Focal Texoid tweeters

[amo]

Just a quick question - does anyone envision a similar problem with the Focal Texoid tweeters that befalls many foam sorround woofers? Many people have had terrible experiences with foam sorrounds. I understand that Focal uses "coated" foam, but nontheless, this is a tweeter with quite a bit on cone movement...

Thanks.

 

[Nappylady]

If it's foam, it will die, period.

I've heard of some dying after just a couple of years, and I've seen some that are still kicking after 40. Rest assured, though, that if you get something with foam in it, the foam will deteriorate after a while.

Personally, I stick with cloth surrounds on my woofers, rolled or accordion, makes no difference to me.

 

[amo]

So is it an age thing or a motion thing ie if it sits around with less play it will last longer? How concerned should I be about this? The design I want to build uses such a Focal tweeter... Should I just buy several pairs to have for future replacement?

 

[Samuel Jayaraj]

A thin coating of glycerine on both sides of the foam retards detoriation. I have seen many such treated units (woofers essentially with a lot more Xmax than a tweeter) working well after several years even in a tropical climate like India's.

 

[amo]

I just found out that the midbass drivers in this design use a foam suspention . Whats with these french manufacturers (audax, focal...) and foam. Must be cheaper or something. So what all this tells me is that if I build these, I can expect to squize some 5+ years out of them. Thats too bad.

 

[Salas]

Good Terminator

Loudspeaker manufacturers use some times foam to better terminate cone/dome travelling standing waves in the surround. So they get less coloration and correct 'pace' in the bass.
Many do it. Take B&W Nautilus 801 for instance.
Yes this carries considerable premature aging risk.
Avoid direct sunlight. UV is killing foam and glycerine treatment is its HGH! You cant reverse aging, only delay it though.

 

[cocolino]

UV-light and foam surroundings

Avoid direct sunlight. UV is killing foam and glycerine treatment is its HGH! You cant reverse aging, only delay it though.

That`s correct!
UV light is the no.1 killer for foam surroundings (besides screwdrivers ).

Not only this - once I had some carbon fabric dome tweeters where the diaphragm coating (for damping) vanished after a very few years of UV- exposure and the driver showed significantly different operation condition compared to a new one (BIG resonance at high frequencies when coating was gone).

So what all this tells me is that if I build these, I can expect to squize some 5+ years out of them.

From own experience on foam surroundings I can say that highest quality driver brands like Scan-Speak for instance (and probably Focal too?) are usually good for about 12 to 18 years of lifespan (with not exposed to sunlight too much!).
Medium quality drivers normally hardly do it over about 10 years (as example: had some Beyma woofers which made it that long).

But it all very depends on how much UV-light the surroundings are exposed - so regarding this some sort of textile covers can help to increase lifespan.

 

[amo]

Re: Good Terminator

UV is killing foam and glycerine treatment is its HGH!

I think "HGH" is something good, but what exactly does it mean? Sorry, I am not from around here....

Also, I can not find ANY information on glycerine treatment... Does someone have a link or something? If I will be using the Audax midbasses, which have "foam suspension" (I am guessing this is the stuff under the cone, and is probably far more critical then even the surround), do I need to coat it with glycerine as well? What about the Focal tweeter, that has "coated" foam surround? (Coated with what?) Could it use an extra coat of glycerin?

Thanks!

 

[Hybrid fourdoor]

Doesn't Ozone deterioate foam as well? That something you can't hide from.