AR 10pi foam surround

[Guest FrankGSF]

Can anyone suggest a good supplier of woofer foam surround that fits the AR 10pi? I installed one on one of my speakers, but it doesn't seem to have the same linear excursion as the other one, sort of too stiff.

Thanks for your help.

Frank

[Guest Bret]

Frank,

Use the search function of the forum and look-up "surrounds." You will get a lot of hits. In those threads are several opinions from several people who have tried different surrounds.

I'm sorry I have to send you searching like that, but I can't help you other than to tell you that the Simply Speakers surrounds have been uniformly described as "too stiff." I've never bought any individual surrounds so can't help you.

The information you want *is* here if you'll do a search and read a while.

Bret

[Guest FrankGSF]

Thanks for the advice, Bret. I have just discovered that there's a lot of information here in this forum. I did not notice anything was amiss until I listened to music with plenty of bass thru woofers with different foam surrounds. If only there was a way to classify foam surrounds by their "spring" properties, we can consistently shape the bass of our speakers based on our own preferences and in the absence of original manufacturer's standards or benchmarks.

Frank

[Carlspeak]

I am somewhat surprised to read Simply Speakers misses the mark with regard to replacement foam surrounds. I've never bought from them so can't site personal experience. Their web site suggests they have quite a comprehansive repair as well as parts business. Having done many refoams themselves, one would think they have pretty good knowledge of which surrounds are the best for which woofers :-(.

For my business, I buy my surrounds from a national speaker parts wholesale distributor and thus have a fair inventory to choose from when a new refoam job comes into my shop. If they don't have it, it's probably not available. If there are any shreds of the old foam left on a frame or cone, I sometimes measure the thickness with dial calipers to help select the new replacement. When the job is complete, I test the T/S parameters on every woofer to ensure it's where it should be and share the results with customers.

One should be cautious of ebay sellers of foam surround kits. Some may have never done refoaming or very little; but found life easier just selling kits rather than doing the repair work themselves. Thus, it's certainly feasible to see when they could 'miss the mark'.

There is plenty of technology available today to specify and measure foam surround compliance (spring) properties. I suspect back 30-40 years ago there wasn't. I have yet to see any surround compliance properties of 10pi or any other AR woofer's surround spec'd here at CSP. A number of NE classic speaker historians visit here quite often and have graciously shared original manufacturer's specifications on other parts of speakers when available and I thank them for that.

Also, there is pretty good data available on what a perticular AR woofer's resonant frequency (Fs) should be with a surround installed. However, at that point the job is complete and then what do you do with an Fs 10-15 Hz higher than you expected?

Thus, the unwary first time refoam DIY'r is at the mercy of surround sellers. Buyer beware.

On the other hand, I suspect, based on what I've read in numerous posts, the majority of DIY'rs who visit here have had no problem with their refoam experience

It's all about the music

Carl

Carl's Custom Loudspeakers

[Guest matty g]

Hi -

I'm surprised that some members don't like the "Simply Speakers" surrounds. I've used them on a number of my projects and I've had very good results. I was actually worried that the surrounds I put on my 3a's were too floppy, but they sound excellent to me. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that the surrounds require a "break-in" period before they relax to the degree that we expect. Cold temperatures affect them, too (though probably not an issue now in August!)

Matt