Painting Woofer

[Peter_Klim]

Was thinking of customizing my ReQuests. Part of my plan is to paint the paper part of the woofer a gloss black. Right now it is the original dull black that looks like it faded to a dark grey. I doubt anything negative will come out of it but wanted to get some opinions.

 

[roberto]

You can paint your woofer with no problem. It will not harm or change the sound of if. I had done this many times. Just get a spray fast dry and that´s it. Happy listening!

 

[Peter_Klim]

That's what I thought. Glad to get a 1st response from the expert! Gracias Roberto!

 

[roberto]

Hey Peter, thanks for your kind words!... just do a not too heavy coat with the paint. Happy listening!

 

[Tosh]

Ordinarily one doesn't paint the woofer cone with paint because it looks faded, and I wouldn't like to expose my own ML's paper cones to most liquids. There are specially sold products for 'treating' or refreshing paper cones which also happen to give a glossy wet look, and one can also use latex or even 'white wood glue' diluted with water...
I would take care to keep the typical spray paint away from the foam or rubber surrounds.

 

[JonFo]

^^ What he said, the solvents in spray paints can not only damage the surrounds, but might also loosen any glue at the dust-cap in the middle, or along the joints to the surrounds.

Peter, have you considered replacing the woofers? that would be a much better solution, as those old ReQuest woofers are probably no longer operating anywhere near their original specs.

 

[Peter_Klim]

^^ What he said, the solvents in spray paints can not only damage the surrounds, but might also loosen any glue at the dust-cap in the middle, or along the joints to the surrounds.

Peter, have you considered replacing the woofers? that would be a much better solution, as those old ReQuest woofers are probably no longer operating anywhere near their original specs.

they still sound good to me so right now I have no plans to replace them. And right now still house hunting so I'll be putting money into making a theater room once I make the purchase. Thanks for the suggestion...some day though...

 

[danvielesonoma]

What woofer replacement is recommended? Woofer specs vary widely, and any replacement might require crossover tweaking. That said, newer technology has produced far better woofers in the last decade, faster and deeper. What woofers have folks used to replace the Eminence driver in my reQuests? (still work fine, though a sub was required for true theater special effects)

 

[JonFo]

It will be tough to find an exact match these days, but there have been several threads discussing this topic for reQuests specifically use the site search or use google with a Site:www.martinloganowners.com argument.

If the match is not exact, then crossover tweaking is required, so unless you plan to bi-amp and go active crossovers (also previously discussed), then an update could be a real challenge.

 

[Tosh]

ReQuest uses a 12 inch 4 Ohm woofer in a sealed cabinet, so the fact that it's a sealed cabinet makes finding a replacement easier. Since Eminence is still around, you might ask them directly for a suggestion. You might ask a speaker reconing shop for a price to repair your pair if one fails, as there should be 4-Ohm reconing kits available.
There are better woofers than Eminence, and you might have a preference. Then, part of the problem is finding a replacement woofer with the correct basket OD, so it fits the existing counterbore in the cabinet. I always look at Madisound first for suitable woofers and then plug the T/S parameters into an online speaker box calculator (simulator) to get an idea of their response.