Better yet, stay away from UPS. I've shipped and received hundreds of items with UPS, FedEx, and USPS. My experience is that UPS has a far greater damage rate than both of the others combined. For fragile items like guitars and amps I use USPS exclusively. I have yet to experience a problem with them in over 10 years.Sunburst wrote:Lesson here is to remove the speakers before shipping. Or have it packed, shipped, and heavily insured at a UPS Store!
You can repair the particle board as follows:Sunburst wrote:Any ideas how to remount the speakers? Logical options are either inserting dowels (not an easy task with particle board) or using epoxy. Would appreciate your collective thoughts.
1) Remove any loose pieces and clear out the hole thoroughly - use a small chisel if necessary. If a large chunk still fits into the hole well, use 15-minute epoxy to re-attach it.
2) Fill in any cavities with either polyester resin auto body filler or wood filler. Use multiple layers to ensure good coverage and fill.
3) Drill pilot holes for the screws and re-attach speakers.
These JBLs are 4-ohm speakers. I don't recall off the bat what the Pyles are, but you should measure their impedance. I guess it depends on how original you'd like to make this XP100. To my ears, these little speakers all sound equally terrible, so it shouldn't matter which ones you install as long as the impedance is correct.Sunburst wrote:Also, any ideas about better replacement speakers? The foam has obviously all disintegrated on these. Refoaming kits are only about $25 and new and comparable Pyle Drivers are only $25 (or less) each. But there have to be much better speakers out there. I was considering these JBLs:
http://www.jbl.com/car-speakers/GTO629_ ... ck#start=1
I ended up getting these Pyle Driver replacements: