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Major Contradiction, Can you replace foam surrounds with Rubber Surrounds on Speakers ???

Hi Guys, I have a major conundrum to decide, and need the experts in the community to help. I have the Wilson Watt Puppy 6's and have 4 woofers that need re-foaming.

 Here's the issue, First, according to Wilson, I had called 2x(at different times) and asked to speak with a speaker engineer, Both times the knowledgeable staff member that answered the phone said that wasn't possible, but would relay any message to them on the spot and get back with me while I hold. My question was: Can you replace the foam surrounds on the Wilson speakers with Rubber Surrounds . After waiting on hold for about 5 minuets, he said "yes, you can",

I Then proceeded to call the well regarded Miller Sound in PA, who is recognized to one of the best in the Industry to do the replacing of speaker surrounds. I proceeded to ask the same question to him, and he said, "No, & that it would change the sound of the speaker and to only redo them using foam surrounds to preserve its original sound quality" . I see no other supporting evidence one way or the other on the net. What do you folks say and please elaborate one way or the other to help me justify my decision. Thank you, Rich
audiofan1

Showing 1 response by auxinput

auxinput
2,920 posts
 
I believe, and this is foggy, that the answer is that the majority of the compliance in a driver is the spider on the inside, next to the magnet. The foam or rubber ring we see on the outside is normally the one that contributes the least amount.

I would agree with this.  The weight of the entire driver plus the weight and the "spring" strength of the spider will dictate the resonance frequency of the woofer.  This applies to port size tuning.  I don't think rubber/foam surround will affect the weight or spring/flex of the driver and have very little impact on resonance frequency.

Now the type of surround can definitely impact much higher frequencies (such as anything above 400-500 hz) because it affects the natural damping of the speaker vibration resonance.  This may have impact on frequency response or crossover design.  If it's a woofer on a 3-way speaker, then I wouldn't worry about replacing surround with rubber.
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