0. User Manual
Logitech_Squeezebox_Boom_Audio_Design.pdf
1. Disassembling
A few Hints.................
Originally Posted by
idealist
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread.
I have two Booms, both of which have developed this problem. Of course,
Logitech could not / did not want to help me, but they sent me a new
power supply block as some sort of weird compensation...
I have taken careful notes of the disassembly process, but one thing eludes me. The speaker grilles. Do they just pull off?
Also, assuming the seals around the woofers are still intact, wouldn't
it be easier to just pull off the grilles and use some silicone to
carefully seal the the outside edges of them to the plastic surround,
without any further disassembly?
Dumb question perhaps, but I'm good at that... :/
Mike
The grills are a 'slip in/force fit', so as pointed out in the
other posts near here, you have to ease/gently pull them out, usually a
little on each edge at a time.
The best tool I have for this is a "Dental Pic" like the Tech might use
to clean your teeth. I have a set of 4 shapes that I bought at a Hobby
Shop. The one with an "L" shape is perfect -- it fits into the small
holes (use the corner holes) and you can ease it out a little at a time
from each corner.
The next best thing I think of is a straight pin that fits into the
holes. Take your needle nose pliers and bend the tip into an L shape
and use the pliers on the other end of the pin for leverage/grasping.
Fish hook, no barb?
When I first decided to fix the speakers, I considered trying to do it
without further disassembly, using superglue. I assessed that I couldn't
quite get to the edge of the surround where it's separated from the
frame, tho.
Squeezebox Boom Disassembly in 8 Easy Steps and 1 Hard Step
Tools Needed:
Torx TX10 Screwdriver (if you have a changeable bit screw driver, the barrel will likely be too big in diameter to work)
Small bright flashlight, that you may have to hold in your teeth…..
Small flat “tool” such as a popsicle stick or filed down toothbrush shaft
Needle Nose Pliers – small/medium size
small 2 x 4 block or similar to support Face Plate Panel hanging over the side in step 4
Steps (carefully; plan ahead!)
1. Remove the Power Cable and gently grasp your Boom and lay it on a soft cloth face up on your workbench;
2. Label and remove the Grills. Put them aside; you’ll use them later to make the icing .
3. Note that there are 3 recessed screws on each half of the case, 6
total; and, 4 screws on the tabs of the Front Panel/Faceplate. I
suggest removing the case screws first, 3 at a time, so you can pick up
the Boom and carefully shake out the recessed screws onto the cloth and
put them aside. NOTE: the screws are tighter than you might expect; be
sure the screw driver is engaged properly and then provide firm
downward pressure to carefully unscrew them
4. Remove the 4 screws on the Front Panel. Carefully lift up the
Panel. There is a small white flat ribbon cable attached to the circuit
board at the lower right side of the Panel. I chose not to remove this
cable, so I let the panel hang over the side, supported by the 2 x 4
block, so it’s not hanging by the cable.
There is a small green flat ribbon cable in the upper right of the
Circuit Board. Gently lift/remove/pull the cable out of the plastic
housing, because you will have to remove the Board to proceed.
5. There are 5 screws on the Circuit Board to remove.
6. On the under side of the Board, in the upper left corner is where
the wiring harness is connected: you can’t see it yet…. The procedure I
used was to tilt up the Board as if the upper left corner was a fixed
hinge point; in essence, it is, so far. The Board may seem still fixed
in place, so gently loosen the Board by prying it up slightly using your
fingers or the popsicle stick or similar tool.
Now you will tilt/lift the Board up, carefully, using the upper left
corner as a fixed point. Since I chose not to detach the white ribbon
cable, I have to manipulate the Board and the Panel together as if they
were a sandwich. Be careful!! Be careful where you place your fingers
to hold the Panel/Board, especially with the wifi antenna.
