The Frankenspeakers live (and sound great, too!)

[friendly_iconoclast]

Once again, dumpster diving pays off:

A month or two ago at work, I was dumping the trash when my eyes beheld a pair of Advent Baby II loudsepeakers next to the
dumpster. A quick look showed that one of the midwoofers had a blown cone, but the tweeters were intact. "H'mm" says I, "I can replace those drivers and have myself a pair of Advents". So, off they went to my home. A little Googling revealed that the
Baby IIs didn't have all that great a reputation, but for a purchase price of $0, who cares?.

So, after finding out the particular drivers needed to be 4 ohms instead of the usual 8, I bought a pair of replacements
online. As a bonus, they're shielded. I also got a bag of pillow stuffing to use as new sound dampiing from a local fabric store. The new midwoofers went right in with no soldering. Cool, everything is together- then I learn that new drivers sometimes need 10 or 20 hours of break in. So I says "Patience, my prettys- you'll have your chance".

So after some time, (and a 'new' $19.99 100 watt receiver from a thrift store) I tested them with Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffitti. Results- Excellent! Of course, the bass is about what you'd expect from a 6 1/2" driver, but they have great
mid-range presence (Zep pun, har har).

Lesson learned- Use what you've got, you'll be surprised.