Sigh . Today ’s a legitimately sad 24-hour interval . I ’ve had to say goodbye to my Harman Kardon GLA-55 2.0 PC speakers . I ’ve had them for over 15 long time of faithful avail , but despite trying to have them compensate and my own bungle attempts at fixing them , I ’ve had to take over that their time has come and they ’ve joined the pigment tin for the next tripper to the dump ( for recycling ) .
I have a new pair on the agency , and they wo n’t voice as good , nor seem as iconic , but they will work properly , which is arguably more authoritative . It ’s still a pitiful day though , and worth eulogizing . While technology tends to come and go , we all have that one appliance , peripheral , or constituent which has a special place in our hearts and for me , my ridiculous Harman Kardon speakers were one of them .
I literally justwrote a piece for PCWorldabout why these verbalizer were so great , too . A fitting send off , but an wry one . lease ’s give them one more .
Foundry
Love of the ridiculous
The GLA-55s are a alone set of verbaliser that were endow to me in the former 2010s by my then knob who had no need for them in his even - more - impressive audiophile setup . They ’re huge and threatening and completely ridiculous . They did n’t ever fit out into my setup or look right on next to my more modern , and less - crystally monitors and other hardware .
But they go great and were a brainy conversation starter . Out of all the foreign contrivance , doojigger , and component I ’ve had over the last 20 years of write about personal computer and other hardware , my Harman Kardon loudspeaker always drew the most interest from chitchat friends and folk .
They were as much a study of art ascapable PC speakers with substantial bass and clear-cut highs . TechPowerUp even ring them thecoolest speakers ever in its coverage of themway back when .
Jon Martindale
But after so many eld of use they had started to show their age . abrasion in the lechatelierite - like plastic , dents in the flabby - surface tweeter from errant minor fingers , and finally , a jam in the rubber surround the chief driver .
While manoeuvring them for some shots for the aforementioned clause I write about their length of service , I brush my finger against the rubber and it just disintegrate into a awkward , powdery mess . At the lightest of touches I had inadvertently destroyed the airtight sleeping room around the driver which helped deliver such thumping good audio . In an New York minute of negligence I ’d break this speaker .
But on the face of it this was n’t my first prison term . Looking closer at the other speaker revealed similar focus point in time on the rubber and in actuality , it had already commence to come away from the credit card surround too . Neither speaker was in great shape and some quick Googling suggested that at best , I should n’t be using them until they were limit . If they could be fixed at all .
SpeakerRepairShop
A glimmer of hope
My first contact with Harman Kardon was a bushed close . These speaker had been terminal of spirit for years , so no , they could n’t fix them or cater any repair aid . They did have a third - party caller they used for reparation in the UK , though . They might be able to do it , I was told .
But no . The parts to replace this very specific speaker system surround no longer existed , so there was no way they could do it either .
Perhaps a third company alternative ? I looked , but the drivers on these Speaker were a very specific 3.1 - in in diam . I could n’t find anything close to the ripe size … Until I did .
Jon Martindale
It turn out that aDutch speaker repair shophad a few foam replacement driver surrounds for my very specific Harman Kardon GLA-55 talker . What luck ! I ordered a dyad to be ship over in due haste and thirstily awaited their comer two week afterwards .
In the meantime I contacted the original mend shop , but baulk at the potential circular . It was $ 150 ( tantamount ) to even face at the loudspeaker system to see if they could or could not repair them . The estimates for the real mending were several hundred more , plus merchant vessels . While these speakers might have been worth $ 1,000 when new , but I could get a comparable bent of speakers for the same price of a fixture .
But I ’m an industrious crevice . Before I confine these speaker to the trash heap I should take one more shot at it .
Stay in your lane, Jon.Jon Martindale
Maybe I can fix high-grade electronics myself…
I ’ve been taking apart graphics circuit board , laptops , and other complicated microcomputer ironware for age . Surely with due care I could have a safe go at fixate these myself . So I position to work .
I unclothe off the underside rubber feet , I polish off the screws . I took apart the base housing , and undid the piece of ass on the circuit board and … solder . Unleaded solder at that , so my hobbyist soldering Fe could n’t quite get it hot enough to thaw it efficaciously . I did n’t have a solder wick . I glow myself twice in my rawness .
Two hour into this mess of melted tegument and stubbornly solid solder , I consider my selection . I was on the cusp of dive down an ( admittedly autistically drive ) rabbit hole . There was still a opportunity I could fix this , but I was about to order a new soldering iron and some other outfit to make this one fix well-off , that I was n’t confident of performing effectively .
Jon Martindale
I refer the pencil eraser on the speaker surround again , as if to support how bad it was , and it melted away in my hand in a sticky mess that would have made meet the foam even after an effective teardown unmanageable . This was n’t going to mould , was it ?
I could spend hours of my time and tenner or hundreds more of my dollar to limit these old , busted , indent , beautiful speakers . Or I could go and drop a line an article about it and earn enough to compensate for their refilling .
So , here we are .
So long and thanks for all the riffs
Reluctantly , I spent the next 20 minutes tidying up the slew I ’d made . The blobs of solder on the table , the seemingly - liquifying bits of speaker pencil eraser on the trading floor , put the tools into the toolbox , my blistered finger under the tap . I thought about screwing the speakers back together so they could at least take their funeral march to the dump in full shape . Like preparing them for an open casket .
But they ’re verbaliser , not a person or darling . I perplex them next to the pile of other debris outside and order some perfectly fine Edifier R1280DBs . They ’re not super exciting , do n’t calculate weird and wonderful , and probably wo n’t sound as good as the Harman Kardon ’s did back in their peak . But there is Bluetooth funding , and they ’ll suit better on my desk , and wo n’t have a unearthly popping sound when I ’m or else using my wireless earphone .
I will miss the GLA-55s though . They were n’t just a enceinte spell of hardware , but an iconic part ofmy PC gambling and work setupfor over a X . It honestly feels a bit weird typing away like this without them flank my monitors .
Something is amiss . I surmise it ’ll feel that way for quite some metre .