Work the Board up, using the upper left as a fixed hinge point; there is
a very slight give to the wiring harness. When you can see a little
UNDER the Board, use the flashlight to see the harness and plug. Reach
in and carefully ease a little slack out of the wiring harness. If you
have long fingers you might be able to unplug the wire harness from the
board. My fingers weren’t long enough to get any leverage; so I used
needle nosed pliers to grasp the plug and very gently wiggle the plug a
little at a time to get it off. These are the times when the flashlight
was being held in my teeth. Plug off?? (This was the hard
step……)
7. There are 2 more screws in the case to take out!! Once out, use
your hands to gently squeeze the case around the long sides, like you
were checking a loaf of bread for freshness. The case should detach
itself from the frame. There is a little gasket around the edge of the
case that may come awry. Later, use your finger nail to gently get it
back in the small groove along the mating edge.
8. Now that you have the frame separated you can remove the drivers for
repair or replacement. Take a look at your parts and pieces, making
sure you know where they go to put the Boom back together. Make notes!
Remember those 2 last screws that go back in first, before you plug the
harness!! Admire the really nice workmanship of the Boom – nice job,
Slim Engineers!
Look closely at the frame and driver spacing. Is it the frame that
causes the problem? Doesn’t obviously seem so, on mine at least.
9. Reassemble in the correct order. QED
There's a limit on attachments; see next post for last pictures. Good Luck
Here are the first pics:
Squeezebox Boom Disassembly in 8 Easy Steps and 1 Hard Step, part II
Here are the last pictures: (maybe...)
Update and Transplant info
Update on Boom Disassembly:
In step 4 of my discourse I noted the white ribbon cable connecting the
Front Panel and the Circuit Board. When I was reassembling the Boom I was not
careful enough to avoid pulling one end partially out of the holder. I noted that
the cable ends were just like the Green cable which has to be removed. I removed the
white cable then and noted that this cable and contacts seem less hardy than the ones on
the Green cable. Be careful! I recommend detaching the white cable from the circuit board when disassembling,
since the 'attack' angle to reassemble is better than using the other end on the Panel.
Transplant Successful!
I did reassemble the Boom (#2) using the reconstructed speakers from Boom #1. These
speakers had separated from the edge all the way around, both. I repaired them using
the SuperGlue trick described previously on this thread. Easy to do, but not pretty.
The good news from the operating theater, the transplant worked, and there were no parts
left over... well, except for the outgoing speakers.
How does it sound?? Pretty darn good; hard to say if it's 'perfect' but on my Pandora
Station, the first several songs that played were: Fat Bottomed Girls, White Rabbit, Magic
Bus (live version), Green River (Fogerty, live), & Dream On. This seemed like a pretty good
workout for bass, guitar and drums, and the guitar chords on the intro to Dream On seemed
especially clear, upfront and a little tingly....i.e., very, very good!
I may try a refoaming kit on the outgone speakers, or send them to a shop...???? maybe.
2. Woofer
http://www.repiuk.nl/essays/2014/11/logitech-boom-speaker-repair/
The Logitech Squeezebox Boom has a major fault. The rubber of the woofers is falling apart after a few years:
What you need:
- New speaker rings R31C from speakerrepairshop
- Glue
- A mini hot air gun. Most gas operated soldering irons have a special tip which transforms it in a mini hot air gun.
Start heating the rubber very gently. To hot or to close and
the paper cone is burned. You need to adjust the heat/distance and only
melt the glue:
Pull
the rubber from the speaker cone. If you apply enough heat and pull in
the direction of the radius of the speaker cone you won't damage the
paper:
Also remove the rubber and the old glue on the metal frame with a sharp knife
It should like like this:
Apply glue to the paper cone and on the new rubber ring.
After
the glue has dried for a minute or two drop the new rubber on the paper
cone. You have to center it correctly on the first try. If not try
moving it around. Finally apply pressure on the rubber ring and paper
cone.
Cut a straw to 6,5 cm max.
