Bill Legall-MillerSound speaker driver repair


I just wanted to share a wonderful experience I had with Bill Legall from Millersound with everyone.

I had purchased a pair of pretty rare, no longer made, (the company is gone) full range, single driver speakers from a guy and knew going in that he had damaged one of the drivers by hooking up an amp that was emitting a little bit of DC in one channel. Needless to say, it completely froze the driver solid.

I was told that these weren’t repairable and were really designed to be replaced and not repaired. Enter Bill and Millersound. I told him what happened and he said he could surely fix it, but it might not a “perfectionist” job because of the custom nature of the driver. I told him that knowing his reputation, they would probably be as close to perfect as possible.

Well, I just got the driver back and I was wrong. This thing IS PERFECT! I mean you can’t tell it from the other original driver and it sounds SUPERB!!

I, (along with several others) have recommended Bill many times here on this forum, but I have never needed his services, until now. Man, am I glad I took my own advice. If anyone needs a speaker repaired I give Bill and Millersound my highest recommendation.

He has my business forever…
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I don't know this person looking for "World Class Service" but he can't see the Forest for the Trees. Bill LeGall has worked on Three sets of Alon  10" woofers as soon as i got the first set back and re-installed them in my speakers the sound was just incredible , I called him right away and asked him what he did to the woofers to sound so much better , and of course the Gentleman he is  explained the science of Dampening, Balancing ,etc. and went on to say " when the Bass sounds right everything sounds right. on the second set i purchased them here on GOON and had the seller send them straight to Bill the speakers arrived damaged the the metal cage got bent out of shape so Mr. World Class listen here , at no extra charge Bill stripped down the speakers took the Cages to his friends machine shop perfectly straightened out the cages rebuild the speakers new coils,cones etc. AT NO ADDITIONAL COST, TO ME THIS IS WORLD CLASS SERVICE. THANK YOU BILL,LORETTA  ( Carlo Lupo, IntegrityHiFi )
I've recently had the tremendous good fortune to meet Bill and Loretta Legall.  For just a moment, let's forget about speaker repair - just for a moment.  I'm lucky, I live a short drive away, so I met them, visited with them.  And I can confirm without a bit of hesitation, they are a treasure. 

Bill has that very rare combination of passion for what he does, and for the people he works for, along with an absolute and consummate knowledge of his craft.  He is the Jedi Master of speaker repair.  And the true secret to his success is that he does what he does for the love of it, and not for the money.  For the love of what he provides for his customers, for the next level quality he can give you. 

Bill may not be the most sophisticated businessman in the world (if he was, he'd charge 2-3x his normal price) and I can see how his email skills may not be on par with what some might expect.  So objectively, it's no surprise that in all the transactions he's done, a problem occurred, a customer was not happy, and an email-only communication effort couldn't solve it.  The sad thing is, Bill's impeccable and well deserved reputation takes a hit.  So be it, we all move on. 

Back to speakers.  I had an old pair of ADS L1290's that I saved all my pennies forever for, way back in the day.  Been sitting in my basement for decades and almost tossed them in a dumpster a year ago.  My 18 yo son recently renewed my interest in hifi through vinyl so I hunted down a vintage Pioneer SX-1250 in perfect condition out in Chicago, did a 25 hour marathon road trip, got that beast home and  dusted off the old speakers...and promptly blew them up. 

Found Bill online, called and got an appointment, threw the speakers in my truck and dropped them off. A week later he called and said come and get em.  What he didn't tell me was that ADS had glued the drivers into the cabs and that he was afraid to pry them out for fear he'd ruin the boxes, so he actually rebuilt the drivers in place!  I still have no idea how he did it.  He also touched up all the scratches and made them look practically new.  Well, they've never sounded so good.  And the price he charged for all the work he did was less than I spent to take my wife to dinner that night. 

I'm headed to see Bill tomorrow to pick up a mint pair of JBL L100t's I just acquired and I can not wait to hear those puppy's sing after Bill works his magic. 

One last thing, Loretta is Bill's soul partner and they are one.  There is neither without the other, you can just tell that.  It's a true joy to see them together.  You know, we meet people throughout our lives that impact us in positive ways we can't explain, and we can't forget.  Bill and Loretta are that kind of people.  Forget the speakers, I am just lucky to have met such wonderful folks.       
I hunted down a vintage Pioneer SX-1250 in perfect condition out in Chicago, did a 25 hour marathon road trip, got that beast home and dusted off the old speakers...and promptly blew them up.

Thanks for the chuckle.  I remember those days...oh the 70's :-)

Thanks also for the wonderful story of Bill & Loretta.  They are indeed terrific people!
I wanted to add to this thread that Bill just restored a pair of Advent Loudspeakers for me, and they sound incredible. I am so lucky that I live 45 minutes from Millersound, and I am honored that this legend agreed to work on my speakers after I contacted him for the very first time and we chatted over the phone for a few minutes. Not only did he perform an audio miracle, he made some additional improvements free of charge just because he loves what he does and he is an awesome person. Count me among the legion of admirers who will tell you that Bill is THE BEST, and that you are one lucky music fan if you are fortunate enough to have Bill work on your gear.
I don’t want to discount brettmcee’s experience, but I think it is cowardly and manipulative of him/her to try to shame Bill by printing Bill's final exasperated email while glossing over his/her own "mildly emotional" emails, which no doubt set the tone for the exchange that followed.

I think that Millersound needs to hear a lecture from brettmcee about their business practices even less than brettmcee needs to hear a lecture from me about his/her people skills.