Fur collar for my whizzers !

Polkaguy58

I'd seen this mod done before in pictures and now that I'm snowed in for a day or so, I decided to try it out.
I laid both of my Tannoy/Dayton full rangers side by side and then treated one whizzer with a twisted up piece of dacron fiberfill, gently stuffed behind the whizzer's cone.
It's supposed to dampen the movement somewhat and diffuse the back waves off of the whizzer from bouncing off the speaker cone.
I ran the tip of my finger lightly across the edge of the treated whizzer, listening to to see how much it differed from the untreated speaker.
There was an audible, less tinny sound, so I did up the other speaker and gave them a listen.
All I can say is WOW !
I used to have to set my Marantz's mid tone control back a bit to tame the HONK, but now have the amp on Pure Direct mode.........and it sounds great !
The nice thing is that it's totally reversible, with no permant mods to the speaker.

maxward

I need to give this a try. My whizzer has been a bit chilly of late.

mhardy6647

ahh, the ol' '98 cent Lowther tweak' from Mark Wauters.
It can help a shouty driver (like a Lowther) -- better to go with a non-shouty driver in the first place, though, methinks.

Polkaguy58

It really makes sense having something to break up the rear waves off of the whizzer, while slightly dampening excess vibrations.

nooshinjohn

I thought you found a girlfriend...

Polkaguy58

Here's a new upgrade whizzer mute that I made from a foam port bung.
I used an electric knife to slice a couple 1/4" thick circles and then poked a pair of Fiskars through the center and cut out a donut hole.
Then I slipped them over the whizzers, like mounting a motorcycle tire, sliding one side under and working the rest around the rim.
They work great !

xschop

How's this mod holding up? I like your idea and want to try this on my phase-plug modded 6502's to cover up the voice coil leads and clean up the final looks.
Is there an aftermarket item similar to what you did?

Polkaguy58

It's held up just fine.
All I did was use an electric knife to slice two pieces off of those cylinder foam bungs that come with some speakers to block the ports.
After that, I poked a pair of scissors through the middle and cut out the center, leaving a ring.
Stretch the ring over the whizzer cone and it seats itself.
It makes a lot of sense, as the foam keeps sound from emitting from the back of the cone and bouncing off the speaker, while damping any excess vibration from the whizzer.

gp4jesus

@ anybody. Do you have another name or a better description for that foam? I want to put SOMETHING* around my tweets to control diffraction
* no actual contact
https://us.v-cdn.net/5021930/uploads/editor/lj/u7sbh2yc8wl2.jpg

Thanks Tony

mhardy6647

gp4jesus wrote: »

@ anybody. Do you have another name or a better description for that foam? I want to put SOMETHING* around my tweets to control diffraction
* no actual contact
https://us.v-cdn.net/5021930/uploads/editor/lj/u7sbh2yc8wl2.jpg

Thanks Tony

"No actual contact" won't work for the whizzer mod described in this thread. The contact is mission critical, as the fur, cotton, wool, or foam is damping resonances (or something like that) in the parasitic cone.

For diffraction, you can cut a thin piece of foam to fit around the tweeter dome (if it's a dome tweeter) -- this was all the rage in the late '70s. The foam folks use to make replacement 'socks' for DCM timewindows would work well. It is a stock product available from McMaster-Carr (or at least it was).

As I recall, Vance Dickason's Loudspeaker Design Cookbook describes making concentric circles of foam to improve (i.e., minimize) diffraction. That was popular in the old days for a while, too.

gp4jesus

mhardy6647 wrote: »

gp4jesus wrote: »

@ anybody. Do you have another name or a better description for that foam? I want to put SOMETHING* around my tweets to control diffraction
* no actual contact
https://us.v-cdn.net/5021930/uploads/editor/lj/u7sbh2yc8wl2.jpg

Thanks Tony

I forgot to mention I hope the foam will soften these tweets* tendency to squeak. Please click on the pic link** to see it’s a your typical Polk soft dome. I’ll checkout your advice/sources. Polk forum members are the best 😊
*RTi/RTi A series
** if it works

Many thanks, Tony

DaveHo

RtiA line is notoriously bright. Be interesting to see what you come up with to tame them.

mhardy6647

I mean, the brightness of the (in)famous Yamaha NS-10M studio monitors was famously often tamed with some tissue paper.

https://www.bobhodas.com/examining-the-yamaha-ns-10m.php

EDIT: Heh: https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/acoustic-damping/dampers-felt-defraction-ring-for-tweeters/

mhardy6647

so, I am drawing a blank for the precise 'recipe' I am remebering so I will have to look at some actual, physical books. Pity me.

meanwhile, this might be of interest, @gp4jesus
https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=speakers&m=315155

gp4jesus

mhardy6647 wrote: »

https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=speakers&m=315155

SPOT ON Mr Hardy! While I’ll hafta cut out a crescent to clear the mid on my towers and two for my Center, YES that’s it.

Now where to buy?

DaveHo wrote: »

RtiA line is notoriously bright.

I’ve “heard” the RTi line is brighter still!

DaveHo wrote: »

Be interesting to see [hear] what you come up with to tame them.

YUP! Know that I firmly believe at least “half” of the “squeak” comes from the CHEAP Polk XO filtering. That said as, except for a ClarityCap PX blocking cap, my LCR* tweets have zero filtering and still need a little DSP to tame, though a lot less compared to my un-modded surrounds
* tri-amped

We’ll see Thanks

Tony