changing faceplate focal tweeter

[rwagter]

I'd like to change the facepate of a focal tweeter:



it's made of plastic.

Can I use aluminum ?

[JOE DIRT®]

sure....why not....use the existing plate as a template

[Svante]

I don't know if you have already tried to take it apart, but there is a slight risk that the dome is attached to the plastic part, rather than the magnet part. If so you may find it difficult to swap just the plastic, and also to get it all back together. I vaguely recall taking an old philips tweeter apart, I had a rough time putting everything in place due to the magnetic forces. It might not be a problem with this tweeter, though.

Might I ask why you want to do this? Cosmetics?

[rwagter]

I'm seriously investigating the possibility to clone a:



jm lab micro utopia.

Because the Berilium dome is not available at this time and will probable be a little bit expensive and I can get hold of two cheap TC90k's I'd like to first try it with this one and perhaps upgrade (including XO) later to a better tweeter. Since all focal tweeters have rectangulare faceplates I figured if I could do it with this one why not with the others... (big assumption)
Since I don't have the units yet it's merely a theoretical excersice till now.

Ralph

[sreten]

JMO but swapping the faceplate material will have an extremely minor effect.

Totally pointless ( and not cheap ) IMO.

The excessive mounting arrangements used by Jm Labs negate
faceplate material effects, and as soon as you couple the tweeter
magnet structurally, face plate construction becomes irrelevant.

sreten.

[rwagter]

How about dispertion behaviour of a dented/smooth material?

and what do you mean by:

Originally posted by sreten
as soon as you couple the tweeter
magnet structurally, face plate construction becomes irrelevant.

sreten.

By adding a ferrometal faceplate, it becomes part of the magnet isn't it and by this changing the design (perhaps I'm awfully wrong here)

[BrianGT]

Originally posted by rwagter
I'm seriously investigating the possibility to clone a:



jm lab micro utopia.

Because the Berilium dome is not available at this time and will probable be a little bit expensive and I can get hold of two cheap TC90k's I'd like to first try it with this one and perhaps upgrade (including XO) later to a better tweeter. Since all focal tweeters have rectangulare faceplates I figured if I could do it with this one why not with the others... (big assumption)
Since I don't have the units yet it's merely a theoretical excersice till now.

Ralph

I wouldn't plan on getting a pair of the Beryllium tweeters to make a clone... I have a friend that is getting them from Focal to put in his car (does car audio - sound quality, and is sponsored by Focal). He said that the retail on these tweeters is around $3,000...

--
Brian

[BrianGT]

Here is a picture of the focus ring on the back of the tweeter.

--
Brian

[sreten]

Originally posted by rwagter
How about dispertion behaviour of a dented/smooth material?

and what do you mean by:

By adding a ferrometal faceplate, it becomes part of the magnet isn't it and by this changing the design (perhaps I'm awfully wrong here)

no you are not wrong here, but a tweter designed for a
non magnetic faceplate is unlikely to improve with one.

My other point is if the tweeter magnet is physically coupled
to the enclosure, then the faceplates mechanical support
becomes a very minor issue.

sreten.