Wayne Parham Messages: 18791 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
I generally agree that buying used speakers is risky. They're electro-mechanical and can be potentially subjected to the most abuse, which is sometimes not obvious to the eye.
There are two execeptions. First is if you know the history of the speaker very well and/or have the ability to measure it. Those kinds of things can raise confidence. The second exception is where drivers have factory-manufactured recone kits available. This is rare - most companies don't make available recone kits for their drivers. But some do, and where that's possible, you can buy a speaker with the understanding that you'll have it reconed to make it 100% refurbished, good as new.
I'd also swap the capacitors in the crossover if buying used, just to make sure those are undamaged high-quality parts. I recommend only using poly caps in loudspeaker crossovers. Always replace any non-polarized electrolytic caps with polypropylene capacitors. They're much better.