Ooops - made my speakers sound 10x better for free ..

Thought my fronts were sounding a bit weak ... Tannoy R3s - which should be pretty decent ....

Pulled one of the bass drivers out and found all sorts of problems!

(1) There was a 3 inch crayon in there ! (courteousy of our 2 year old - rear bass port !)

(2) The driver was really graunchy - press it in and out and it sounded really scratchy .. not a pleasant sound at all .. when I pulled it out a whole stream of "dust" fell onto the carpet .. The driver moved very reluctantly ... Well I can only think that it was either sand from the bottom (mass loaded with sand) - thats escaped into the main part when transported (speakers could have been upside down at one point) - or the foam (?) inside decaying .. anyway took both drivers outside and blew them out - and now - no graunching ...

(3) Perhaps similar transport problem - on one speaker the foam (is it foam they use inside these speakers ?) - was all over the place - almost surrounding totally both drivers - wheras was much neater in the other speaker. Neatened this up, and moved it away from the drivers - now leaving a clear path between bass port and drivers.

Result - getting much better results now - bass is so much tighter and less bloomy.

All in all - for 30 minutes work - definately worth it

If the graunchiness is caused by the foam inside decaying - is it worth replacing it to stop this happening in the future ? Or is it more likely it was just sand that had "escaped" from the bottom section somehow ?

thanks, Mark.

 

Drivers themselves don't usually decay inside the motor (part that moves the cone) and neither does the fibre or foam used in the speakers to absorb the sound from the back of the driver. So its probably sand or dust. Nasty...

I might also try putting the fibre (or is it actually foam?) that is inside the speakers around the back drivers since it is there to absorb the sound from the back of it. You might find you like it more. It will probably sound a bit more 'dry' and clean. Don't worry about there being a direct line to the port.

 

Actually ...I've seen several cases of crumbling foam .....


Its also a good idea to run a magnet through your sand before placing it in a magnetic environment .....you'd be suprised at how much of the oldtimers gold prospecting black sand [magnetite] can be found depending on the original source of the sand.

 

mmm - I think you're right that is sand ...

no more problems so far thankfully.

will bear this in mind next time I mass load my speakers LOL !

Mark.