Treatment for rubber speaker surrounds?

Eldartford -- OK, you win the frivolity run-offs!
And I agree, there's nothing wrong with the older designs. In fact a lot of dome tweeters simply mold the dome and "surround" out of the same material for exactly the reasons you mention.

The problem with foam is it's not very resistant to the elements. It's fine when protected. for example, when you remove a speaker from the cabinet, the foam compression gasket is always in good shape. I have a friend in Hawaii who had to replace the foam surrounds on his JBL's every 30 months on a regular basis. They just rotted away in the heat and humidity!

Some drive units use treated paper, too. Nsgarch, I assume you don't recommend using tap water (or is this immaterial)? Cheers

I hope I didn't imply that one should get anything wet. A barely damp piece of towelling with some nap is all you need to remove dust, and will not harm paper cones. It doesn't hurt to blow them off first with compressed air like DustOff. Sometimes that's enough. Just make sure you keep the nozzle at least a foot away.

Here is what you want. I used to rebuild and restore inflatable boats - and this is the ONLY product to use on rubber. You can get samples from the company absolutely free. No kidding:

http://www.303products.com/main.php?infopage=freesample

I actually contacted Albert Von Schweikert about what I should use on the surrounds of my Von Schweikert VR-5 HSE speaker surrounds, and this is what he wrote back:

Hello Juan,

 

All of the VR-5 HSE speaker components use Kurt Mueller rubber surrounds that have a twenty year warranty. The Germans know how to make good parts! The Audax midrange and SEAS woofers use these special rubber compounds for a very long life, estimated to be more than 30 years. If you treat all of the butyl rubber edges, they will not crack or dry out for an estimated 50 years!

 

Buy the liquid made by CAIG from Parts Express; we use it to protect the foam rubber surrounds of the VR-5SE and VR-5 Anniversary models, as well as the VR-9SE Mk2 and VR-11SE Mk2. It works very well!

 

Cheers,

 

Albert Von Schweikert

President, Chief Design Engineer