Help with making a decision - Fried Studio V mars

Thank you. I was originally going to make a suggestion, but after thinking about it overnight, I recommend sending both of your 8" Focal drivers to Bill Legall of Millersound http://www.millersound.net/service.htm for repair. Bill's a very close friend of mine, and THE best loudspeaker driver repair person in the world. The price will be most reasonable.

Here's a couple of stories about him
http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/forbidden/forbidden_9.html

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/roadtour13/roadtour13.html

Can Bill do more than refoaming and reconing? The reason that I ask is that I think it may be a problem with the voice coil because the woofer looks fine but sounds bad (distortion and other extraneous noise).

Yes, Bill can fix most anything that wrong with a driver. Voice coils, magnets, cones, spiders, etc. He replaces spiders when he installs new surrounds because both work together and form the driver's suspension. Though the driver will work again after a simple refoam, in Bill's eyes, the job's only half done (actually less), and the driver is still broken.

Regarding voice coils, Bud Fried left me his very own loudspeakers prior to his passing. After using them a bit, I discovered an issue with one, and took them to Bill. Bud's speakers obviously had some "hot rod" in them; in this case, a 1" dual voice coil in the 6.5" Gefco. Bill hunted around through his incredible supply, and actually found a pair, which he claimed was only the second time (though, obviously common in larger drivers) he'd seen this in more than 40 years. In no time, he had installed new ones in both drivers. I figured he wasn't going to find these unusual voice coils, and wondered if my next move would be to shop for new drivers. But he assured me he could have them made up for him by his supplier within a week or two.

They are posted FOR SALE in the classified area. I appreciate everyone's advice, and thoroughly agree that I will have to spend 3-4 times as much to replace these speakers but I am leaving the country and don't want them to rot in a storage unit somewhere. Special thanks to Trelja, I still have your number as well.

Congratulations on your first ad! Everything looks great.

Some lucky buyer will end up with a pair of speakers that surprise and delight them as the discover they compete with most anything currently produced.

I wish you the best of luck with the sale!