Ferrofluid


Hey guys. So I have been texting someone from Germany I met online as he also has a pair of B&W 800 Matrix speakers. He mentioned that he treats his tweeters every so many years with Ferro fluid. It was kinda hard to actually text about it online with someone I just met from another county. I did google it and looked on utube for some videos and there are some. It’s seems it should be done about every 10 years or so. And u actually have to take the tweeter out of the cabinet disassemble / remove the voice coil clean out the old Ferro fluid and add new Ferro fluid. It’s seems to be some kind of a magnetic liquid used in speakers especially tweeters for better clearer sound, highs, voices etc. It really looks like a job for the experienced in rebuilding speakers. Has anyone heard of this or had it done ? I’d really love to know from folks who had experience with this. My speakers are from the 90s and even though they still sound phenomenal I’d really like to know more about this. I do plan on keeping my speakers for the long term. Thanks to all in advance. 

128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xtattooedtrackman

My only FF experience was when I rebuilt my Boston a400’s. It took me maybe 10 min per tweeter . One had tarry looking FF, the other looked fine - go figure.

I replaced both anyhow. I used a meter ( $20 off Amazon ) to check capacitance of the caps and a few were off so I replaced all with film caps.

You should get meter and check them before replacing . I have a 40 year old set of ads 1230’s and and 42 year set of GNP Valkeryies and both had all caps in spec so why replace them? I’ll read posts of ADS owners sending their crossovers to Richard So to be recapped but why bother if they are fine?

Btw, a good track to show off how good your speakers are is the song by the cars called “Drive”. If they are revealing, after the second stanza , you’ll hear bongos playing a counter melody in the back ground of the “duh duhs”.

@katman   Thank u for your reply. I will certainly think about that and possibly I can have my service tech come by and check out the crossovers. I have said that about the Cars song She’s Dangerous. The drums in that song sound phenomenal on my speakers. 

I can do the work, if you think that you can pull them and ship,hit me on private message

No need for a tech, just order a capacitance meter off Amazon $20, put either lead on either side of each cap and see if the number on the meter is with 10% of the number on the cap.

It’s really that simple and you can do both crossovers in 15 min, no chance of damaging anything .

In the time it takes to call someone up and explain what you want you can have one done. But hey, it’s your call.

@katman   You might want to look up his speakers, there are 14 caps in each speaker, not to mention relays, half wave rectifiers and Zeners. The crossover is on multiple circuit boards to handle independent functions, they are not surface soldered and tacked down. I'm not saying that this is a nightmare to do, but you better know what you are tackling.  

So, all you need is a $20 meter?  I have 3 LCR's (meters) and a computer that measures capacitance.  I'm lucky to have some reference parts that I have exact measurements for. I don't disagree that on many crossovers, its a fairly simple chore to change caps, but his speakers are complicated and would not want to see them messed up.  Cheap meters can be off quite a bit in their tolerance.  Just don't believe that in this case that you gave the best advice.