Do speaker cone dust-caps reduce performance?

Hi,

Given that most woofer dust caps are not made from the same rigid material that the cone itself is made of, do they reduce overall sound quality?

For example, on my Revolvers, the cone is made from some kind of stiff fabric, but the dust cap is very thin/flimsy plastic. Given that the cap is firmly attached to, and has to oscillate at the same (sometimes violent) frequencies as the cone, does this introduce distortion or colouration?

My sonus fabers have an inverted, solid dust cap (which is great, because it means naughty children can't poke thier fingers through it). Do these give superior performance to your standard dust cap?

Just wondering, as it seems strange to have such flimsy materials on the surface of a speaker cone.

DT

 

Perhaps not quite so relevant due to being a dual concentric design....... but I removed the dustcaps on a pair of Tannoy 12" drivers whilst I replaced the rotten foam surrounds, and used them for a couple of weeks with no dustcaps before putting new ones back on. I noticed no difference at all, in any frequency.

 

The dustcap is unlikely to make any difference at all on a bass driver, although the diameter of the dustcap is related to the voice coil diameter and that can make a difference.

For midrange or full-range drivers the dustcap will make a bigger difference but, even then, it can be surpriising how little difference it makes. I have been auditioning some prototype full-rangers and the dustcap often makes less difference than changes to the magnet, cone or suspension.

Regards
Steve