Tips for extending speaker life

High-end speakers, if you don't pay attention to maintenance, then it is broken, and it is your own distress. Many people are thinking, how long is the life span of speakers? Everyone is more concerned about this issue. The author thinks that 15 years of normal use of speakers is absolutely no problem. If you add good maintenance to it, it will take longer. Some speakers will break after less than a few years. Why? Then it comes to the maintenance aspect, the following author will take you to dissect the knowledge of speaker maintenance.
The speaker is mainly composed of speaker unit, frequency divider, cabinet, inverter hole, terminal, wire, etc. From the perspective of maintenance, the first three items are the main ones, and the last three items are the second ones.
1. Speaker unit
The main structure of the loudspeaker unit is composed of choke ring, sound cone, fixed core support piece, magnetic circuit (including magnet, T iron, voice coil), basin frame, etc., and the service life of the speaker is affected except that the voice coil is burned by abnormal use. It's the choke and cone. Choke ring: The life order of choke ring material is cloth edge, rubber-plastic composite edge, silicone rubber edge, foam edge, etc. The more easily damaged is the foam edge (for example, JBL has a LX series speaker). Because of the foam edge speaker unit, it will be broken and almost scrapped in 3-5 years of normal use. I helped my friend repair N such speakers. , Without exception, the foam fold ring is damaged. Of course, the material composition and production process of the foam edge are different, and the lifespan will also be different. The second thing is to count the silicone rubber edges. The original domestic "Feilo" bass likes to use this choke ring. Its disadvantage is that if the process is improper, the time is long, it is easy to age and produce inert deformation and moire, which affects the use. Nowadays speaker manufacturers still widely use silicone rubber choke rings and rubber-plastic choke rings.
The choke ring that greatly prolongs the life of the speaker unit is the cloth side choke ring. Most of it is used in professional speakers, but it is also useful in civilian products. For example, the 12-inch woofer YD315-8b produced in Nanjing uses it. Cloth choke ring.
2. Basin frame

There are currently two widely used materials for the basin frame, namely, thin metal stamping basin frame and aluminum basin frame. Of course, there are other materials, such as nylon plastic basin frame (Aopu 802 and Xiya H545). of. Most of the imported and domestic high-end speaker units use aluminum frame, which has high strength and superior seismic performance, which is much better than ordinary stamped iron frame. But the small-caliber unit doesn't matter. And the centering brackets (ie, yellow boards) are all linen products produced by a special process, as long as they are not degummed, there is nothing to say.

3. Sound cone
The sound cone adopts a variety of material forms in the use of the speaker unit: its bulletproof cloth, fiber woven cone, PP cone, mica polypropylene cone, aluminum-magnesium alloy cone and other problems are not big, mainly paper-based or paper-based. Composite basins, due to the presence of protein fibers, are almost inevitably eroded by mold in the humid areas of the south, that is, our common mold spots and white spots are a headache. The sound of this cone is soft and pure, and it is highly favored by speaker manufacturers. For example, "JBL" in the United States, "Wefa" in Denmark, and "Siyas" in Norway all produce a large number of paper-based or paper-based composite cone speakers. How to maintain it, especially for high-end speakers Maintenance is of great concern to enthusiasts.
4. Magnet
The magnets are almost maintenance-free, but there will be a little loss of magnetism over time, but it will not have a big impact on the overall performance. At most, the sensitivity is slightly reduced, but it is only minimal. The anti-magnetic horn is much better than the ordinary non-anti-magnetic situation.
How to maintain speakers and speaker units, the author tells everyone about the maintenance experience over the years:
1. The cabinet is best made of logs. The exterior is preferably made of high-wear and high-strength paint products, but it is relatively rare; most of them use high-density machine-made boards to decorate wood grain paper or veneer (if there is no paint on the exterior) , It is recommended to repaint N times).
The location should be in a dry room, avoid direct sunlight as much as possible, and never place it in a damp place to prevent the high-density machine-made board from swelling due to dampness, which is troublesome. And don’t leave the speaker unused for a long time. Use it at least 1-3 times a month, and use it for more than an hour each time, otherwise it will bring a lot of trouble, such as static fatigue of the material, leakage of the non-polar electrolytic capacitor in the frequency divider, etc. It affects the normal work at the slightest degree, and affects its lifespan at the worst.
2. Maintenance of the speaker unit (whether it is in the cabinet or a newly purchased speaker unit.)
(1) Carefully remove the speaker unit in the finished product box, be careful, and mark the position with an oil-based pen on the box body and the speaker, so that it can be reset and installed after maintenance.
(2) Prepare a box of imported car wax (used on imported brand cars) and apply it evenly on the upper and lower T irons of the magnetic steel. Generally, this T iron is made of galvanized iron. If the basin frame is an iron basin frame, It must be treated in this way so that the wax is attached to it and do not wipe it off, which can prevent it from being rusted for N years.
(3) The two parabolic braided soft copper wires that lead from the sound coil to the terminal of the speaker unit must also be coated with wax and evened back and forth with your fingers. Do not wipe it off to prevent the lead time from being too long. Blackening becomes less elastic and affects work.
(4) If the paper-based or paper-based composite basin has mildew spots and white spots, please use a medical alcohol cotton ball to wipe it carefully from the back (the alcohol cotton ball should be twisted half-dry and half-damp, not too wet, and no seepage. The surface of the cone). If there are mildew spots and white spots on the surface, only use warm water of 40-45°, add a few hand sanitizer shampoos, and use a clean soft towel dipped in water to wring dry and wipe it off. Do not rub it repeatedly. Do not rub it with alcohol or other volatile organic solvents.
(5) Maintenance of the frequency divider. First look at the frequency divider. There is a capacitor connected in series to the tweeter. Is it a high-quality MKP frequency divider capacitor (the general capacity and withstand voltage are 2.2-6.8uf/100-400v , The capacity is different depending on the crossover point), if it is used, don't move it, otherwise, you must replace it with a high-quality MKP crossover capacitor anyway. Brands such as "Sulun" from France, "Weimar" from Germany or "MIT" from the United States can not only guarantee the reproduction of the tone, but also make it difficult to damage the tweeter due to the small leakage current.
(6) After the high-end speaker has been thoroughly cooked (usually 1-3 months), use it for a while, about half a year to a year, and then remove the mid-bass unit on the speaker (don’t move the treble) and rotate it. Put it back at 180 degrees (the first maintenance has been marked, this time you only need to install it upside down) to make the speaker more balanced under the influence of its own gravity. At the same time, check whether there is any need for wax repair. Make up if necessary.
After learning the above methods of maintaining audio equipment, as long as you follow the above instructions, you can ensure that your speakers can prolong the life.
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