vintage pair Realistic 40-1006 8" woofers, USA-made c.1985—new foam surrounds

Description

Offered for your consideration is a pair of vintage
Realistic
Cat. No. 40-1006
8 inch long-throw woofers
, manufactured c.1985.  Although many Radio Shack drivers were imported from Asia, Japan in particular, this woofer range was U.S.-made.  As such, these 8” units are a
perfect
retrofit for many period domestic speakers.
So, please take a look at my large photos, the measurements, and read the remaining description to decide if these capable
Realistic
mid/bass drivers are correct for your needs.
This pair of
Realistic
woofers is in clean, very good condition.  The sturdy, textured paper cones are perfect and the large textile voice coil dustcaps are also flawless.  Also, the bronze-tone, galvanized steel baskets are in good shape but one flange edge has a small ding and there’s some finish wear on the back sides of the flanges, as pictured.  And, the +/- input terminals measure the standard .205”, are marked for polarity on the magnet cover decals, and have never been soldered on the spades. Most importantly,
the aged original polyurethane factory foam suspension was just replaced with modern high quality polyether surrounds
.
The major drawback of many older U.S. and foreign-made speaker drivers was the foam surrounds used for cone suspension.  Though it offered superior excursion to coated linen and rubber, foam surrounds dry-rotted and/or simply disintegrated in 15-20 years.  The woofers you see here were no exception; the surrounds were dry and cracked with pieces missing.
Some of you have replaced woofer surrounds before, so you know it’s a time-consuming process that takes a great deal of patience and a steady hand. First, I removed the hard paper flange gaskets then carefully cleaned the underlying basket flanges and cone edges to remove the old gummy foam and stubborn factory adhesives, which takes a while to do thoroughly.  Then, I glued the inner surrounds to the cones.  Next, I glued the outer surrounds to the basket flanges after careful centering to verify no coil rub.  Lastly, I cleaned then reapplied the perimeter gaskets to the basket flanges.  I allowed overnight drying of the acrylic glue between the steps to achieve the perfect results you see here.  Now these woofer are in top shape once again—perhaps even better than new with the modern polyether foam surround!
Naturally, they’ve been fully tested after refoaming and sound excellent—very clear with fast, detailed midrange, and solid low-end output for the platform size with the large ferrite magnets.  Plus, I tested their DC resistance at a
perfectly
-matched 7.2Ω each, right in line with a nominal 8 ohm rating.  Lastly, the basket flanges measure 8¼” diameter, they stand about 3⅝” tall, and the mounting holes are spaced 5½” adjacent / 7¾” diagonal apart, c-t-c.
As pictured and described, this pair of
Realistic
8” woofers with painstakingly refurbished surrounds is offered at a competitive price.
Terms of Sale
:
I encourage interested parties to ask any questions they may have about this listing before committing to purchase.
Payment is due at checkout by
PayPal
or other accepted methods. U.S. mailing addresses will pay .95 for *
very
carefully packed shipping via U.S. Postal Service
or
FedEx with tracking and delivery confirmation. International purchases accepted only from those who are able to pay with
PayPal
including shipping by U.S Postal Service Global Priority Air Mail.  Thanks for looking!
*The woofers will be packaged with a piece of dense cardboard between the cones, secured with wire ties at the corner mount holes. Then they'll be wrapped with bubble sheets and placed in a sturdy box with additional protective materials. This will ensure the cones, surrounds, and terminals are fully protected and that there are no disappointments!
*
the Radio Shack catalog excerpt above is presented only for model reference; it is not included