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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => LAB Lounge => Topic started by: David Hoover on June 26, 2011, 12:40:25 AM
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I searched everywhere and couldn't find an answer to this...
I set up for an event and it got rained out. A couple of woofers in my mains got wet. Some of them spotted with drops, one of them a little more wet. They are all paper cone woofers. We took the grills off and carefully dried/got the dirt off of them with the edge of a soft towel. Will this affect the sound quality at all after they are dry? Will it do anything to the cone?
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David,
If the water got into the edge of the cone it may appear to be dry but the edge of the cone will usually tear after about a month. if the edge has been treated to prevent cone cry you may be just fine. If not you could consider a treatment. The treatment material can be purchased from Weber speakers. All you need to do is paint a 1/2" wide area around the cone edge. The sound may actually be better as some of the very high frequencies will be dampened.
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I searched everywhere and couldn't find an answer to this...
I set up for an event and it got rained out. A couple of woofers in my mains got wet. Some of them spotted with drops, one of them a little more wet. They are all paper cone woofers. We took the grills off and carefully dried/got the dirt off of them with the edge of a soft towel. Will this affect the sound quality at all after they are dry? Will it do anything to the cone?
I've had speakers over the years get spots of water with no ill effects. A soaking is another thing. I've never had one get soaked. Years ago my reconer told me the worst enemy of speaker cones was moisture. I did a lot of outdoor events that went into the night, and commonly my cabs would be soaked with dew when I loaded out, but the cone would be dry, at least they appeared dry. They still lasted a long time. But like I said, I never had a cone get soaked, just sparse drops of rain.
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David,
If the water got into the edge of the cone it may appear to be dry but the edge of the cone will usually tear after about a month.
Happened to me as well, they all tore along the transition between diaphragm and dust cap after a few concerts :(
A quick fix/treatment in a pinch (like on tour or when parts are not available) is actually to get the stickiest hair spray you can get on one of those pump-action bottles and have at it!
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I searched everywhere and couldn't find an answer to this...
I set up for an event and it got rained out. A couple of woofers in my mains got wet. Some of them spotted with drops, one of them a little more wet. They are all paper cone woofers. We took the grills off and carefully dried/got the dirt off of them with the edge of a soft towel. Will this affect the sound quality at all after they are dry? Will it do anything to the cone?
I once had a pair of JBL Mpro 225 columns sitting in my pickup (with a shell) cones up. It rained. One of the cones filled with water. I had a show the next day. Put a hair dryer on it for about four hours. I've been using that same speaker for four years since then. Now I haven't put that speaker through any kind of analysis to see if it was sonically damaged, but it's held together through some *very* loud shows (in fact, I ran that speaker off an IT8000 last weekend [with DR260 limiters] to test out some used amps I bought).
As far as I'm concerned, I was *very* lucky. I smoked an Mpro 415 LF driver (2033H) last weekend (this was off an XTi 4000, not the IT8000 !!!) and a recone is going to cost $200 or so.
Bottom line is this: try it and see if it works (not at a gig, obviously; or, at least, take a spare with you).
I've had good luck with JBL (one HF driver and one LF driver dead in 7 years), YMMV.
Cheers,
Randy Hyde
P.S. Never leave speakers "cones up" in a vehicle!
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David,
If the water got into the edge of the cone it may appear to be dry but the edge of the cone will usually tear after about a month. if the edge has been treated to prevent cone cry you may be just fine. If not you could consider a treatment. The treatment material can be purchased from Weber speakers. All you need to do is paint a 1/2" wide area around the cone edge. The sound may actually be better as some of the very high frequencies will be dampened.
Bob,
On these woofers it does look as if the surround on the edges is coated because it's quite shiny compared to the cone itself. The cone itself looks untreated.
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I searched everywhere and couldn't find an answer to this...
I set up for an event and it got rained out. A couple of woofers in my mains got wet. Some of them spotted with drops, one of them a little more wet. They are all paper cone woofers. We took the grills off and carefully dried/got the dirt off of them with the edge of a soft towel. Will this affect the sound quality at all after they are dry? Will it do anything to the cone?
I once had a pair of JBL Mpro 225 columns sitting in my pickup (with a shell) cones up. It rained. One of the cones filled with water. I had a show the next day. Put a hair dryer on it for about four hours. I've been using that same speaker for four years since then. Now I haven't put that speaker through any kind of analysis to see if it was sonically damaged, but it's held together through some *very* loud shows (in fact, I ran that speaker off an IT8000 last weekend [with DR260 limiters] to test out some used amps I bought).
As far as I'm concerned, I was *very* lucky. I smoked an Mpro 415 LF driver (2033H) last weekend (this was off an XTi 4000, not the IT8000 !!!) and a recone is going to cost $200 or so.
Bottom line is this: try it and see if it works (not at a gig, obviously; or, at least, take a spare with you).
I've had good luck with JBL (one HF driver and one LF driver dead in 7 years), YMMV.
Cheers,
Randy Hyde
P.S. Never leave speakers "cones up" in a vehicle!
Sweet, it's looking good then for my woofers!! & I'll remember that advice!
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From what it looks like the one speaker cone that got pretty wet might have a change at separating at some point. So, would you advice just buying a replacement driver and keeping it with me?