The break fluid trick really made a difference. I was worried about those types of chemicals eating away at the material. It's too bad I chucked so many speakers that could have been saved. Those are some decent sounding drivers too. Thank you for the helpful information. Good footage as usual buddy!
Hey man. Thanks for stopping by and checking it out. I figured it would be a good video for others with speaker surrounds that Hardened. I was also leary the first time I tried that on speakers too as I thought they might become more damaged. But it worked, I couldn't believe it. Not sure what causes them to get hard but this reverses it. Only issue I've found is putting too much on, it will eat away the glue that holds the surround in place.
@@speakeradventures Yes it really did improve the bass response quite a bit, actually i had already applied silicon oil on the surround and that didn't allow the brake oil to penetrate satisfactory. I will try one more time maybe next sunday 🙂
Hey thanks for confirming. It's such a weird trick I honestly can't believe this works. Have you tried anything else out to see if it also has similar affects.
@@speakeradventures Sorry not yet! I'll try and tell you if I do. I have a friend who is also interested to try on on old B&W fabric surrounds.... If he dares I really need to thank you because it's turned them into actually my favorite speakers ever. They are astonishingly pleasant to listen to. It was the detail you went into in the video showing the different surrounds and explaining the difference that gave me the confidence to risk it.
@SamFirthDesigner I am so glad to hear it worked for you. Its weird to think that break fluid will fix this. It does bring the speakers back, especially with the bass. How long have you had the speakers for. I Still don't know what causes them to harden as not all will do so. The only downfall to this is that it needs to be re applied at times. Thanks for the positive feedback.
I bought them just a couple of months back because I spotted the Carbocon name. They were initially very bass light and resonant but I noted the surrounds being strangely hard and eventually I found this video while searching on the topic.@@speakeradventures
tengo unos parlantes sony cuadrados con las suspenciones de un material de color amarillo, nunca me gustaron como suenan y siento que las suspenciones estan muy rigidas ojala que con este metodo pueda mejorarlos
Hey. Sounds like the suspension is of the cloth material which is then kind that does harden. It will vastly help with the bass output. Rigid suspension makes bass sound more like mid bass. Hope this works for you.
Impressive. Two questions. I have heard that some people put the brake fluid on the back of the surround as well. In your opinion is there any benefit to doing that? Question number two. Any idea how long this treatment lasts? Does it have to be redone periodically? Or is it good for a long time. Maybe it is time for a followup report on these speakers you did, since a year has gone by.
I have also heard about that too. It will speed up the process I'd assume but you risk getting it into the glue area. I over applied to a speaker once and it started to eat away the surrounds glue and separated it from the basket. I just had to re glue it together. It does need to be re applied every so often. I have found that usually about one to two times a year is enough. Not sure what causes the hardening I think it's either sunlight or people smoking in the house. I don't smoke and never had a hardened surround myself but have received speakers with hard surrounds from others.
Good to know. There is a guy on the big auction site that goes by the name vintage-AR. I haven't used his stuff, but many other people report good results. He has a brush on product similar to what you show. You only put it on one side of the surround and supposedly it never needs to be re-applied. I may try it. I suspect this happens because in the black substance they use on the surrounds there are volatile ingredients that evaporate over a long period of time thus leaving whatever remains to be much harder and stiff. I doubt that smoking has anything to do with the process, but I could see where sunlight exposure could heat up the substance and accelerate the outgassing of volatile compounds. Back in the day when I was in stereo sales in the golden age of audio equipment we never gave any thought to things like this. It was just assumed nothing could ever go wrong with a speaker as long as you didn't blow it up. We used to practically give away Marantz equipment. We considered them "boat anchors". Wish I had a time machine so I could go buy out the store. @@speakeradventures
Hey geeky, would you mind showing us those 3x5's if you still have them? They look mildly interesting, at least to me. I have a few 3x5's sitting around.
Hey there. I do still have them and will gladly do a video on them. They are rather cool speakers with a big magnet for their size. I have a thing for oval speakers haha. Thanks for checking it out.
