refoaming some old speakers

tonyr1
tonyr1 Posts: 103
edited February 2011 in Speakers
I bought some old Mirage speakers that needed to be re-foamed. Ordered a kit from parts express and found that the dust caps in the kit were a lot bigger than the ones on the speakers. The old ones are rubber. Will using dust caps with a bigger diameter and different material change the sound in a bad way? If so, maybe I could try carefully cutting the old rubber caps out before the re-foam and reuse them. Advice or comments most welcome!
Post edited by tonyr1 on
· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • quadzilla
    quadzilla Posts: 1,543
    edited February 2011
    Shouldn't matter.
    Turntable: Empire 208
    Arm: Rega 300
    Cart: Shelter 501 III
    Phono Pre: dsachs consulting
    Digital: Marantz SACD 30n
    Pre: Conrad Johnson ET3 SE
    Amp: Conrad Johnson Premier 350
    Cables: Cardas Neutral Reference
    Speakers: SDA 2.3TL, heavily modified
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Tony M
    Tony M Posts: 11,197
    edited February 2011
    Some people leave the caps on. You should call parts express back and see why theirs' is larger. They're a GREAT company but they might have sent a wrong set. It happens.
    Most people just listen to music and watch movies. I EXPERIENCE them.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 34,007
    edited February 2011
    I don't want to belittle the significance of the dust cap (mass and porosity) but on a sealed box speaker the change isn't likely to have a big impact. That said:

    1. You may be able to salvage the old dustcaps and re-use them. Feel free.
    2. Many woofers (especially those without very tight gaps) are readily re-foamed without shimming. In this case, it's (of course) not necessary to perform the dust cap-ectomy :-)


    An aside: Which Mirages? A pair of SM-1 and SM-4 wended their way though my "collection" in recent years. The latter had been, unfortunately, re-woofered with Radio Shack drivers so it was kind of hard to tell about them... but the SM-1s were pretty nice. These were both early Mirage products.

    Here's an "after" photo of one of the SM-1s. FWIW, I did not remove the dustcap to re-foam these.

    DSCN5566.jpg
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 25,708
    edited February 2011
    I've re-foamed many a woofer 99.999% there is no need to take off the dust cap. If you do need to most of the time you can just carefully pull it off and re-use. The number one thing to remember is to take your time, make sure everything is as clean as possible. Too many folks try and do both sides and woofers on the same day do not try to do that. If by chance you do need to take the dust caps off and need to use the new ones the size will not make any sound difference it will just look different. good luck and take your time.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • tonyr1
    tonyr1 Posts: 103
    edited February 2011
    They are Mirage 350's. Thanks for the input guys! Will post results.:smile:
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter