As with most screws, etc., definitely do not over-tighten in some kind of audiophile perfection-driven rage. There is a point of diminishing returns generally well before that. :^) |
I've seen some interesting discussions about this with the DIY speaker builder and manufacturer crowd. Apparently, you have to exercise caution in over tightening the drivers as you can kind of torque or twist the basket of the driver which in turn can throw off the driver's performance because it's not operating in a truly flat plane anymore. The theory does make sense. The consensus among that crowd is that you don't need to tighten them down as much as you might think. |
For Sure. The wing nuts that attach driver to cabinet on my OHM F5s require an an occasional tightening, but less so over time once things settle. |
Well, it's been about a year since I last tightened up the screws holding my drivers in place. Out of curiosity I checked the speakers 2 days ago. Woofers screws were tight, tweeter screws were tight, and midrange screws, just about all took a 1/16 of a turn. The midrange imaging and purity took a leap upward! And I was recently thinking my speakers were getting long in tooth! They just needed a scootch of torque. |
09-13-13: Brf
James63, why would you work your way up the torque settings? The purpose of a torque wrench is the ability to tighten to the manufactures and/or material specifications.
I'm assuming James63 means to start at a lower setting than the MFG spec and, in a star pattern, tighten up to the MFG spec gradually. As opposed to setting to the MFG spec and tightening each bolt to spec on the first pass. |
James63, why would you work your way up the torque settings? The purpose of a torque wrench is the ability to tighten to the manufactures and/or material specifications. |
I would leave them alone. If you do need to adjust them get a torque wrench and start on the lightest setting an work your way up. |
B&W's use a plastic ring between the driver and the baffle...if you use too much torque, you will flatten the ring, and the speaker will not be spec...Vandersteens use screws on their drivers only to hold them in place while a mastic is drying that securely does the job. Be careful or you can break the mastic and the speaker will need repair. This post is for all as a cautionary warning to be sure what you are doing. |
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Nice to see you here, John :) |
Once you mess with them you've probably over tighten thus the fastener will back out and loosen you shouldn't need to tighten screws those suggesting it be done have little understanding on how fasteners work. I have loudspeakers near 90 years old the fasteners are factory tight if a owner had over tighten they would well be screwed:)And I would need to install new. So once you get out the screw driver or wrench and give a twist you've already messed up the fastener and are doomed to re-tighten till it fails. |
I got torque settings from speaker manufacture and use blue loctite on the threads to prevent back-out. You will need a micro torque wrench. |
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A few threads on the subject: (http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1365773409&openusid&zzRodman99999)(http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1367192865)(http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1321414909&read&keyw&zztighten)(http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1218023176&read&keyw&zztighten)(http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1368153958) |
Yes, on my B&W N801/HTM-1/N805/ASW850 HT system. Surprisingly some of the speaker mounting bolts were very loos. I did notice a slight improvement in the sub-woofer bass, not sure about the other speakers though. |
