Yamaha HS80M woofer repair/replacement

I bought a pair of used Yamaha HS80Ms for $150 each around 6 months ago and I've been happily using them since. When I bought them, one had small cracks in the woofer and dust cap, but when I listened I didn't hear any problems.

But I've recently noticed subtle but ugly distortion coming from the cracked speaker when playing material with a strong lower-midrange presence. Here's a photo of the monitor. It seems like the cracks may have grown through use. Questions:

* Does it seem safe to conclude that these visible defects are the source of the distortion?
* Is there anything to be done short of replacing the entire woofer?
* I found a replacement woofer for sale online for $75. How easy would it be to swap it out myself? I don't have a soldering iron and I'm not an experienced tech, but I can e.g. put a computer together.

I imagine it'd be pretty easy to desolder/resolder the new woofer, think there's only two wires to deal with and they both should be pretty big

Seems pretty safe to conclude imo and I think you should also consider the new woofer might not sound exactly like the old one given manufacturing tolerances etc.

Understandable that the sound might change. Hm, maybe I should just buy a soldering iron then rather than paying someone to do this? How nice of one do I need?

If you have a hex or torx bit you could try to remove the woofer now and see how big the wires are (I imagine pretty big)... also see if there are online DIY guides

You don't need a nice one at all, a $10 or $15 one from Radioshack or Home Depot or w/e should be fine, think you'd probably want a bigger one instead that can throw a lot of heat if they are big wires like I suspect

Cool, I think I'll give it a shot. I found the HS80M/HS50M service manual here, btw: file:///Users/steve.goldberg/Downloads/HS80M_HS50M_Schematics.pdf

Er, whoops. Here: http://www.manualslib.com/manual/687001/Yamaha-Hs80m.html

Oh I didn't realize it was a powered speaker, it'll be a bit tighter inside the cabinet

Anyway replacing a woofer should be pretty easy it's usually just two wires as seen here

http://i.imgur.com/8Ktbcjk.jpg

Ok awesome, thanks for the help.

One more dumb question, I'll pick up a soldering iron and some solder, do I also need a separate tool to remove the existing solder?

Usually you should pretin (i.e. apply solder to) the woofer connector points, the wires should have a bit of solder on them too, then you connect and heat and the solder flows and makes the connction

So I picked up the new woofer and replaced it over the weekend. It was easy and didn't require any soldering, the wires just clipped on. No more distortion! Thanks again for the assistance.