A Technics speaker question

[Gino]

I just bought a pair of Technics SB-6000A's today and was wondering if anyone had any idea how to clean the fabric grille material. Each speaker actually has two grilles; one for the 12' woofer and another three-sided grille on top for the tweeter. The grilles are in great physical condition, only a little dirty. I don't want to destroy the things while attempting to clean them. Does anyone have any ideas how to go about this task? Thanks in advance-Gino

 

[GordonW]

Congrats dude! A good friend of mine inherited a pair of SB7000s (the 15" 3-way version) a while back, in rather used, abused and refused condition, and we spent quite a while getting them back going again. I'm glad we did- THOSE ARE MASSIVELY IMPRESSIVE when they're working right. Mind you, the ones we worked on, are not completely original- the tweeters were dead, so we substituted some Vifa soft-domes, on mounts made to duplicate the position and time-alignment of the originals. Worked well, IMHO.

As for cleaning the grilles- what's on them? If it's just dust, I'd recommend a toothbrush and a Dust Devil type small vacuum. I've had amazing amounts of crud come out of grilles that way...

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[Gino]

Thanks for the reply Gordon. I never thought of the toothbrush method. I just don't want to damage them. Does that type of grille material get frail and prone to tearing or will it still be pretty durable after 25 years or so? As far as the dirt, it's It looks like 25 years of dust and probably some cigarette smoke as well. Thanks for the reply, Gino

 

[Toasted Almond]

IF the grille frames are plastic, I have had great success with this method. Fill the bathtub with warm water, and add a LITTLE laundry detergent. Immerse one grille at a time into the water, and just move it back and forth as if you were panning for gold. For really tough stains, you can take a VERY soft brush, and gently rub the affected areas. Rinse them with the hand held shower massager head, and set them out somewhere to dry. The results can be startling. You can see just what you've done by looking at the water that is left in the tub. It can get pretty funky.

Toasted Almond

 

[mhardy6647]

If the grilles are polyester (which would be my guess), they should be pretty impervious to age, so one can be fairly aggressive in cleaning... although one will need to be very careful not to snag the fabric (remember doubleknit?).

Older, natural cloth, grilles (e.g., early AR, KLH, and the like) can be pretty fragile after 40 plus years.

I vacuum my Polk's grilles periodically, and they clean up fairly nicely.

 

[Gino]

As much as I like Toasted Almond's idea, I'll have to stick with the toothbrush method as the frames are made of plywood. I may just leave them alone or replace the material altogether. Thanks, Gino