Mesa Thiele EV12 - Speaker HELP!!

[djpharoah]

Well today I scored a Mesa Thiele with the EV12 200W speaker. I tried it out and it sounded fine and huge with the sellers Mark IV.

Then once I got home I noticed that in the center of the speaker where there is a dome like piece of rubber/foam there are some cracks. It happens to be just where the "EV" Electro-Voice logo is like in the pic below.

Is that something bad for the speaker? It sounded fine to me today and honestly the other guy was kinda shocked. If it's anything bad he said he'd take it back and give me a refund with no issues.

So am I just stressing out or is that thing crucial to the speaker? I'm gonna try to take a better look tomorrow by removing the front cover on the cab but even that is a ***** to remove.

Anyone?

 

[Mongo1]

I haven't repaired a speaker in more years than I care to remember, but what you are describing doesn't sound terminal. I used to use black doping compound to fix minor tairs. If yours is in the cone center it should have no effect on it's sound.

Others here can definitely speak to this better than me.
Some clear pics of the damage would help.

 

[djpharoah]

So I got the front cover off and here are some pics of the EV speaker. Looks like the cone was repair at one point.

 

[Mongo1]

The cracks are not an issue, it looks like something went through that speaker at some time in its life. The seller (being shocked) obviously had no idea and seems to want to do right with the sale. Depending on the price and condition of the cab you have some choices.

If you got it for a dream low price and the cabs in excellent shape, keep it, watch the speaker closely and plan to replace it when/if it needs it.

If you paid market price and its in average shape, either see if you can negotiate a drop in price or return it and pay the same amount when the next one comes along with a speaker that is not damaged.