Treated Cloth Surrounds - Rubber Cement..?

[TRC]

It was suggested to me this afternoon, that to strenthen older treated cloth surrounds on a woofer, is to use rubber cement to reinforce the hold between the surround and the cone. Your opinions please.

TRC

 

[tyella]

Somebody will ask, so it may as well be me...
What are the speakers?

If they are acoustic suspension, you'll want to avoid anything that will stiffen up the cloth.

 

[twiiii]

Not only no, but H**l NO! It will reduce the sensitivity of the speaker and raise the resonance frequency. There is a relation ship between the surround and the spider that controls the cone, keeping aligned and returning it to the center position while controlling and damping resonances in the cone. So leave the surrounds alone. You can get the correct damping fluid from Orange County Audio if necessary. They specialize in re-coning and replacing foam surrounds of speakers. Ive seen Altec, JBL, Klipsch, and Bozak woofers where the resonance frequency had only changed a few % over the years and I live in a very dry climate. 605 & 615 Altec ceiling speakers used in field houses and large meeting halls worked perfectly after 35 years of use with only a few having had crossover issues. JBL D130 and D140's, 2220 with Bozak B-199's are still working today with their resonance frequencies changed 5%.

 

[stickman]

I will disagree with twiiii on this one. The important thing is to only use "acid free" rubber cement and only apply it on in a very thin coat. The biggest drawbacks are: 1.) It will remain sticky and attract dust, and 2.) Over time it can evaporate.

I've applied thin coats of acid free rubber cement to both deteriorating foam surrounds and cloth surrounds without any "stiffening" issues arising over the years. The stickiness/dust attracting factor has been the only issue.

I've purchased vintage drivers where the treated cloth accordion surrounds had become stiff and brittle with age and nothing could rescue them. Good luck!

 

[beatcomber]

I'm using the highly recommend AR/KLH sealant sold by Vintage-AR on eBay for my KLH Six restoration. It is generally regarded as very very close to what was used at the factories back in the day.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191548063448?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[woodj]

NO tp rubber cement!

 

[TRC]

These are Bozak 301CD.

 

[tyella]

I'm not familiar with those specifically. I suggest holding off and getting a specific recommendation. Once you put stuff on the cloth surrounds, it's (at best) very hard to get it off.

The concoction sold by vintage-ar on eBay and RoyC here on the forums is precisely the stuff for old Acoustic Research and KLH woofers.

Maybe re-title your question something like "Bozak 301CD surround treatment question" and post it again. There are some folks here who are very knowledgeable about those speakers.

 

[Audiofriends]

Cloth surrounds

Good morning,

There are lots of different cloth surrounds, for instance the cloth surrounds of a Bose 901 mk1/mk2 or AR4xa (very flexible) or very inflexible, most times used in for instance JBL, Bose and Tannoy (PA) most times to get more efficiency of the speaker.

The inflexible cloth surrounds from Tannoy and JBL sometimes get broken. But if the surrounds are fine, no damage, I would let them be original.

Best regards, Fred

 

[GD70]

Do not use rubber cement. That's not what it was designed for. You will ruin the driver.

 

[phatster]

I agree!