Did some subtle customization on my subwoofers

[Haakon]

I have 4 Focal 27WX subs, got them all used in two pairs from different sellers. The first two were in excellent shape, could really not tell that they had ever been mounted apart from seeing pics of it in the sales ad. Not even a fingerprint on the chrome when I unpacked them.

The other two however, basically looked like s*** when I got them in the mail, no wonder the pics in the sales ad were so tiny and unfocused. Here is how I restored them (tried to at least): http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/ipb/index.ph ... p__3899376

Anyway, the Focal logos on the dustcap had almost gone, no text left:


So I decided to make new ones, but some custom ones to suit my project car, a VW Lupo. And off course a Lupo with Utopia makes Lupotopia Put the VW logo in the background as well, and made the files ready for vinyl cutting in Adobe illustrator CS5:


Made a testcut in single colour, just to size it up, best to get a feel for this IRL, not just on the computer screen, weeding the vinyl went easy:


Size looked ok on the actual speaker:


Next step was to cut the pieces in the actual colours to be used, went with silver, red and white. Added crop marks to line up the pieces, and cut 6 of each in case I mess up some


A dome is basically the worst shape you can apply a flat piece of vinyl to, but it went pretty well. Had to adjust the outer rings a bit, took this pic before I did just that:


Could have aligned it a bit better also, so I'll peel this one off and put on another tomorrow I think Not a problem with a two week old Roland signmaker in the hobby room


No problem changing these back again to stock ones if I ever decide to part with them, but well happ with the result for now

Thanks for looking

[tonym]

nice work....

[holmis]

Cool

[dvnt88]

nice work....

Ditto ...

[stipud]

Wow that's awesome! Nice work!

[ttocs]

I thought I had heard that even adding a small amount of paint to the cone can cause it to change how it vibrates/sounds?

[denim]

Very cool!

[tonym]

I thought I had heard that even adding a small amount of paint to the cone can cause it to change how it vibrates/sounds?

the dust cones would have to be a carbon copy I would think then...to make them all sound the same...

[Haakon]

I thought I had heard that even adding a small amount of paint to the cone can cause it to change how it vibrates/sounds?

Indeed, theoretically every change in parametesr on a driver can affect how it sounds, both adding or subtracting weight to the moving mass (mms) of the driver can affect its behaviour.

However, the weight added by scraping off/sanding down the old logo and then adding a new one where the actual vinyl weighs less than a small stamp. Maybe between half a gram and a gram difference. The effect of this would be no more noticable than if one driver has been made with a liberal amount of glue on the soft parts (surround to cone, cone to former etc) and one had been made with a minimal amount. And since most speakers (these included) are put together by hand and not machines, by different workers, that may very well be the case. Even if they are supposed to be, no two drivers are exactly alike.

I'd be move vary doing this on for example my mids from the same utopia line (audiom 6W). Their total weight of moving mass (this includes cone, surround, voice coil, former etc) is just 6,6 grams. (well, on paper at least )