damage from touching dome tweeter? (1 Viewer)

[DaveThomas]

Is touching dome tweeters when the speakers are playing music a bad thing? The little one didn't poke it, just gently touched it before I could get to him. Don't really hear any difference, but wondered if the slight pressure while the tweeter was moving would be harmful. Now that's a feeling of relief, expecting the little one to just poke through it but for some reason just barely touching it

 

[Guy Kuo]

The little ones finger is probably undamaged if he isn't making any different noise. I've never known a tweeter dome to get hot enough to burn anyone and the mechanical movements are small enough that they won't impart enough empact to bruise a finger, even of a child.

 

[Chriss M]

I think he was asking if the tweeter could be damaged, not the child

 

[jeff peterson]

I think Guy's tongue was in cheek.

Same for horn tweeters? Ribbon tweeters? I think they all have different vibrational patterns. Everybody knows the smaller the bone, the higher the resonant frequency.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

I have a little one who was fascinated with my Vifa aluminum dome tweeters. His little finger managed to dent them a couple of times.

If you have a dome tweeter, generally, you can disassemble it by taking the faceplate off (ie: my Vifa has 3 screws that hold the plastic flange on). The design inside is pretty simple. You can then push the dents out from the inside and reassemble it. I still have a few tiny creases in my domes after this fix.. but, like you, I don't hear any difference in tone. I'm sure if you sat down and measured it you might see some sort of diffraction off of the irregularities but it probably would not be an audible difference.

 

[Luis A]

Dave,
From what I understand, and I could be wrong, you don't have to "dent" the tweeter in order to damage it. Oils from your skin are also harmful to tweeters, slowly damaging them over time. I've heard this from several audiophiles, but like I said I could be wrong.
E-mail the guy's at Link Removed
I'm sure they will be able to accuratly answer your question.
L

 

[DaveThomas]

Hehe good one Guy. I'm sure his parents will be happy to hear that. Didn't have time to scream, just noticed him reaching out and barely touching it before I could really react. My lucky day I guess. The image that flashed through my mind was his finger going right through it
He didn't push it enough to make a dent so that's good.

 

[Bernard L]

funniest thing is, if you goto any department store displaying speakers with covers open, you'll probably see like half the tweeters are punched in.

yet it still plays.

 

[John Morris]

I thankfully have never had my tweeters dented. Still, taking a piece of tape and gently letting it rest on the dent, you should be able to pull the dents out of the tweeter. Don't rush, go slow, and don't drink coffee beforehand and you should be ok.

 

[Allan Jayne]

Any number of bad things may or may not happen if a tweeter cone (dome) is touched. In a near worst case situation, the voice coil could be knocked out of position and start scraping the framework (magnetic pole pieces) even if nothing looks wrong from the outside.
If the dome is punched in and then pulled out, any wrinkles left will change the sound quality but most likely you would not be able to hear the difference.
The dome, which may either be the entire "cone" or a part mounted in the middle of a cone, is shaped so as to disperse the high frequencies in a desired pattern.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm