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Danny at GR getting bad Talk Back from many of his viewers

Not sure I have perfected high mass soldering as yet but suspect the answer is larger soldering tips.

It is. Big honking tip and high temp (preferably a high wattage iron instead). And connect the part you're soldering to a good heat spreader, so you don't melt anything unintended :)
 
if they sound okay I'd leave them be, you can create more problems than you solve.

There's more than one type of ferrofluid so if you are set on refreshing it I'd try and find out what exactly they used first of all.
I thought more along the lines of filling up, changing to new oil for the car engine to increase its life span. Perhaps the same principle can be applied to this type of tweeter? Or not ?

But okay, if you don't know what type of ferrofluid is needed, it will be difficult to do that.
 
Is it possible to generalize and say that old speakers with tweeters that have ferrofluid in them should be filled with such fluid?

How much liquid is needed to fix two tweeters? I mostly wonder if it's worth it.

I did a quick google. AlegaFerrofluid - 10 ml, 200 SEK /$19. Is it a good price?

Edit:
I know, worth to one person but not to another, so I guess it's subjective.
My experience is limited, but a tweeter that uses ferrofluid can be operated without the fluid in the gap, if so the parameters do change but not in a way I would call dramatic. I measured a tweeter that I cleaned up years ago, I didn't save the data and I emphasize I am not an expert in the field of ferrofluid, but I concluded that the biggest worry was power heat dissipation and power handling (I can only speculate), not frequency response or sound (which I actually measured and was a nit). Since the tweeter was used with a fairly low crossover point, I figured better to use the fluid.

I have an old Seas tweeter on my bench with the fluid completely dried to a varnish consistency. If I can get it out of the gap, I will test and post what I see in terms of parameter changes with and without fluid, since I have brand new diaphragms, along the way of doing yet another test of 'do speakers really change that much during break-in?'. The problem is getting the remnants of the fluid out of the gap now that it is the consistency of iron-impregnated resin.
 
My experience is limited, but a tweeter that uses ferrofluid can be operated without the fluid in the gap, if so the parameters do change but not in a way I would call dramatic. I measured a tweeter that I cleaned up years ago, I didn't save the data and I emphasize I am not an expert in the field of ferrofluid, but I concluded that the biggest worry was power heat dissipation and power handling (I can only speculate), not frequency response or sound (which I actually measured and was a nit). Since the tweeter was used with a fairly low crossover point, I figured better to use the fluid.

I have an old Seas tweeter on my bench with the fluid completely dried to a varnish consistency. If I can get it out of the gap, I will test and post what I see in terms of parameter changes with and without fluid, since I have brand new diaphragms, along the way of doing yet another test of 'do speakers really change that much during break-in?'. The problem is getting the remnants of the fluid out of the gap now that it is the consistency of iron-impregnated resin.
But isn't this really rather silly overkill HiFi, to use ferrofluid for cooling, for normal home HiFi use? What kind of cooling is actually needed? Or what the point of it actually is? It's about home HiFi speakers with ditto tweeters not PA speakers that are pushed to extremes, so what about that need for cooling?
Or have I missed something now?:oops:

Does the liquid dry out completely maybe because of that design, but...I don't know, I'm just speculating now.But feel free to try: I will test and post what I see in terms of parameter changes with and without fluid,... It will be really fun to see the results. Good luck with the test.:D
 
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But isn't this really rather silly overkill HiFi, to use ferrofluid for cooling, for normal home HiFi use? What kind of cooling is actually needed? Or what the point of it actually is? It's about home HiFi speakers with ditto tweeters not PA speakers that are pushed to extremes, so what about that need for cooling?
Or have I missed something now?:oops:

Does the liquid dry out completely maybe because of that design, but...I don't know, I'm just speculating now.But feel free to try: I will test and post what I see in terms of parameter changes with and without fluid,... It will be really fun to see the results. Good luck with the test.:D
It does provide cooling. Home use does get the voice coils and associated bits quite hot. I think it is a tool.

The Seas tweeters with the dried ferrofluid are over 20 years old, and used quite heavily. The tweeter plays low, and was used with a low crossover. Perhaps without the ferrofluid I would have melted the VC at high volume. If so, it did it's job! It sure is a mess now though...
 
Wow this thread really took off!

I think I see an issue with many of us, (I guess myself included) have designed speakers, worked for speaker companies, or simply have enough DIY experience to know pretty much the same as D.R or more in many cases.

That puts him in defense mode, and brings out the faux explanations.
Many complain about no A/B demonstration, which he explains would be totally lost on youtubes compressed sound......okay true to some degree, but..
No distortion measurements at all, which he explains can be doctored to look good or bad.....???
"Fixing" a speaker that is older, is often fixing a "One off" as it may have aged poorly or have tweeter issues etc.
So essentially you are fixing one guys speaker and assuming maybe incorrectly or maybe correctly that ALL of that model will have nearly identical response issues.

That leaves us as guys that kind of "See through" his facade and friendly "Helpful" demeanor, as long as you send his $400-700 for his "Fixes"
 
My experience is limited, but a tweeter that uses ferrofluid can be operated without the fluid in the gap, if so the parameters do change but not in a way I would call dramatic. I measured a tweeter that I cleaned up years ago, I didn't save the data and I emphasize I am not an expert in the field of ferrofluid, but I concluded that the biggest worry was power heat dissipation and power handling (I can only speculate), not frequency response or sound (which I actually measured and was a nit). Since the tweeter was used with a fairly low crossover point, I figured better to use the fluid.

I have an old Seas tweeter on my bench with the fluid completely dried to a varnish consistency. If I can get it out of the gap, I will test and post what I see in terms of parameter changes with and without fluid, since I have brand new diaphragms, along the way of doing yet another test of 'do speakers really change that much during break-in?'. The problem is getting the remnants of the fluid out of the gap now that it is the consistency of iron-impregnated resin.
Sometimes, the fluid if not evenly "applied" correctly (I assume) even with new drivers, will for sure cause response issues, sensitivity and resonances and alter the tweeters Fs and distortion levels.


Read the above for an example if you wish.
I have to add, I am NOT an expert in this either (ferrofluid issues), but found the above quite interesting none the less.
 
Sometimes, the fluid if not evenly "applied" correctly (I assume) even with new drivers, will for sure cause response issues, sensitivity and resonances and alter the tweeters Fs and distortion levels.


Read the above for an example if you wish.
I have to add, I am NOT an expert in this either (ferrofluid issues), but found the above quite interesting none the less.
It's hard for me to tell what that person did with those tweeters, they only include the measurements after the ferrofluid was removed. No way to compare to the performance of the tweeter with the ferrofluid in place.

Some comments...
This author's sighted assertions are dramatic, and unhelpful:
I proceeded to play some music. It was apparent immediately that something was not right. The tweeter sounded constipated. It’s like the highs were impeded. I don’t ever recall a fabric dome tweeter sounding this horrible before.
:facepalm:

The author's ferrofluid observation is naïve:
I noticed the voice coil was not fully immersed in ferrofluid. Maybe that’s where the problem is.
This is actually how the ferrofluid is supposed to be, never supposed to be fully filling the gap.:facepalm:

And, the distortion graph doesn't look right, and even if it was is not comparing before and after ferrofluid removal, so no idea what to make of this except the author isn't good at making distortion measurements.:facepalm:

Removing the ferrofluid has a very subtle effect on the measurements, may or may not be audible depending on the usage and tweeter. Old dried up ferrofluid has an effect on the measurements, and is often audible. Filling the gap completely has a large impact, and can be audible.

Most of the internet discussions on ferrofluid are hysterical and non-factual, including massive FUD on DIY-Audio on ferrofluid. The author's assertion that the tweeter sounded "constipated" sounds like they read these incoherent statements, and got a fever in their head that the tweeter was suffering ferrofluid-constipation, and couldn't listen objectively as a result, and didn't or couldn't perform proper measurements to understand if they were hallucinating.:facepalm:

Ferrofluid is another typical audio reproduction tradeoff. It does help with power handling and power compression, it does slightly damp some resonances. It does dry out and is sometimes extremely difficult to remove the metalized varnish. I am just realistic about what it can and can't do to the sound.
 
Final Thoughts on GR Research;

Mr. Richie has taken on the Klipsch Cornwall III and Andrew Jones latest Mofi speaker, with the corresponding crossover updates. I can't help but think that one of these days Mr. Richie is going to step on the wrong foot. One does not go rattlesnake hunting wearing flipflops.

For those who have his products and who like them, rock on, after all sound perception is a personal thing.
I have decided that he is irrelevant to my quest for my end game system, and as such I will cheerfully ignore him.
 
I can't help but think that one of these days Mr. Richie is going to step on the wrong foot. One does not go rattlesnake hunting wearing flipflops.
Just read this thread and others lol

Here's 2 others worth reading for pure hilarity and entertainment (likely others but I just searched for 2 I remembered participating in)



Oh and lets not forget these gems!




Anyway, imho, you could say every time Danny takes a walk he steps in a puddle.. It's frankly a bit offensive to me to think that so many people are taken in by such ... sigh .. :facepalm:
 
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