Damping on speaker frame/spider

[Tamadrums]

Hey guys, just thought I might share a mod I did recently with interesting results.....I have a pair of 12" Celestion 70/80 drivers and they are remarkably clear and articulate , but I found a little abrasive and honky in the 2.5 - 4k region.

I put Dynamat Extreme around the speaker frame (the frame is a pressed steel cheapie) and also on the back of the magnet, leaving a hole for heat dissipation for the voice coil.

All I can say I wow! The sound is even clearer, faster and all the harshness/honky is gone. I did notice quite a bit of bass (lower mids) was missing when I was standing back a bit (driver isn't in a box yet), so I went up to the driver to listen and realized that all the bass was still there, it was just all at the rear of the speaker, projecting perpendicular (out the sides) of the speaker! Quite interesting...
I have no doubt that if you put it in a box the lower mids would be projected forward again!

Anyway thought some people here might benefit from this for their own project or experimentation.

Image attached.
IMG_3175_A.jpg
Cheers.

[struth]

Interesting Dan. Ive a set of fr celestion 12" that have the wizzers. They occasionally give a honk too. Might be a design fault of the cage. Not tried any adjustments there.. maybe a smaller amount of damping on them might give best if both worlds

[Tamadrums]

Interesting Dan. Ive a set of fr celestion 12" that have the wizzers. They occasionally give a honk too. Might be a design fault of the cage. Not tried any adjustments there.. maybe a smaller amount of damping on them might give best if both worlds

Yeah, here is the advertised sound damping, it seems to only really kick after 500 Hz or so....oh yeah and once you put it on, it's on for a while lol.

But oddly enough it seemed to make my speaker direct the lows out the sides, Im starting to think that maybe the relationship of the mass of the the motor and the spider frame may have something to do with the way the LF's project


Dynamat.jpg

[danilo]

Find a bit of cheap light sponge .. Cut it into a doughnut shape of Similar diameter to the whizzer
(cut it so it can open to be fitted)
Carefully insert it between the whizzer cone and the main cone so that it lightly presses against both cones.
An old 'trick' to damper the whizzer.. beneficially
Then Listen :-)

[struth]

Funny but thats what i did, sort of... i used cotton wool. Made a big difference too.. will keep the sponge in mind though for next time..

[karma67]

ive been playing with my MS Pageant 2's,i threw out the wadding and glued 4mm steel plate on the tops,bottoms and sides of the cabinets. its made a big difference