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How to Replace Foam Surrounds

HOW TO REPLACE YOUR FOAM SURROUNDS.

This is a general guide only, no responsibility is taken for these notes.

If you are handy and a bit of common sense, this job is quite straight forward.

The first task is to remove all the old foam surround, it can be quite sticky and takes a little time.

Place the speaker with the cone downwards.

Remove the small screws that retain the curved metal U shaped piece with foam inserts. (Some models just have a foam ring, so nothing to remove).

Turn the speaker, so now the cone is facing upwards. Lift off these curved metal U parts, if fitted.

Once removed, they may require cleaning, as it is likely there will be perished foam surround stuck to them, you can use a sharp blade to scalpel or similar tool.

Also clean up the speaker chassis, where the U parts were resting. A handy vacuum can be useful to suck up the bits.

Using a finger and thumb, or whatever seems to work for you, remove all the rest of the foam surround, including from what is now on the underside of the cone, rubbing helps, usually the old foam goes into balls.

Once all the old foam is removed, now we can start fitting the new surround.

The new foam surround is usually glued to the top of the cone (as approved by Tannoy Scotland). (The old surround was glued under the cone). It is ok and fine to glue to the top but also OK to fit under, but more difficult and best if cone removed.

Have a trial place of the new foam surround where it will rest. Once satisfied that it sits correctly, remove and place to one side. Now apply glue to the outer upper top edge, that will be covered by the new foam. You can use a small paint brush, I squeeze a small amount at a time onto my finger, then apply to the cone edge. Have a try and see what works for you. Don't be mean, but don't apply too much either. This glue is waterproof PVA glue. Once glue applied, put the foam surround in place, use your fingers to push and keep in place. Obviously, align the outer edge near chassis correctly with the cut outs, sometimes the cuts outs will need further minor trimming.

Spend plenty of time “fingering & pressing” this gluing process and do not proceed any further until this stage is completely dried, typically 1-2 hours. Don't rush.  So, once this stage is complete, we now need to glue the outer edge.

There will be a small adjustment possible. But as the cone sits, it should be free to move up and down without coil rub. You can have a try to move the cone a little East and West, so see where it rubs, and likewise North and South. With a little fiddling, you will find where it is centred. (When fitting a new cone, the dust cap is not fitted, so we shim up to centre the cone). Take time fiddling, getting to know where centre is. This is not as difficult as it might seem.

(It is possible to remove the dust cap, with a sharp scalpel or blade, leaving the glued bit in place, shim up, compete the outer gluing, then add new dust cap, which I sell, and this almost totally covers the old dust cap edge left.)

After centring several trials, you will gain confidence, where and when it is centred.

Lift the foam edge that touches the chassis and apply 8 small amounts of glue. Let the foam edge lie back in place, then again try the cone up down, just moving slightly North & South, East and West etc, again, and find the centre point you are happy with. Once you are happy where it is, lift the foam edge and apply more glue. Once all the glue applied, check the cone is moving free up and down, if necessary, do the North, South, East, West adjustment.

Then push the outer edge down on to the chassis, keep doing this, again checking the cone is free to move up and down, keep doing this for 30 minutes, or until the glue is dry.

Once dry, really dry, you can re-fit the metal U shaped pieces. Then you are all done.

Good luck.