Mordaunt Short Aviano - Repairs

Fonzey

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Hi All,

I've been slowly collecting components from the Mordaunt Short Aviano series for... about 8 years! I started out with some bookshelf Aviano 1's, sometime later picked up the Aviano 5 centre and then everything went quiet as MS stopped making/selling them - and in fact seem to have pretty much given up trading completely?!

I had an eBay saved search running for YEARS looking for the Aviano 6 floorstanding speakers to complete the 5.0 setup. I'll be honest at this point it was purely just for the sake of completing the aesthetics, budgets have moved on since I started this "collection" and I should have probably just saved myself some drama and got a brand new setup from another brand, but hey-ho - my eBay search pinged the other day as some Aviano 6 in walnut came up for sale. Yes!

I spoke with the seller immediately and we arranged the deal, next day shipping - transaction was a pleasure to be a part of. I was gutted to find though that TNT were less impressed about the whole thing and by the looks of it had dropped the boxes on their end, several times.

Despite the sellers best efforts at packaging, I got some damage :(

The veneer of the main body for one of the speakers has a bit of crumpling - but this may be recoverable with an iron, a rag and some patience. The facias of both are a bit of a mess though.

From what I can gather, it's just a grey vinyl wrap on the faceplate - so in theory would be easily enough to peel it off and replace. I'd be highly unlikely to find an exact colour match, so would probably look to replace the vinyl on the centre and rear bookshelf speakers too...

My question for AV forums, a long shot - has anybody dismantled these speakers before and can they comment on the construction of them? It's not clear externally whether the faceplates seperate from the veneered main bodies. If they did, this would be a much nicer job as I could take them off, repair any damage under the vinyl and potentially even send them off to a pro for re-wrapping.

Alternatively does anybody have any generic advice for speaker cabinet repairs like this? I know these are not big-money speakers, but they're now quite hard to get hold of and it's going to cost me the best part of £2k to replace with a new set, so a bit of a DIY project probably isn't a terrible idea!

For the record, we're chasing TNT for remuneration. The delivery was insured, but no idea how we're supposed to prove whether or not the speakers were "appropriately packaged". Might be a fight we can't win, but fingers crossed.
 

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In cases like these, photos should be taken of the damage and of the packaging. Couriers are getting worse and worse. I noticed the other week that many will allow you to insure to hilt (so you can insure a £3k product for £3k), but you'll only get that £3k back if it is lost - it seems that the amount you'll get back for damage is very limited, something like £200. A warning to all would be to be very careful when booking couriers and find out exactly what is covered.

Also, when buying used, it's always best if the items being bought have their original box and all internal packaging - it can't then be argued they weren't sufficiently packaged.

Sorry, just a bit of info :)

As for their construction, if it was put together, it can be taken apart. How easy is the question, as sometimes certain parts might be glued together. Knowing how many speakers are constructed, you'll probably find bracing and corner bracing inside which have been glued in place to hold everything together - I can't see taking the front panel off being a particularly easy job.
 
Good info, thanks for your input.

I've done a fair bit of googling around and thinking things through, and I think the easiest course of action would be to strip off the vinyl wrap from the faceplate, remove the cones, tweeters etc (easy, just screwed in) and then mask off all of the veneered surfaces. Depending on how badly mushed the MDF is under the vinyl, I can look at building it back up with a (to be decided) or I can just leave it, as refinishing the vinyl may be adequate.

I'm then thinking of using a grey/anthracite plastidip (or similar) product to spray the faceplates rather than re-wrapping them in vinyl. I'm leaning this way because I don't fancy my chances of wrapping them neatly due to the curves, holes, etc. Spraying plastidip is fairly idiot proof, has a similar end texture to a vinyl wrap and it's removable if I cock it up (unlike spraypaint).

As I'm highly unlikely to get plastidip to match the current vinyl, I'll have to follow this process on all 5 speakers - but that's no big deal, it'll be a good project!
 
Hi All,

I've been slowly collecting components from the Mordaunt Short Aviano series for... about 8 years! I started out with some bookshelf Aviano 1's, sometime later picked up the Aviano 5 centre and then everything went quiet as MS stopped making/selling them - and in fact seem to have pretty much given up trading completely?!

I had an eBay saved search running for YEARS looking for the Aviano 6 floorstanding speakers to complete the 5.0 setup. I'll be honest at this point it was purely just for the sake of completing the aesthetics, budgets have moved on since I started this "collection" and I should have probably just saved myself some drama and got a brand new setup from another brand, but hey-ho - my eBay search pinged the other day as some Aviano 6 in walnut came up for sale. Yes!

I spoke with the seller immediately and we arranged the deal, next day shipping - transaction was a pleasure to be a part of. I was gutted to find though that TNT were less impressed about the whole thing and by the looks of it had dropped the boxes on their end, several times.

Despite the sellers best efforts at packaging, I got some damage :(

The veneer of the main body for one of the speakers has a bit of crumpling - but this may be recoverable with an iron, a rag and some patience. The facias of both are a bit of a mess though.

From what I can gather, it's just a grey vinyl wrap on the faceplate - so in theory would be easily enough to peel it off and replace. I'd be highly unlikely to find an exact colour match, so would probably look to replace the vinyl on the centre and rear bookshelf speakers too...

My question for AV forums, a long shot - has anybody dismantled these speakers before and can they comment on the construction of them? It's not clear externally whether the faceplates seperate from the veneered main bodies. If they did, this would be a much nicer job as I could take them off, repair any damage under the vinyl and potentially even send them off to a pro for re-wrapping.

Alternatively does anybody have any generic advice for speaker cabinet repairs like this? I know these are not big-money speakers, but they're now quite hard to get hold of and it's going to cost me the best part of £2k to replace with a new set, so a bit of a DIY project probably isn't a terrible idea!

For the record, we're chasing TNT for remuneration. The delivery was insured, but no idea how we're supposed to prove whether or not the speakers were "appropriately packaged". Might be a fight we can't win, but fingers crossed.
Hi.... do u have a tweeter for aviano 8 I need 1 tweeter,if so could u give me a price. If u have the housing for it,may I get a price for the tweeter on its own,and a price for the tweeter and housing please including p+p thank u lee...
 

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I've done this to mine... But my dog knocked my 1 of my aviano 8,s over and now I'm looking for a tweeter for it,but I'm getting no were fast,gutted so if anyone could help me IDE be very grateful... Lee
 

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