Marantz Imperial 7 revival

[Kurre Källkvist]

Hi!
I've just bought a set of Marantz Imperial 7 speakers. The main drivers and cabinets seem to be in good shape, the front covers are long gone, the mids have been refoamed by the previous owner (one of them slightly of center...) and the tweeters have seen better days (one of the has a crack in the cone...). The speakers still sound ok to my untrained ears, certainly better than my old (ca. 1980) 3-way JVC speakers or my newer Sonab 3-way system with a passive sub and two 2-way satelites.

The idea is to use the 7s in my garage; being roughly 1500 cubic ft in volume I figured I'd go with the largest speakers I can find that are still "wall-mountable"... The big question is, do I pretend like it's raining and do nothing withn them, have a company refurbish all the damaged drivers or replace them?
If I replace them, what do I replace them with? New replicas of the original parts or something more modern?

Any input is appreciated!

 

[markw]

Get a raincoat and umbrella. Any costs in correcting their problems would far, far exceed their worth.

Even when they were new, they were no great shakes.

 

[Kurre Källkvist]

Well, a new replica tweeter is less than 20$ and a replica mid-driver is not much more expensive... I can replace all four of them for less than 100$; that wouldn't buy me much if I were to shop for another set of speakers... The other thing is size; the selection of speakers in this sort of range in Sweden isn't great, and without a subwoofer I don't think I'll be able to find anything much smaller that will work in a room this size. A subwoofer is out of the question; the floor space in my garage is going to be filled with cars, bikes and related accesories fast enough anyways...

No other suggestions?

 

[markw]

Depending on your expectations, you may or may not be satisfied with your replacement drivers, particularly with the bass response. Speaker systems are designed as a team of three components, each optimized for best performance: The woofer, the crossover and the cabinet. Unlres sall three were designed to wotk together then your results may or may not be what you want.

ie. you can't just drop in any speaker that fits the holes in the box and expect optimum performance.

But, that's not saying you can't do it and you may be perfectly happy. YMMV.

 

[Kurre Källkvist]

That's why I'm here - as these speakers seems to have been rather popular forty or so years ago, someone is bound to have some insight into possible improvements...
Otherwise, replica tweeters from parts-express should sort out the most urgent need...

 

[markw]

I sold stereos in the early 70's when these were made and sold and know exactly where they fall in the food chain. Maybe someone else can give you more satisfactory answers.