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Dave Platt[_2_] Dave Platt[_2_] is offline
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Default Onkyo Precise Acoustics

I have some nice speakers made with remnants from Parts Express excess. 8
inch woofers have a rubbery type surround. Just in the last two years the
surrounds started breaking what looks like tearing apart. I have redone the
two sets with rubber replacements think they are working well. Just
wondered if anyone knew what type of rubber they used. I guess they were
made in late 80s by Onkyo, so that would be about 30 years old. The driver
was on the front cover of a Speaker Builder Magazine with Keith Johnson.


From what I've seen, speaker surrounds are most commonly made either
of a closed-cell foam, or of butyl rubber.

They are not necessarily interchangeable. Rubber surrounds are (I
believe) both heavier and stiffer than foam surrounds of the same
dimension. Their weight, and lower compliance can change the acoustic
characteristics of the speaker - quite possibly enough to de-tune the
speaker/enclosure relationship and throw off the speaker's frequency
response. This would be more of an issue with vented/ported/
bass-reflex enclosures than with sealed (acoustic-suspension) systems.

Rubber surrounds seem to have a longer lifespan than foam surrounds,
but they can go bad over time. I had to replace the rubber surrounds
on a pair of 4" drivers in some Optimus AV mini-monitors - I believe
they'd been used outdoors, and sunlight and heat had caused the rubber
surrounds to become stiff and brittle.