Tannoy and Moths?

[Johnno]

Hi all,

Quite a few years since I was last here as my school stage technician job disappeared when we academised, but good to be back.

I have a pair of Tannoy V12 speakers that have been standing idle in a bedroom for about 6 years. 

I just used them and found the meshy stuff that covers the front to have damage that looks to have been done by some kind of moth/beetle/larva.

Is this likely to be the case? Or is it more likely to be just common rot since I assume the meshy stuff to be some sort of poly-whatsit and not necessarily of interest to insects.

Regards,

John.

 

[J Pearce]

Speaker foam often disintegrates with age. Refoamed a load of our stock last summer, got more to do this summer. Not impossible that it's beetle/moth I guess, but it does also just fall apart into crumbs by itself.

[alistermorton]

Some are worse than others. Missions are well known for falling apart like that in the d0m35t1c hi-fi world.

[musht]

Open cell foam, UV from sunlight rots it , ozone, old age.

[TomHoward]

I always found the gaskets of early Control 1s were particularly prone to it. Loads of control 1s with a floating central cone around. 

[sunray]

2 hours ago, TomHoward said:

I always found the gaskets of early Control 1s were particularly prone to it. Loads of control 1s with a floating central cone around. 

Yep I have one here now but I've got to the point where it's not worth the expense.

 

My biggest issue has been Canford and Fostex Diecast powered speakers.

Edited July 15, 2023 by sunray

[sunray]

On 7/11/2023 at 9:13 PM, J Pearce said:

Speaker foam often disintegrates with age. Refoamed a load of our stock last summer, got more to do this summer. Not impossible that it's beetle/moth I guess, but it does also just fall apart into crumbs by itself.

Do you just replace the foam?

[J Pearce]

To be clear, I'm talking about speaker grill foam (which I believe is what the OP is talking about), the discussion has since drifted across to cone surround foams.
Yes, we keep a few rolls of thin and thick speaker grill foam in stock and replace grill foam as needed.

[sunray]

8 minutes ago, J Pearce said:

To be clear, I'm talking about speaker grill foam (which I believe is what the OP is talking about), the discussion has since drifted across to cone surround foams.
Yes, we keep a few rolls of thin and thick speaker grill foam in stock and replace grill foam as needed.

Ah yes thanks, that is where I thought it started although it only mentions the 'meshy stuff' and not knowing the specific finish on those speakers I wasn't sure how the thread had progressed. I was starting to think about the difficulty of aligning cones etc however I see cone surrounds for sale so I assume some are doing it.

Example from ebay:

[J Pearce]

A quick google shows that the OP's Tannoy V12 have foam over the grilles.

[DrV]

32 minutes ago, sunray said:

I was starting to think about the difficulty of aligning cones etc however I see cone surrounds for sale so I assume some are doing it.

I've never tried to do this but I imagine it's not that difficult. The rear cone support is what is really responsible for aligning the voice coil in the gap. Of course, people do fully recone speakers with damaged voice coils but that must be more difficult.

[DrV]

Ray, you've piqued my interest now. There are a couple of drivers in my local church hall which I was going to replace but I might have a go at replacing the suspensions now.  Can you post a link to the eBay items. I'm failing to find the correct search terms.

Dave 

[David Morison]

@DrV; a quick image search yields this: I've no affiliation or knowledge of the seller and for all I know there may be others.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402905366964

[TomHoward]

I had fallen into the trap of confusing gasket/suspension foam and grill foam. 

On a slightly larger scale we’ve used some Nexo Alpha E with some aged foam on the front & on a reggae gig the subs started blowing little hexagons of foam off the grill. They were everywhere by the end…. 

[sunray]

8 hours ago, DrV said:

Ray, you've piqued my interest now. There are a couple of drivers in my local church hall which I was going to replace but I might have a go at replacing the suspensions now.  Can you post a link to the eBay items. I'm failing to find the correct search terms.

Dave 

This is probably a different one but they'll all appear:

2 Packs Speaker Surround Edge Repair Kit Loudspeaker Speaker Surround Repair | eBay

 

Strangely the same thing has happened to me, I have a couple of BBC LS1/8 Numbers could be wrong) where the surround has disintegrated and quite frankly I don't think the speakers are worthy of serious financial investment, ie replacement driver but a couple of quid for a bit of foam... who knows. Ironically I have a couple of used 8" speakers here but the existing are 6".

 

If you do have a go, let us know how you get on.

Edited July 15, 2023 by sunray