"Waterproofing" Mid sized speakers

[Thomas1987]

Hi Guys,

 

Coming up with ideas for our venue at the moment and just wandered upon the feasibility of an idea I came up with -

 

We've got a dozen or so Mackie Monitor 8's which frankly have had their day but could probably be salvaged into 4 good speakers, and I was considering how we could use them to pipe music to the que line outside the building. Obviously I could build a waterproof box to surround the speakon and back, but the grill would obviously have to be open. Or would they? Is there any water resistant, but sound permeable membrane which I could cover the front with?

 

Bearing in mind we're in Preston, its normally quite wet! I'm not overly fussed about them being absolutley waterproof in a deluge - we just wouldn't use them. But just for bigger events, when the weather was not too bad. And obviously they wouldn't be outside permanantly, just during the que period.

 

This would have to be done reasonably cheap - as in less than getting 4/6 proper outdoor speakers, but seeing as we have no use for these, maybe possible?

 

Cheers

 

Thomas

[Bobbsy]

Quick and dirty solution: if you go to any specialist outdoor/camping shop you can buy what are effectively Goretex sacks designed to go over the top of rucksacks and keep rain out. These (in my experience) tend to come in sizes suitable for a typical mid size cabinet.

 

Acoustically transparent? Probably not totally, but the small amount of loss in the high frequencies was not overly noticeable unless you did an A/B comparison.

 

Even quicker and dirtier: black bin liners but, as soon as there's any wind they tend to shred themselves, hence my move to Goretex.

 

Bob

[SoLiEn]

Ive always used bin liners and Gaffa tape to make it a tight fit so it doesnt flap in the wind, always worked well for me, but yeah, second both ideas, after all, isnt Goretex just a more professional bin liner for that exact purpose?

[cedd]

Have used the bin liner method before for some outdoor samba band gigs abroad. They do the job, but look a little unsightly, and worst of all, as soon as your loudspeaker begins to "work" and actually shift some air, you get this horrible "thwack" on every hit of the kick drum as the bin bag billows out.

I know that's quite a different situation to yours, and I guess the amount of air being moved by your mackie's will be minimal.

 

I've been toying with getting a local trailer cover manufacturer to make up some transport covers for my kit. The material is, however, quite thick and I don't know what it would do to your sound. Perhaps if they had a velcro removeable flap at the front, with a thinner waterproof membrane behind (like goretex) they'd be good all-round covers.

 

Never thought about the goretex rucksack covers, will have to work out which rucksack my mackie SA1521's fit in!!!!

[soundiesam]

if you go to any big garden centre they sell membrane that goes under stones in your gardens to keep the weeds at bay that stuff works well to water proof stuff

[revbobuk]

We've been looking at this for some time now - and my wife has made custom covers for some of my speakers (for village fete and school fun day type events - always rains a bit!) and is planning some more. If you have someone with a sewing machine and a bit of skill, then IMHO the best thing is to use different materials for the bulk of the cover, and for the bit in front of the drive units.

 

So use tarpaulin material for the backs - huge tarpaulins (a kind of woven effect plastic sheeting) are really cheap (although usually blue!). Then use lightweight tent fabric or gore-tex type fabrics - camping suppliers, or online from Point North at better prices. Make sure you make the whole thing long enough to run a drawstring through the bottom edge to keep the whole thing in place. We did look at garden fabrics, but they are usually designed to do the exact opposite of what you want - they allow water through to get to the plant roots.

 

If you want more exact instructions, PM me and I'll pass you over to the wife!

[Doug Siddons]

If you use a silicone spray on the speaker it will be water repelant so no need to cover it, replace the screws on the back plate for stainless so they don't rust,likewise if you can get a stainless grill so much the better. The speakon itself is fairly waterproof/resistant but and when you rig it make sure the rooting of the cable comes up to the plug as opposed to down to it so the water runs off the cable not straight into the connector. we usually make it a U shape so the water runs to the bottom of the loop and not up to the speakon.

[Rob_Beech]

Also, depending on how you position the speakers will help.

 

Higher up and pointing down slightly will keep the rain from the front a little (not completely). It will however leave the connectors open but you can cover them with what you want, they don't have to be acoustically transparent and what's more,. you wont see them

 

 

Rob

[tom_the_LD]

I have seen black bin liners and gaffa tape used too and it's a quick and easy solution.

 

Another suggestion - what about some shrink wrap? Wrap it round the speaker as much as you need to and job done!

 

Again, or Gortex.

[Thomas1987]

Liking the idea of the goretex - they only have 8" drivers so obviously the cabs aren't massive so this could be cheap. Bin liners, not so much - fine for a one off, but don't really have the time to be retaping them every event. Plus, whilst obviously its for a load of drunk punters, we're quite image conscious so may look tatty...

 

I'm not so concerned about the body of the unit really, more the open grill at the front. Thank you for all your points, I will give this some serious thought for suggestion!

 

Unfortunately I suspect they would have to be floor mounted as the surface of our building doesn't really lend itself to having holes drilled in it, so I couldn't even angle them down. In fact, gulp, it would be more of a case of tilting them up!

[mervaka]

for the grille, how acoustically transparent is closed cell foam? that's rather waterproof!

[Mr.Si]

I don't suppose a curved canopy over the que line would be of use would it?

 

I know it is probably going to cost a lot more, but it might be nice for the que-ers too and I thought it'd kill 2 birds. (Not that I condone such behaivour of course). There could also be planning issues depending on your situation.

 

Again, it possibly wouldn't be a total water proof solution depending on its size and position and direction of rain, but thought I'd mention that idea.

 

Si

[johndenim]

Unfortunately I suspect they would have to be floor mounted as the surface of our building doesn't really lend itself to having holes drilled in it, so I couldn't even angle them down. In fact, gulp, it would be more of a case of tilting them up!

 

But aren't they likely to get kicked or stepped on?

I don't suppose speaker stands are an option?

 

I can't remember if this model has top hats or not.

 

John Denim.

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Or for a funky approach, slip them inside some large ducting?

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d174/977stinkytinky/bend2.jpg

[Greg RCF]

Hi All,

 

Some interesting idea's there!

 

The Monitor 8 actually has a carbon fibre 8" cone so is pretty water resistant any way and the soft dome tweeter is a fair way back in the cabinets so should also not be to badly effected. In my opinion the only part that will be affected is the grill, I have a pair of Monitor 5's on my garage wall for when we have BBQ's and they have been there for about 6 years now and still work fine its just the grills have a fair bit of rust on them, this happened after the first year but for my purpose they blend into the brick work so its OK.

 

Rob mentioned positioning them high up and angled down, which is the best way and then you just need to cover the back input panel but this could be done easily.

 

For spare contact www.Audio-Workshop.co.uk they are the UK service centre for RCF who made the Monitor 8's.

 

Greg