Chris Posted May 22, 2020 Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 Hi, Any other options for NLA surrounds other than the ubiquitous foam ones? I got my pair of NLAs back in 2007. Original surrounds were toast by then. Installed a pair and they lasted maybe a dozen years. Here we are again with cracked/rotted surrounds... I don't know how many refoams my cones can take. It's difficult cleaning off the old surround and glue residue with each refoaming. I figure in my life at the current rate I have at least 3 more refoams left. 😁 I know rubber or cloth would likely change the characteristics of the speaker but I don't think it would significantly... I'd be willing to try. Midwest Speaker sells rubber ones but the inner lip is angled and would be difficult to install as the cone lip is flat. Where could I purchase rubber or cloth surrounds with flat inner lips? Or are all of you NLA owners running the same foam surrounds? Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Nicolai Posted May 26, 2020 Report Share Posted May 26, 2020 I own both OLA's and NLA's and have never heard of anything other than foam surrounds for either set of speakers. Both sets of surrounds in my speakers have been replaced. Frankly, I'm surprised you only got around 12 years out of a set of foam surrounds. I would think 20 years or more is closer to the norm. At least that what I got out of foam surrounds for other speakers that I've owned. Perhaps humidity and temperature may affect the service life of a set of surrounds. Personally, I don't think I would try to replace foam with another material. If the speakers were originally designed with foam surrounds you may significantly degrade the sound by going to another surround material. Besides, if rubber or cloth performed as well as foam on Advents, I imagine we would be inundated with both advertisements from vendors and claims by enthusiasts on how well they worked, both on this forum and others. IMHO, stick with the original foam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guido57 Posted May 27, 2020 Report Share Posted May 27, 2020 Where did you get your first set of replacement surrounds? A known vendor like Rick Cobb, Simply Speakers, Midwest Speaker, etc. or an ebay seller sourcing surrounds from China? (Rick Cobb is on ebay but has a good reputation for selling quality surrounds and has a pretty very loyal following.) Note: there are two types of polyurethanes used for most foam surrounds: polyester and polyether. Polyester is stronger against physical damage while polyether is more resistant to UV and humidity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted May 2, 2022 Report Share Posted May 2, 2022 https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/rsound-foam-failure-after-11-years-large-advent.883091/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug G. Posted May 2, 2022 Report Share Posted May 2, 2022 In 2017, I had several fail, prematurely, I thought, and I refoamed them. At the time, I wasn't sure if I had completely removed solvents used to remove the old surround materials from the frames and those solvents may have attacked the new foam. This last time, I made absolutely sure all solvents were removed before installing the new surrounds. So now, it's been five years and they are all fine, so far. We'll see. Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete B Posted June 16, 2022 Report Share Posted June 16, 2022 The KLH, obviously also a design by Kloss, has a half roll cloth edge treated with probably the same goop that AR used on their cloth edges. Good description is in the literature. It even looks a bit like the LA woofer. hfe_klh_seventeen_brochure_en.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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