wilson Posted April 10, 2016 Report Share Posted April 10, 2016 Hi, I'm not getting an email reply from John McPeak (msound@shentel.net) - I hope everything's ok with him. I'm always confident that I'm getting the proper compliance foam when I deal with John. I've tried foam from another eBay vendor and It was definitely not the same. Is there a consensus here of another vendor that provides the right foam for an acoustic suspension woofer (5,2ax) rather than a generic 10" surround? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lARrybody Posted April 11, 2016 Report Share Posted April 11, 2016 John is a great guy. msound@shentel.net Maybe he is away on spring break or something. I trust his judgment. He suggested I use the filled fillet surrounds on a couple sets of 2ax,s and he supplied everything I needed including new dust caps. Better performance than the originals. Rick Cobb is also a great source and has the correct compliant surrounds you are looking for. rcobb@tampabay.rr.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted April 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2016 Thanks - I've dealt with John a bunch and he is first class. I'll give it a little time and hope he's still in business - if I don't hear back I'll give Rick Cobb a try. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted April 12, 2016 Report Share Posted April 12, 2016 The last foam surrounds I ordered were from Rick Cobb. He sent the thicker, less compliant light grey type instead of the darker, more compliant version (pic attached of the two). They were for AR94 8" drivers. I decided to return to using Vintage-AR for a AR90 complete kit. Just before I pulled the plug on ebay I decided to ask if he was still supplying the darker type. He said he hadn't been able to get them for a few years now. Uhgggg. If you are able to find a vendor that sells the more compliant type please post the info. It will be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stupidhead Posted April 12, 2016 Report Share Posted April 12, 2016 here is a link to what may be what you are looking for. http://www.simplyspeakers.com/boston-acoustics-speaker-foam-edge-repair-kit-fsk-10boston.html Neither of the above pictured are the filled filet and I believe the ones Roy has id'ed as the best fit are actually Boston Acoustic surrounds. No guarantees the link is in fact a proper fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD70 Posted April 12, 2016 Report Share Posted April 12, 2016 2 minutes ago, stupidhead said: here is a link to what may be what you are looking for. http://www.simplyspeakers.com/boston-acoustics-speaker-foam-edge-repair-kit-fsk-10boston.html Neither of the above pictured are the filled filet and I believe the ones Roy has id'ed as the best fit are actually Boston Acoustic surrounds. No guarantees the link is in fact a proper fit. The foams in the Simply Speakers link look like the 10 inch foams Roy sent me when I was restoring my LST-2's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owlsplace Posted April 12, 2016 Report Share Posted April 12, 2016 I've ordered the Boston 10" FF foams from Audiodogs on the auction site before -- item 301899923063 for the 10" and item 291708619920 for the 8" -- should verify the dimensions for your application as I've never worked on 90's. He ships fast though you may want to ask him to use a box instead of an envelope to avoid distorting the foams as I think I had to deal with that minor inconvenience the last time I ordered from him. Here is the same foam from Springfield Speakers at a higher price: 300771099675. I also ordered here before but didn't notice it was for one speaker only so my follow-up order went to Audiodogs. He insists the JBL foams are the best for AR-5's however I haven't had a chance to test his hypothesis yet ... he is also big on nitrile cement which I found challenging to use due to the set time however I would consider using it again on poly-coned woofers. Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lARrybody Posted April 13, 2016 Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 When I was looking for surrounds for my AR3a's I remember reading in the restoration guide that there are two roll dimensions, 1/2 in and 5/8 in.' with the latter the more correct. Simply Speakers.com was the only one that stated the roll dimensions at 5/8 in. so I ordered some. When I got them they seemed a little stiff. I emailed Rick Cobb and he sent me his AR3a surrounds, which were much more flexible and compliant. The roll was actually 1/16 in wider. I used his surrounds. Simply's on the left and Ricks on the right. The little silver tick marks around the cone were used to help center the surround. I have always thought the more compliant the foam the better performance (excursion) of the cone. Am I right? Anyway I have a extra set of AR3a surrounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owlsplace Posted April 13, 2016 Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 48 minutes ago, larrybody said: . I have always thought the more compliant the foam the better performance (excursion) of the cone. Am I right? Well, the surround is part of the speaker suspension so it only makes sense that changing the compliance will affect performance parameters. The AR-5 foams were very compliant from the factory so when I picked up a set locally from a repair guy who had just refoamed them he seemed a bit taken aback after I refoamed them again with the Boston FF foams. He had glued the foam to the back of the cones which was definitely not stock. I doubt anyone else would have cared.... Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stupidhead Posted April 13, 2016 Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 13 hours ago, owlsplace said: I've ordered the Boston 10" FF foams from Audiodogs on the auction site before -- item 301899923063 for the 10" and item 291708619920 for the 8" -- should verify the dimensions for your application as I've never worked on 90's. He ships fast though you may want to ask him to use a box instead of an envelope to avoid distorting the foams as I think I had to deal with that minor inconvenience the last time I ordered from him. Here is the same foam from Springfield Speakers at a higher price: 300771099675. I also ordered here before but didn't notice it was for one speaker only so my follow-up order went to Audiodogs. He insists the JBL foams are the best for AR-5's however I haven't had a chance to test his hypothesis yet ... he is also big on nitrile cement which I found challenging to use due to the set time however I would consider using it again on poly-coned woofers. Roger Hi Roger, thanx for adding the other options. My above post was intended as a jumping off point for options, often