Insert
it in the bottom of the woofer and place the woofer on a table with the
straw inserted. If the straw is longer or has sharp edges you could
damage the paper cone.
The paper cone and new rubber is now lifted.
Apply glue to the metal frame and the new rubber. The glue needs to dry for two minutes.
Lift
the woofer from the table. The cone drops and the rubber is glued to to
metal frame. If you lifted the speaker correctly the speaker cone is
now centered in the metal frame
Check the speaker carefully if the coil is moving free and not touching the magnet.
If not try to correct it.
Once everything is centered apply pressure with a coin to fix the bond.
Finished and ready for reassembly.
2b. Foam Repair
Proper Repair Method
Originally Posted by
mctubster
I performed some comparison of the my Boom with repaired speakers (Shoe Goo), vs my much newer Boom.
There is a noticeable difference. The repaired Boom has far less
soundstage, and has lost midrange and a little bass. I checked that all
of the audio settings were flat, and compared the same songs with my
head in a similar listening position for the playing boom.
Very subjective, but considering that mass has been added and the amount of flex reduced for the speakers makes some sense.
I don't want to rain on anyone's parade with this post. Everyone
is entitled to repair their speakers with the materials they have most
easily available, but mctubster's findings reinforce what I've been
assuming with this method: This will degrade the speakers' dynamic
response. In practice it could be limiting the movement of the cone by
at least half if any semi-flexible adhesive is applied all the way up to
the peak of the rubber surround as most people have done.
I have two Booms that I recently repaired using this re-foam kit
that was mentioned earlier in the thread. Was it as easy as slapping
on some silicone? No. But the results were great. Both my units sound
like new. I did a quick comparison of sound after repairing the first
one against the one which had only a tiny, not-yet-rattling separation.
They sounded identical.
The original plastic/rubber surrounds on the speakers do seem to have a
fatal flaw. The material is extremely thin, and seemingly most so right
at the transition from roll to basket edge where the splits are
occurring. They don't seem to be actual butyl rubber like you'd see on
better speakers. It's something more plastic-like, which might explain
why it's getting brittle and eventually cracking at this weak point. I
think the re-foams will hold up longer than the Boom will be viable. I
don't believe the bezel surrounding the speaker has anything to do with
the failures, as I've seen some people state. I looked very carefully
on both my units, and there is nowhere I could see that the bezel
touches the surround, even during full speaker incursion/excursion.
If you love your Boom, repair it the right way, and get some serious
satisfaction in knowing it's probably better than factory now.
Some tips I learned doing mine:
- Get a T10 long-shaft screwdriver. I had a ton of T10
bits, but the holes in the chassis are so small that none of my drivers
would fit down inside.
- Use a window scraper style razor
blade to remove the surround from the basket. Go slowly, and don't
slip and slice your hand open. I had a close call. You should be able
to get it down almost to the paint with a nice smooth surface to adhere
the new surround. The adhesive used on the basket is almost epoxy-like.
It did not easily soften with any solvents I had on hand.
- I used this 3M solvent
(3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner) to remove the surround from the
cone. Saturate the foam rubber in one spot using a Q-tip soaked in the
solvent until you can work an edge up from the inside of the cone using a
toothpick, dental pick, or some other appropriate tool. Once you get
under it a little, applying more solvent underneath that edge will
release the adhesive fairly easily. Keep dabbing, peeling, dabbing,
peeling, and it will come right off. Clean up the remaining adhesive on
the cone using fresh Q-tips and lint-free cloth. In my experience this
solvent did not harm the cone in any way. Just don't use more than
necessary.
- Watch the videos on Simply Speakers website
before you start with the new surround. Follow their method and you'll
have great results.
- Take your time lining up and
test-fitting the new surrounds. They are a little bit smaller outside
diameter than the originals, but careful placement and centering on the
cone will ensure you have enough overhang on the basket to get good
adhesion. The adhesive provided with the Simply Speakers kit is really
tacky and flexible with a decent working time; far superior to some
glues I've seen with kits like this. This adhesive alone makes the
extra cost of these kits worth it over the other site mentioned. I am
in no way affiliated with any speaker repair supplier.
