Vintage RtR G-200 Surround Repair

[paden501]

I had the opportunity to help my father-in-law repair his RtR G-200 speakers in his basement system.

These were his first pair of speakers.  He bought them while he was in college (so they're 30+ years old at least).

Here's what they looked like before this weekend:


The enclosures are actually in pretty nice shape, but as you can see the surrounds have been replaced by duct tape.  Our aim was to fix that and get the drivers back to working condition.

Here's mark working on removing glue from the passive radiator


You can see that we took what was left of the rubber surrounds off of the drivers (more like they fell off) and then scraped the glue from the speaker outer edge with a box cutter.  We then hit it with some alcohol and glued new surrounds on.  We got the surround kits from Parts Express.  It came with everything we needed except the alcohol and some simple tools (screw drivers, box cutters, etc).

here's the PR with the new surround drying on.


The glue that came with the surround kit is some seriously sticky stuff.  We ended up with it all over our hands and it was a PITA to remove.  It dries nice and clear though so you don't even notice it if you make a mistake and smear it on the driver edge (but you should still be careful not to)

When all was said and done, the speakers looked like this:


The whole process took about 3 hours (including glue dry time) and took what was essentially a useless pair of speakers and returned them to a very nice sounding system (especially with the Carver AVR100 powering them)




P.S.   Yes those are 2 pair of Blose sitting on top of the RtRs.  I tried like crazy to get the old man to throw those things away now that his speakers are working, but he insisted on hooking them up to the 'B' outputs on the reciever.... For whatever reason he likes them 

[Falcon]

Looks good. How do they sound?

[paden501]

They sound pretty nice.  The tweeter is very detailed and clean sounding.  They're bass heavy though.  You definately don't need a sub with those speakers.  Because of that, the mids get lost a little bit. 

He's got a pair of Definitive Technology BP7001SC speakers on a McIntosh reciever upstairs.  The difference between the two systems is night and day.  Upstairs, you really savor the music.  The Definitives are very VERY laid back, although little boomy at times (with their powered subs built in).  The mids in that system are also very noticable.  I'm not impressed with the sound stage on the upstairs system though.  Although the sound is mostly warm and unobtrusive, it doesn't make me feel like I'm really there.  I think that has a lot to do with the way the room is set up though.  The Definitives are bi-polar, but he's got them each toed in from corners of the room because of the dimensions of the space.

Downstairs the RtRs w/ the Carver AVR100 gives you gulps and gulps of sound.  It's like being at a rock concert... a little forward, rattle your teeth bass (even without a sub) and sort-of lost in the middle.  This is especially true when he adds the Bose bookshelves to the stage, although then it's just painfully bright up high and terribly distorted in the middle.  But without the Bose, you do get a sense of being in front of a rock band.


All in all, I like them.  I don't think they're what I'd want for my main listening room, but they serve well for when you really want to rock out in the basement.

[Falcon]

Thanks for the info Paden. I passed up a pair of those RTR's at the goodwill in Cheswick. I think they were $25.00 but needed refoamed, and they were beat up pretty bad.
 One of those things, I kind of second guessed later, Maybe I should have grabbed them, maybe not.

[paden501]

I really think it depends on what kind of music you listen to with these ones.  If you're into hard hitting stuff (for instance my father in law loves classic rock, especially AC-DC) then the RtRs will really shine.

[Carlin]

I have a pair of RTR G-200's that I want to get rid of---they have been sitting unused in the basement for at least seven years---they still work, and are still in really good condition, except the veneer trim on the base is coming off, and the top piece of wood is stained.  I planned on giving them to the local thrift shop, but thought I would check online first to see if they were worth giving to someone who might appreciate them.  They are 14" wide, 12" deep and about 3' high.  They are covered in a black material, and have a wooden base and top.  (And they weigh a ton) 

[paden501]

Carlin I sent you a PM.