Ferrofluid & power handling

[David Gatti]

Does anybody have any data on how much greater power handling a ferrofluid cooled tweeter has relative to a non-ferrofluid one?



www.gattiweb.com

 

[5th element]

Well not exactly a true % but maybe more informative then im thinking. Seas tweeters now come (well a few models do) with and without ferro, these tweeters looks pretty much exactly the same appart from the ferro.

The non ferro unit will handle 55watts and the ferro one 90.

But in the excel line up the non ferro excel tweeter handles just the same power as the one with ferro.

 

[David Gatti]

So it seems that in some cases power handling isn't really the main benefit of ferrofluid, i.e. it's used mainly to damp resonances?

 

[DcibeL]

For a datasheet comparison, maybe look at the Peerless 811815 (non-ferro) compared to the 811827 (ferro). As far as I know those drivers are exactly the same besides the ferro fluid.
On the 811827 page: "The magnetic oil in the airgap adds viscous damping to the system and increases the power handling".

 

[David Gatti]

Those Peerless graphs show 100W non-ferrfluid vs 130W ferrofluid. Hardly significant I would have thought.
It's interesting that most of the top end tweeters make a point of having no ferrofluid for "enhanced micro-linearity".

 

[soongsc]

For a datasheet comparison, maybe look at the Peerless 811815 (non-ferro) compared to the 811827 (ferro). As far as I know those drivers are exactly the same besides the ferro fluid.
On the 811827 page: "The magnetic oil in the airgap adds viscous damping to the system and increases the power handling".

This is quite interesting to think about. One would think having fluild to use friction to dampen a coil movement would create some "sound" that will have adverse quality unless you normally play them loud enough that it doesn't matter. For low level listening, probably the non-ferro ones would be better?

 

[David Gatti]

I was also wondering if ferrofluid can break down or change it's properties after a 5-10 years.

 

[DcibeL]

For low level listening, probably the non-ferro ones would be better?

That's what I have been told. I've never been able to do a side by side comparison of a ferrofluid and non-ferrofluid version of the same driver to be able to judge for myself though.

 

[planet10]

That's what I have been told. I've never been able to do a side by side comparison of a ferrofluid and non-ferrofluid version of the same driver to be able to judge for myself though.

Without FF you often end up with a tweeter that is much harder to XO, so you may have trouble accessing the extra detail (claimed) available with a T without.

dave