If anyone in the Denver, CO area has a Boom they'd like repaired I'd be
happy to work something out. If you want to get rid of one altogether,
we should talk.
3. Replacement
Follow up on driver replacement
The short version:
1) I followed the instructions in this string to replace the OEM bass drivers with a pair of the Dayton Audio N91-4's.
2) I made some additional modifications to the frames of the drivers
and to the mounting plate to insure that the face of the new drivers
would fit flush with the surrounding bezel.
3) When in place, the new driver does not contact the original face
seal. I added an o-ring to take up the gap and thereby insure some
compression of the seal.
4) To my ear, the sound quality of the repaired Squeezebox Boom is as good as the original.
Details of the additional mods:
1) I modified the frames of the new drivers in two places as described
in this string. I found that the frames as modified, came in contact
with the mounting plate one additional spot near one of the mounting
screws. I trimmed the frame back in this spot to eliminate the contact.
This permitted the position of the driver to be juggled around a bit
during final assembly and thus allow for better centering. Since the
mounting holes on the new drivers are arranged on a larger radius circle
than those on the OEM drivers, each of the mounting holes was elongated
with a small file.
2) By carefully measuring the depth of the new drivers, I concluded
that the mounting posts to which the drivers are secured, needed to be
trimmed back. Using a roto-tool equipped with cutoff blade, I trimmed
the mounting posts back, flush with the bezel. This was the first step
needed to get the drivers to rest flush with the bezel. Notes: The
tweeters were removed to avoid damage during this and the following
step. The new drivers have one gasket glued in place and a spare. The
glued gasket was removed and both gaskets were disposed of since they
are not used.
3) After trimming the mounting posts back, it was clear that the
drivers were riding up on the rim of the mounting plate in one spot. I
trimmed the rim in that area sufficiently (about 1/32")to allow the
drivers to rest firmly on the bezel without contacting the rim.
4) With all this trimming done, I found small gussets attached to two
of the mounting posts that needed to be trimmed a bit. This was the
final step in allowing the new drivers to sit down completely on the
bezel and to allow for centering.
5) Since the mounting posts have been trimmed, the depth of the screw
holes is no longer enough to accommodate the screws. To resolve this,
each of four mounting holes was drilled through with a small drill bit
(I used 5/64"). Be careful not to enlarge the diameter of the screw
holes. The small holes in the mounting plate are not visible through
the speaker grills. When in place, the screws seemed to plug the holes
well enough to avoid creating vents in the fully assembled cabinet.
6) The OEM drivers have a cushion on the magnet. You will see an
impression of the cabinet details visible in the cushion, indicating
that the original drivers were literally jammed into the cabinet. With
the mounting posts trimmed and the new drivers in place, there is room
for a similar cushion. A new cushion was formed from a strip of
insulation (1/8" Armaflex). A hole was cut in the new cushion to align
with the vent in the back of the magnet structure.
7) Since lots of shaving and filings were created in this effort, all the components were carefully cleaned.
8) The first step in reassembly was to install the new drivers. To
approach the acoustic performance of the OEM unit, it is essential that
an airtight seal be formed between the face of the new drivers and the
mounting plate. Note: The new drivers do not contact the existing
compliant seal unless something is added to take up the gap. I found
that a o-ring (size 151, square profile) would do nicely. One o-ring
was added between the driver and the seal on both drivers.
9) The remainder of the reassembly was straight forward, except for
securing the speaker wiring to the main PC board. What a pain!
Only time will tell...
1) The o-ring may be blown out at very high volume settings. A better filler may need to be found.
2) I did not secure the driver screws with glue as was included in the
OEM assembly. The screws may back out, resulting in all sorts of leaks
or rattles.
