. I wired it up so I could listen to one speaker at a time and sure enough one of the speakers had a loss of bass, sounded brittle and was also breaking up ever so slightly.

I've never had a speaker go bad before so I'm very new to this process. My plan was to replace the bad speaker with a new UK Vintage 30 from the Meas website. Before I go that route I have a few question tho. First, does it make more sense to replace both speakers or just the bad one. I'm not sure if it makes more sense to have two new ones or mix a new with and old. Second, I was wondering if a vintage 30 made in 2008 is better than a new one made in 2018. I hear a lot of people talking about how the UK speakers are better than the Chinese made speakers. Lastly what makes a speakers go bad like this? Could it have been something i've done. I've played an amp with bad speakers before but it was always obvious that the speaker was torn or something. My speaker doesn't show any tears or rip in the cone. I can't see any issue with it besides how it sounds. Do speakers just go bad every 10 years or so?

Any thought would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[tzoranski]

I ended up getting a 1 new Vintage 30 from Mesa to replace the faulty speaker in my Roadster combo. Just what I was afraid of, the new Vintage 30 sounds so inferior compared to one still working in my amp. I have it wired up so I can A/B back in forth between the two speakers and it's so obvious. Even my wife can hear the difference. My old speakers sounds fat with tons of bass and distortion. The new one sounds thin, trebly and doesn't break up nearly has much. It makes my amp sound like there is less distortion. Very disappointing. I'm gonna reach out to Mesa and see what they say. I can't imagine I have a bad speaker but I also can't imagine that the old ones sound that much better than the new ones.

I still have my old speaker. I wonder if I can get it re-coned? Has anybody ever heard of that? My amp sounds so much worse with this new speaker. I really need to find a way to get a speaker that sounds as good as the existing V30. Does anyone know of any other speakers that break up as good as these? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Blaklynx]

New speakers need a break-in period to sound their best. I suspect Mesa will say the same thing. Don't expect a new V30 to sound like your road-worn V30 at this stage. Give it some time.

http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=49767

http://celestion.com/speakerworld/guitartech/3/104/How_to_break-in_a_guitar_speaker/

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/celestion-v30-break-in.1141901/

I googled this: how many hours to break in a v30 speaker you could try similar key words for different hits.

-B