Fixing the Surround Suspension of Your Loudspeakers



Posted: Friday, July 08, 2005

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It is incredible how many loudspeakers are thrown away because its surround suspension is damage. Fixing this part of the loudspeaker is easier than you think and it will truly save you some cash.Lets first begin with a briefly introduction to loudspeaker suspension. The electrodynamic loudspeaker has two important suspensions: the spider or inner suspension and the surround or outer suspension.

The spider can be found bonded between to the inner bottom of the loudspeaker frame and the loudspeaker cone. The purpose of the spider suspension is to maintain the bottom of the cone centralized so that the loudspeaker voice coil stays stable to the magnet center pole. This magnet center pole has a gap where the voice coil moves, so we can also say that the spider prevents voice coil rubbing inside this gap when the loudspeaker cone moves forward and back.

The surround suspension can be found bonded between the top of the loudspeaker frame and the loudspeaker cone. The purpose of this suspension is to give control to the cone so that it does not move side ways it also helps on maintaining the voice coil centralized on the magnet center pole. The surround can be found in many styles like the half roll, the double half roll and the accordion. It can also be found in many materials but the most common are polyurethane foam and rubber.

The surround suspension is very commonly damage because it is almost always in contact with exterior conditions, like humidity and direct sunlight. The spider is commonly inside the loudspeaker enclosure and it is also made with other different materials. Both of the mentioned suspensions work as a team giving specific control to the loudspeaker movements. With this information we can say that the suspensions that we found in a loudspeaker are truly important for the loudspeaker functioning.

Now that we know a little about the basics we can fix those suspensions and give another chance to our favorite loudspeakers. Follow all this steps for repairing the surround suspension of your loudspeaker.

Steps to repair:

1) Find out what size is in diameter and what material the loudspeaker surround suspension is made about. Replacement surround suspension is often made of polyurethane foam. If yours is of rubber, try as much as you can to find it in the same material. Contact the company that distributes or made your loudspeakers. If nothing of this works go with the polyurethane foam. The difference in material can affected the loudspeaker performance changing its original parameters but don't worry this change will not be in the catastrophic scale so it's considerate a good alternative.

2) Make a list of all the materials that you are going to need so that you don't have go several times to the shop in the middle of your work. Lets list some of the basic materials that you should have:

3) Start by cleaning out the old surround suspension, sometimes the old glue in the frame will come out by just rubbing with the fingers but if this doesn't happened use the sand paper to clean it out. You should also clean the cone. The idea is to clean both of these surfaces before installing the new surround suspension so that it will bond very well.

4) After cleaning both surfaces take the new surround suspension and put it around the cone. The inner part of the surround suspension is going to be in contact with the back of the cone and the outer part of the surround suspension will be in contact with the top of the frame.

5) Apply white glue to the inner part of the surround suspension and let it rest for about 2 minutes.

6) After two minutes start pressing firmly where the cone and the surround suspension are bonding. The glue will start to come out in the front of the cone, wipe it out as soon as possible with the wet cloth and then with the dry cloth. Continue pressing all the way around the cone and some times press the cone softly down in the center, you should not hear or feel any rubbing inside the loudspeaker. If you don't hear or feel anything when you press the cone down it means that the cone is well centralize in this way we can reduce the chances of voice coil rubbing. This is why we use white glue for this part of the procedure white glue dries slowly giving us time to correct any errors.

7) After you have press the cone and the inner part of the surround suspension you should let it dry for at least 8 hours.

8) When the 8 hours have past you can now bond the outer part of the surround suspension to the top of the frame.

9) Apply plastic emblem adhesive to the top of the frame, let it sit there for about 1 minute. Then press the outer part of the surround suspension to the adhesive in the frame. It is going to dry quickly so try to press uniformly.

Use all these instructions and any question of these or related topics feel free to write to pagaudio@hotmail.com

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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)
» left by Mike
from Toronto, Canada 6 years 140 days ago.
clear and comprehensive details...thanks It is not immediately apparent to me though how (or if) replacement of the spider suspension can be accomplished...can you elaborate ??
» left by 5 years 234 days ago.
First of all sorry for answering late. If you wish to repair the spider you would need to remove all the surround suspension and the cone that are in top of it, unless the frame has sufficient room for you to work. It is a little bit difficult to repair the spider if your intentions are not to damage the other parts (surround suspension or cone); but it can be done."
» left by Margaret
from Belgium 4 years 304 days ago.
This article was very helpful, many thanks Pedro. Can you tell me what you used to clean the cones?
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