Felt? surround on outside of drivers. What is that called?

[ARMan]

New to this great forum.  I refurbish AR speakers.  I've done sets of 3a's, 2ax's a set of 4ax's and now I am refurbing a really cherry set of AR12's.  I have a question concerning the felt(?) that goes around the outside of a driver (woofer).   I guess it's a gasket?  Sometimes they are a felt like substance, sometime they are rubber like.  What are those called and where can you purchase?   They don't come with typical refoam kits from places like Simply Speakers and I don't see them on their list of products.  Any help is appreciated.   

[AR55]

The term that I see used most often is speaker gasket, but I have never found a felt version.  What you see from Parts Express and others are cardboard, or maybe cork.  I basically make my own out of 1/8" thick adhesive backed felt or foam.  You can find both at Amazon.    

[lance G]

ARMan, do you mean a decorative strip which covers the mounting screws ?

[JKent]

I've never worked on AR-12 but they look like nice speakers but I have worked on the AR-17s from the same era (1975-78 ADD series). Are the 12s essentially modern 2ax's? So I don't have first-hand experience to draw from. At first I thought maybe they have an acoustic blanket, like the 9 series but the photos online don't show that. So I must conclude you are talking about the gasket that goes between the driver's frame and the speaker baffle. In that case the best stuff to use is this: https://www.parts-express.com/parts-express-speaker-gasketing-tape-1-8-x-3-8-x-50-ft-roll--260-540

Kent

[frankmarsi]

I believe AR55 and lance G are talking about the foam ‘trim-ring’  ala original AR-11 woofer trim. This is what I believe ARMan is saying also.

I’ve seen 1/16” and thicker at hobby/craft stores and it’s inexpensive. Sometimes it’s also available in different colors. I purchased 2 sheets of it at about 20” X 12” in black and dark gray in preparation for cutting out 12” X 1/2” circles to cosmetically cover my woofer outer ring. The difficulty I fore see is the cutting of 'foam', the thicker it is, the less quality of cut can be made from my experience.

In my thinking it shouldn’t be attached too firmly as it would present further difficulty whenever one has to remove the woofer so, I think small pieces of thin double-sided tape maybe near each screw head would facilitate easier removal.

 

 

[ar_pro]

Trim ring.

[frankmarsi]

Eggs-actly!  Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

But, as I recall, a friends new in 1978-79 AR-11's, had one smooth circular piece and covered the screws.

[AR55]

Attached is a picture of an AR-17 that I restored and my AR-14.  Both "trim rings" were made from 1/8" thick x 1/2" wide, adhesive backed foam.  It's not perfect, but it looks a lot better than the bare metal.  The advantage of foam over the felt is that it can be easily manipulated to follow the curve without wrinkling.   

[AR55]

Just out of curiosity I decided to do a little research and found that AR called the felt/foam trim around the woofer an "External Woofer Gasket" with the following part numbers:

400211-1: 8" woofer

400211-2: 10" woofer

400211-3: 12" woofer

Unfortunately, finding out who made them is next to impossible.  The only reference in the AR drawing achieves is just the part number itself listed in the notes to the various speaker assembly drawings.

[JKent]

Ah! Those things. I've encountered them on several speaker refoam jobs. They're basically decorative and not needed although they provide good protection against a slipping screwdriver. Nothing worse than jamming a screwdriver through the woofer cone!

So Simply Speakers and others sell them. Also listed on Amazon as chip gaskets.

[newandold]

I’ve heard them called “damping rings” also, although I see little in the way they might affect the sound.

Nonetheless, all my woofers have them, including the sub.

[lARrybody]

On 11/11/2020 at 5:08 PM, frankmarsi said:

Eggs-actly!  Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

But, as I recall, a friends new in 1978-79 AR-11's, had one smooth circular piece and covered the screws.

I believe Frank is right about the one smooth circular piece that covers the screws.  It is kind of rare to find a pair of ADD speakers that have not had the woofers re foamed or replaced by now. It does happen though. I found these AR18 speakers that were completely original. If I remember correctly those "external woofer gaskets" were some kind of thin open cell foam. 

When I re foamed them I cut new gaskets from some thin  Creatolgy closed cell foam sheets from Michaels.  The pair below is actually a different set of 18's with the same treatment.

The proceeding S series and B series had plastic trim rings.