SIDEWINDER18X
Well-Known Member
Hello Everyone,
It's great to see people here who have deep passion and crave for vintage speakers. It's also very appreciable to see that how keen & particular they are on each and every aspect in selecting the accurate parts and precision to get them back to their original state or form.
In doing so you should always keep in mind some very important points if you want to get the job done accurately & correctly.
1. Re-magnetize the magnet before you recone.
Vintage speaker build around Alnico magnet will have a loss in their magnetic strength, even if they were not hard driven in any theater or in any pro installation or usage. This is due to aging and other circumstances. If you can measure gap strength with a gauss meter you will come to know about it for sure. So re-magnetizing is strongly recommended. Take a gauss reading before and after the process. You will see the difference.
2. Never coat or spray any lacquer or emulsion on the paper cone surface.
I see lots of misconceptions in this regards. Vintage speakers are built around Light, Soft and Felted cones. They are made as such for their unique tone. Its due to this they have a shorter life span.
Do not ever spray water proofing chemicals or doping lacquers on to the cone surface. It will alter the tonal characteristic of the speaker. Spaying any liquid will be absorbed by the cone pulp like a blotting paper. Hence the natural tone of the cones will change.
(But though there are several speakers of the past & present which do have treatment on them. Some for weather resistance, some for producing a unique tone out of them & some just for cosmetics such as "wet look".
The same formula cannot be applied for every speaker).
Vivek
It's great to see people here who have deep passion and crave for vintage speakers. It's also very appreciable to see that how keen & particular they are on each and every aspect in selecting the accurate parts and precision to get them back to their original state or form.
In doing so you should always keep in mind some very important points if you want to get the job done accurately & correctly.
1. Re-magnetize the magnet before you recone.
Vintage speaker build around Alnico magnet will have a loss in their magnetic strength, even if they were not hard driven in any theater or in any pro installation or usage. This is due to aging and other circumstances. If you can measure gap strength with a gauss meter you will come to know about it for sure. So re-magnetizing is strongly recommended. Take a gauss reading before and after the process. You will see the difference.
2. Never coat or spray any lacquer or emulsion on the paper cone surface.
I see lots of misconceptions in this regards. Vintage speakers are built around Light, Soft and Felted cones. They are made as such for their unique tone. Its due to this they have a shorter life span.
Do not ever spray water proofing chemicals or doping lacquers on to the cone surface. It will alter the tonal characteristic of the speaker. Spaying any liquid will be absorbed by the cone pulp like a blotting paper. Hence the natural tone of the cones will change.
(But though there are several speakers of the past & present which do have treatment on them. Some for weather resistance, some for producing a unique tone out of them & some just for cosmetics such as "wet look".
The same formula cannot be applied for every speaker).
Vivek