Usher Audio X-718's Tiny Dancers arrived damaged - need a little help

livestrong

Well-Known Member
I've been having some really bad luck with my speaker purchases lately - see my Journey thread for more info (I just added Chapters 15 - 18).

I was SUPER excited for these Usher X-718's to arrive - I figured they're monitors and chances of getting damaged would be slim. Wrong I was! The seller agreed to take them back, but I've never seen a pair in the Enzo red finish so I want to try to see if I can fix them. I'm pretty sure what happened is that one of the grill pegs poked through the woofer in transit. It looks like Parts Express used to carry the replacement woofers, but not any more. Any chance anyone here has any ideas for where to find a new woofer (or pair).

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Otherwise they're not perfect, buy I'm ok with that. Two of the grill pegs are broke on one of the speakers, both grills are missing the logo, the jumpers and manual are missing, and they're quite dirty. A bummer for sure, but I can live with it. I wish I could just buy a brand new pair! Oh well - I'm hoping someone might be able to help me locate a replacement woofer (or pair).

Thanks for looking!
 
That really sucks. I hate sending things back, but in this case they would get sent back and I would look for another pair. Good luck with this.
 
I'm with you, but I haven't seen a pair come up in over 3 years - anywhere. It seems this Enzo red finish doesn't come around often. I honestly wouldn't even mind buying a new pair if they were available.
 
Well, the damage looks to be in the butyl rubber surround. If you're bound and determined to keep them,
you try using the glue from a bicycle tire repair kit, or, you could try putting a thin bead of silicon rubber along the slit.

OR, you could check with Rick Cobb and see if he has any butyl surround replacement kits for those drivers.
You want to redo BOTH of the woofers so the weight and sound is matched.

Or ship them back and nurse your wounds ...
 
Sounds like the US distributor has the woofers for the BE-718 - they are the 8945A. But I would need to buy a pair so they matched because they are different than the 8945P that the X-718's used (they have the silver stabilizer cone in the middle). Just not sure I want to spend $220 for a pair of the 8945A's.

There was a pair of the 8945P's on eBay from November that didn't look like they had been sold, but I messaged the guy and he said he had sold them :(
 
Not a horrible price for two replacement woofers. The shipper might split the cost with you. Have you read Davidro's comments about these beauties here on AK?
Beautiful, unique speakers.
 
I'm thinking you might be able to repair these by applying the proper cement on the rear of the surrounds. Maybe some masking tape applied to the front would keep the edges of the wounds aligned and allow you to effect a near-invisible repair. It's not something that I have ever done but it might work. Thoughts, anyone?
 
Depending on shipping price in sending them back if you are flipping the cost ? You might be better off buying new woofers like mike stated not a outlandish price for two woofers plus you will have a spare......
 
I used those woofers when I built a pair of speakers and absolutely smoked one when I forgot to turn off my amp while plugging an RCA in. I ended up watching ebay and got a replacement.

Settle with the seller, put some superglue on the rear of that surround and wait until a replacement comes around. Keep an eye on diyaudio.com as well.
 
Thanks so much for the thoughts and advice. So far it is looking like maybe those 8945A's for $150 might be worth it - or a bit more for a brand new pair. I'm guessing it'll cost me about $60 to ship them back to the seller - maybe we can work something out.
 
You are having a rash of bad luck lately. From what you told me, these are only temporary. My advice would be to send them back and get your money back and move on.

The way life is, it was never meant to be for you to have the speakers that arrived damage. You would be doing the right thing by sending them back.

Something better will come along and will be the perfect fit for your audio system.
 
I hear you and normally I would do just that! Plenty of fish in the sea after all. However, something is tugging at me because I feel these may be a truly special speaker that I could own for a very long time. Even with a bum woofer, I can tell that they have huge potential. Normally I'd just wait around for another pair to show up, but I haven't seen this color combo ever before. The pictures I took are pretty crappy, but the Enzo red, wood sides, gold rivits, black drivers, and touch of silver are quite a site in person.

Don't feel bad for me - it is just stuff after all. Much more important things in life to worry about :) I really just feel bad if I send these back that they'll likely never get played again - that would be sad.
 
I have a pair of DIY speakers I built based around that woofer and a soft dome scanspeak tweeter. They are absolutely excellent speakers. If you can work out some sort of reimbursement I'd move forward. Your "extra" 8945P could sell on ebay for 100+ bucks.
 
A couple hundred bucks to make them good as new ain't so bad. Ask the seller to cut you a deal and then the total cost to you will be minimal. Then perhaps you won't have feel bad for the speakers...you'll just be lettin' em sing!
 
We'll see what the seller says. I also heard back from the US Usher Distributor and he said he thinks he can maybe special order the 8945P's, but won't know for a couple weeks because they're on holiday. Thanks again for the encouragement, AK friends :D
 
Well, the seller said he'd rather have me ship them back to him than give me any money for the repairs. So I'll either be out $60 to ship them back to him or invest another $150-$200 in them and enjoy 'em. Decision time :)
 
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