Hello everyone. I was wondering? The rubber on my drivers are a specially made rubber design. I will not be able to get new surrounds do to the shipping cost from my house to the factory and the company will not fix them. Can I use foam surround instead? Or will it hurt the driver more? There are some information on line about this not a lot. What do you think? Thanks Jeff
Hi Jeffrey,
you can use a similarly specified foam surround to get similar performance.
Foam has a tendency to rot after a period of 10-15 years, as was the case
with woofers of mine. People usually strive to keep the performance of original
driver specs, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing if the replacement
surround is a bit stiffer.
I have measured TS parameters before/after and found the shift was acceptable.
See if you can get your hands on Dr.Kurt Müller surround products.
you can use a similarly specified foam surround to get similar performance.
Foam has a tendency to rot after a period of 10-15 years, as was the case
with woofers of mine. People usually strive to keep the performance of original
driver specs, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing if the replacement
surround is a bit stiffer.
I have measured TS parameters before/after and found the shift was acceptable.
See if you can get your hands on Dr.Kurt Müller surround products.
yes you can. just make sure the voice coil is in "rest" position and also centered. Rubber will last longer, but I have seen "dry" rubber surround too.
Thanks for the advise and replys. I will replace with the right size foam due to the rubber surround I am not able to get from the speaker company. Jeff
A good idea is to apply the foam liquid silicone (you can do with a small brush after finishing the work, it is not advisable to do so before because it can affect the adhesion of glue) This will bring some T/S parameters to the original and lengthen life several years !
I have successfully used the Simply Speakers refoam kits. The staff are very helpful in helping you determine the proper replacement surround. They have a helpful YouTube channel as well.
Rubber surrounds are not hard to come by. Why choose foam when another brand of rubber will work? SS has generic rubber available. I bought a set of four 12" to experiment with my Kappa 9s which are foam. What they sent was a nice thin well made rubber composite of some sort, not butyl which is heavy. I have not tried them yet but they are nice and light and compliant. Keep in mind that rubber is way more compliant than foam. Hence my curiosity to experiment. However, foam is lighter so fs will be higher, especially with less compliant foam.
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If it is a woofer that doesn't go over 500Hz or so, I would say it probably doesn't matter much what you change the surround to. If it is an 8" or smaller woofer or midrange that goes over 1kHz, changing to a different surround material could impact the frequency response as the surround helps to damp out unwanted cone resonances
So then it would be a waste of time installing them on my Kappa 9 woofers. Just a more durable replacement.
I have found modern foam after market surrounds bought off quality purveyors is uv stable and chemically more long term stable over time than the 80's stuff. What would help us help you is knowing which particular speaker you are requiring a surround for. I had a Royd A7 mk II that had that issue. I found a thin walled rubber composite surround that worked excellently. Sold within 20 hours of posting on Gumtree to one very happy customer. Edward from Adelaide Speakers changes surrounds all the time to tweak individual loudspeaker driver responses to better suit his specific design requrements. BUT he has sold well over 3500 units and after 30 years can do this in his sleep. There is much wisdom in many councilors as long as you ask wise councilors.
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The most elementary wisdom is to use common sense. If you replace it anywhere in a speaker that is already installed in a box, it is logical not to alter its parameters, or failing that, whenever possible.
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