Painting Speakers (1 Viewer)

[Stephen Stewart]

I have a new pair of Polk Dipole surrounds that are very nice and I'd like to use them in my new home, however, they are black and would really take away from the appearance of my new home's walls. I was wondering whether it would be a terrible idea to paint them? I realize that most of the problem would be with the felt covers because it would interfere with the design and function of the speakers. But how bad would it be? I am afraid it'd be like hearing the speakers behind a paper bag... Is there any way to have the felt replaced?

Thanks for any advice or help.

 

[Greg_R]

Painting the enclosure (box) will not cause any problems. DO NOT put paint on the drivers or on their surrounds (this will effect the operating parameters of the driver). You can purchase acoustically transparent cloth from a variety of sources. You'll want to replace your current cloth with some cloth of the appropriate color. I should also mention that most people remove the grill covers and never use them...

 

[Bill Will]

Greg's right, DO NOT PAINT THE CLOTH ON THE SPEAKER. I once painted speaker's I had but before I painted them I looked to see if I could find some Contac paper that would match my walls but when I could'nt find the color I wanted in Contac paper I bought white Contac paper & covered the speaker with it & then I painted the Contac paper the color of my walls. The speaker's were mounted high up on the wall & you could'nt see the top of them so I put the seam of the Contac paper on top of the speaker's so the seam was out of sight. My reasoning was that if I ever wanted to sell the speakers all I had to do was tear off the Contac paper. The grill's on my speaker's were metal so I did paint them but knowing that I could always paint them back to their original black color. I did end up selling the speaker's but before I did I peeled off the Contac paper & spray painted the grill's & they looked as good as new. I would email Polk & see if they have any suggestions on your problem. Maybe they make outdoor speakers that have metal grill's on them & they might fit on your speaker's ? A crazy friend of mine shall we say once took his cloth speaker grills off & put them in the washing machine with about 5 gallon's of bleach & then keep running them on the gentle cycle until the cloth was bleached enough to dye, I don't know how long it took him to bleach the cloth but after he bleached them he dyed them green. I always wondered if a commercial laundry or cleaners could get the dye out but I never did check into it. I would talk to Polk first though.