the BA part is not spoken when folks are looking for AR2ax 10" foams. JBL foams....hmmmm.....I thought the 5s and 2ax have basically the same woofers, and I would be surprised if the JBL foams (not FF) were better. Agreed on the cement, not forgiving and I can spend 15 minutes fussing with the fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted April 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 I'm pretty sure that the JBL's are what John McPeak was originally selling for AR. The foam on the right in DavidR's photo looks just like what I got when I didn't order from John. I definitely wasn't happy with those (I think that they came from looney tunes?). The last email that I received from John McPeak was 7/14 and he said that he was using something new: "I have a special upgraded foam I use on the 10" AR's. They are better than the JBLs we use to use, and cost less too. :-)" I got a couple of set's of those and they were good (similar to the JBLs he was selling). So is Audiodogs selling the JBL foam? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted April 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 Here's what Audiodog is selling for AR - It appears identical to his JBL foam: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACOUSTIC-RESEARCH-10-AR2ax-REPLACEMENT-SPEAKER-FOAM-SURROUND-OTHER-AR-MODELS-/301901381316?hash=item464ab97ec4:g:BToAAOSwbqpTzYug Has someone bought these? If not I may be the guinea pig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted April 13, 2016 Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 I ordered once from Simply Speakers and they were thick and stiff. I sent them back and there were no issues sending them back. I can't remember what I was working on. I also ordered some surrounds from Springfield Speakers for a pair of Infinity speakers. They were quite nice. Perhaps I'll try them as they do sell AR surrounds. What exactly is a filleted surround? I do know what a filleted fish is. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ra.ra Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 David, there is a good discussion of these foams in this CSP thread. Also, see definition #3 below and note that pronunciation is more akin to "fill it" than it is to "flay" or the end of "Chik-fil-A". And check out Carl's post #4 here for profile comparison. http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/source-for-soft-foam-surrounds.356893/ And I believe these might be the foams that Roger mentioned. http://www.ebay.com/itm/BOSTON-ACOUSTIC-10-REPLACEMENT-SPEAKER-FOAM-SURROUNDS-FILLETED-A100-A-150/301899923063? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Thanks ra.ra Looked over that thread. The original surrounds on the (4) 10" woofers I scored on eBay which are the correct woofers for the 90s (p/n 200031) do not have a filleted edge. Here are the specs for the Springfield 10" and 8" AR drivers: Springfield Speaker Surround A10-AR Outer Diameter 9.75" - 248mm Outer Roll Diameter 8.875" - 225mm Cone Diameter 7.75" - 197mm Inner Diameter 7" - 178mm Roll Width 5/8" - 16mm Inner Attachment Angled Surround A8-AR Outer Diameter 7.75" - 197mm Outer Roll Diameter 7" - 178mm Cone Diameter 6" - 149mm Inner Diameter 5.5" - 137mm Roll Width 1/2" - 13mm Inner Attachment Angled I'll have to measure to see how they compare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Here are the specs for the Audiodogs (10"): Outer Diameter 9.500" - 241mm Outer Roll Diameter 9" - 229mm Inner Roll (cone) Diameter 7.625" - 194mm Inside Diameter 7.125" - 181mm Roll 11/16" - 17mm Angle Attach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 I just looked at the link to to filleted surround (also from audiodog), and that filleted inside edge looks like the most recent foams that I got from John McPeak. Maybe the Boston foams are what he was referring to as the "better" version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owlsplace Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Yep, fill-it would be the way I pronounce it -- common term in "stitch and glue" boat building. When I was working on my 5's John (M-Sound) said he didn't have the Boston FF foams and was supplying the JBL's so I ended up with one set wearing JBL foams and two sets wearing Boston foams. I like the look of the Boston's better -- other than that the only difference I noticed was that the Boston's are slightly porous. They feel more like the original foams. If I don't have too many distractions I will get my 5's up and running this summer in their new location, then I can comment on any perceived audio differences between the two although I suspect I will not be able to tell the difference. I did put some generics on my 8" woofers which are more prone to bottoming out when being over-driven. AR modded some of their later production woofers with spacers to prevent this from happening. I have one AR-6 set with spacers that I may go back and install the Boston FF foams on at some point. They sound fine with the generic foams with some loss to the low-end no doubt. Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Ok - I'm going to buy a couple of sets of the Boston FF foams from Audiodogs. I'll report when I get them. One set for a pair of 5's and one set for the 14's that you guys convinced me to restore a while back (finally found tweeters priced right). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owlsplace Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 44 minutes ago, wilson said: ... I'll report when I get them. One set for a pair of 5's and one set for the 14's that you guys convinced me to restore a while back ... Give us a report on those landfill 14's ... restoring speakers from the brink of destruction somehow gives me more enjoyment Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 will do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 FYI I just went to eBay to send Rick Cobb, aka Looneytoons, a message. He is no longer a registered user on eBay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stupidhead Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 3 hours ago, DavidR said: FYI I just went to eBay to send Rick Cobb, aka Looneytoons, a message. He is no longer a registered user on eBay Hi David, try this link http://stores.ebay.com/looneytune2001/ . I have hard time finding him sometime too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidR Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Thanks so much. I have no idea how you got that user name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stupidhead Posted April 15, 2016 Report Share Posted April 15, 2016 David, my wife could explain it in great detail! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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