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Cleaning ADS Soft Dome Tweeter

StarMover

StarMover

AlienToAllThingsAudio
The good news! I found a pair of ADS L-300s for $3. :banana:

The bad news! They were absolutely filthy. Looks like they had been mounted outside a barn somewhere. Super dusty and dirty. Like something out of a Clint Eastwood movie..... Dirty Hairy. (sorry)

Anyone got any advice about how to clean these soft dome tweeters? I'm thinking perhaps some mineral spirits on an artists brush, but I hate to remove whatever factory coating was there.

Can I clean it and recoat the surface with something? Ideas? :scratch2:

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Thanks!
 

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Maybe clean around the edges only?

Since the dome moves as a single unit, the junk on it might not make all that much difference if its mass is low. But you might want to clean out the junk at the edges of the dome since stuff stuck in there may interfere with the in and out movement of the dome.

I bought a pair of L1290s a while back that had bits of dead plant leaves stuck to parts of the tweeter and mid domes. I lifted off what I could with small tweezers and left the rest, figuring I was likely to do more harm than good. They sound fine. The L300s are great speakers. Clean 'em up a bit, put the grills back on and enjoy them.
 
I hear saliva and tongues work great on those...just a light fleck of the tongue....if you feel it throbbing or pulsating fleck faster....

dirty hairy...what a character
 
Thanks... My gut says leave them alone, although I think I could do some good around the base with a q-tip. I have a screen porch and these might be perfect to replace the cheap pair of RS bookshelves I have there now.
 
Oh it's tempting, it's tempting as hell. But just leaving them alone is the consensus I've read regarding dirty ADS domes. I have a mid that looks as though about a quarter of it rested up against a piece of newspaper as its now impregnated to the dome and it's still there where it shall remain.
 
I clean the tweeter domes on my 1290 using a very soft terry cloth and dip it into warm water,nothing more. No chemicals ever.
 
Yikes I wouldn't bring that into the house, until you contact a bio hazard specialist. That looks like some kind of growth.

When I first saw this thread I thought wonderful, I would find out the secret to cleaning these types of domes. The Infinity Quantum Source Line of speakers uses almost the same type of domes for their mid drivers, a black doped small dome I think maybe made by the same suppliers. They are worse than a vinyl disc that attracks anything within two blocks of them. I just purchased a dozen new ones NOS, and the manufactors shipped them in a sytrofoam packing and little bits of the white sytrofoam is stuck on them. I was hoping to find a good way to clean them. On the ones for the Infinity those small tinsle wires are very fragile, I was thinking of making some small metal screens to cover the mid dome and protect those wires, just one small brush up against them and its toast. Many manufactors used screens over their mids and hi domes so I guess it won't affect the sound much as long as the screen is transparent enough. Then it would keep any larger items from sticking to them and the smaller dust particles would be hidden.
 
victor.askew said:
I clean the tweeter domes on my 1290 using a very soft terry cloth and dip it into warm water,nothing more. No chemicals ever.
Click to expand...

I would be worried about putting any pressure on them as it would cause the dome to push in, and once it has a dent in it for some reason they don't like to come back out all the way. I think the shape of the dome is pretty important for both structual integrity, and insuring a correct dispersion pattern. I have removed the diaphram and from the back side tried to remove any irregular shapes from ones where they had a dimple from some contact on them and they just lose their memory and don't like to completely return to their orignal shape.
 
ADS isn't the only manufacturer (Peerless, among others) that makes those 'sticky' soft dome tweeters.
Unless you suspect some sonic degradation, I'd leave them alone.

Steve
 
The ADS soft domes surface is water based and the surface will be compromised by "cleaning".
The Peerless soft domes have a relatively solid polymer coating as opposed to the ADSs which are a different make and model driver.
 
There is member-Soundmotor who worked for ads in the past.....hopefully he will weigh in as this topic comes up repeatedly.I wouldn't do anything except the "tweezer approach".
 
I usually tell people to leave them alone but those are nasty enough that I would wipe them very gently with a small piece of water-dampened sponge.
 
I wonder what substance they are coated with? It almost feels like rubber cement. If I knew, then it might be possible to clean and recoat the dome.
 
Leave them alone. Period. There is a very high chance you'll end up doing more harm than good as those drivers are very fragile and practically unobtainium as replacements these days. Put the grilles on and enjoy them as is!
 
OK I give up. I'll not touch them. Just pulled both drivers and am cleaning up the cabinets now. The screws were a bit rusty, so I'll buff them and repaint the tops flat black.

What about recapping? