Dynamat on the back side of Larry's Rings

inspiredsports

Feels like I'm going to a class reunion after missing the last 10 I've not been here in so long.

Embarrassing, but the set of Larry's Rings for my 2B's have been hanging on a peg and the new gaskets we had group stamped out years ago on a shelf safely out of harm's way.

Finally finished this evening and listened to some Yes and Steppenwolf . . . VERY HAPPY!

Those of you who remember my crazily OCD posts know I love the details that pull the last nth degree of sound quality.

Question: Has anyone experimented with Dynamatting or otherwise damping the in-cabinet side of Larry's Rings?

Polkaguy58

It seems to me that anything which would help de-couple the woofer's frame from the cabinet would be a plus.

inspiredsports

Thanks! To be clearer, I'm talking about the steel surface of the back side of the rings facing into the open air inside of the cabinet.

polrbehr

IMO, it would be a PITA to cut the Dynamat to fit the rings.

While I will say I think it's on the overkill side of things, I would never say it would not be worth trying, especially if you have some extra Dynamat laying around?

Nightfall

I just don't see there being an issue with the ring vibrating at levels that would matter when it's pressed up against the cabinet and torqued down by 4+ screws. I guess I could be wrong though and what would it hurt really?

Emlyn

Dynamat reduces ringing when it is applied to metal, or can serve to add mass to other materials. On speaker driver baskets that were not optimally designed it reduces vibrational energy which affects overall driver performance. Given that Larry's rings are already damped by contact with the wood of the cabinet when properly installed I don't see value in adding anything else to the rings as any resonances they have would be negated by contact with the cabinet.

Emlyn

Dynamat reduces ringing when it is applied to metal, or can serve to add mass to other materials. On speaker driver baskets that were not optimally designed it reduces vibrational energy which affects overall driver performance. Given that Larry's rings are already damped by contact with the wood of the cabinet when properly installed I don't see value in adding anything else to the rings as any resonances they have would be negated by contact with the cabinet.

inspiredsports

Thanks for the opinions! I've read them and thought it through and agree that the bare hard uncovered fiberboard interior is really not much different from the small amount of exposed ring metal surface, and I'm leaving it alone. Tomorrow, Larry's Rings and new gaskets go into my TL'd SDA SRS II's

F1nut

Polkaguy58 wrote: »

It seems to me that anything which would help de-couple the woofer's frame from the cabinet would be a plus.

No, that's wrong. You want the basket clamped as tight as possible to the cabinet, hence the purpose of Larry's rings.

Polkaguy58

F1nut wrote: »

Polkaguy58 wrote: »

It seems to me that anything which would help de-couple the woofer's frame from the cabinet would be a plus.

No, that's wrong. You want the basket clamped as tight as possible to the cabinet, hence the purpose of Larry's rings.

Why ?

F1nut

So that the driver moves, not the basket.

Polkaguy58

Someone needs to invent a speaker, where the front, sides and basket are all one molded casting.
Add the speaker cones, surrounds and magnets after the fact and then bolt on the back plate.
Who knows ? , with the advent of 3D printers, maybe even print one up ?

inspiredsports

Polkaguy58 wrote: »

Someone needs to invent a speaker, where the front, sides and basket are all one molded casting.
Add the speaker cones, surrounds and magnets after the fact and then bolt on the back plate.
Who knows ? , with the advent of 3D printers, maybe even print one up ?

With that said, the work-arounds the rain trust here at Club Pok have invented over the last decade and a half or so are amazingly efficient!

inspiredsports

brain trust

Polkaguy58

With all due respect to those in the brain trust, there's always the next step forward...............and sometimes that step is the result of a blind stumble.
As a man who was born without any legs, I'm very good at improvising my way through life............and a pretty good stumbler.

westmassguy

Polkaguy58 wrote: »

Someone needs to invent a speaker, where the front, sides and basket are all one molded casting.
Add the speaker cones, surrounds and magnets after the fact and then bolt on the back plate.
Who knows ? , with the advent of 3D printers, maybe even print one up ?

Many quality speakera are made that way. JBL for one, has been making cast aluminum models for years. I've re-coned European models that were cast iron. It's not something new.

Polkaguy58

That's not what I meant, I'm talking a speaker basket, that is incorperated (molded) into the whole cabinet face and sides.
The woofer cone and spider could be glued in place from the front during assembly and the magnet attached from the rear with some sort of key lock guides for allignment.
When everything was in place, a gasketed back plate with built in crossovers could be bolted on.
I imagine that there are sonicly innert plastics that could be injected molded easily enough and a grid type matrix inside could stiffen up all the walls, to further dampen any unwanted vibrations.
Just a thought.................

Nightfall

What happens when you need to replace a woofer? Send the entire cast cabinet back?

txcoastal1

Nightfall wrote: »

What happens when you need to replace a woofer? Send the entire cast cabinet back?

Buy a dog??

Nightfall

Polkaguy58

Nightfall wrote: »

What happens when you need to replace a woofer? Send the entire cast cabinet back?

I guess you'd just have to make it so well, that it couldn't conceivabley ever be blown.

inspiredsports

Larry's Rings and new gaskets also successfully installed in my SDA SRS II TL's this morning and I stayed with my decision of no Dynamat damping needed on the in-cabinet side of the rings).

Removing the Mortite previously used as gasket material was the hardest part of the whole job. As mentioned above the rings have been hanging on a peg and gaskets on a bookshelf since 2012. I'm so happy to finally have this project off of my to-do list!

Last is to pick up on the final voicing project of the SRS II TL's where I'd been subbing in lower value resistors in the spot on the schematic where a 3.5 ohm resistor lived when SL-2000's and the 4.4 bypass cap were present.

The RDO-198's need little boost and I think the next resistor queued for testing (a 2.0 ohm) will prove to match the voicing of my TL'd 2B's

leftwinger57

I just saw this and as a Dynamat user myself I don't think there is any added benefit. Now if the worse happens and you don't like the sound in comparison then you have one hell of a job removing the stuff. I had almost the problem w/ Black-Hole-5 ,this stuff works as advertised and deadened the sound so much I was going to rip it out. After a bunch of listening I thought better of it and left it in and of course it took away any and most of the hollowness of the mostly empty cabinet even w/ all the original polyfill.

CH46E

Could someone post a pic of these Larry's Rings? Thanks.

Nightfall

CH46E wrote: »

Could someone post a pic of these Larry's Rings? Thanks.

http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/171345/new-sda-2bs-larrys-rings-dynamat/p1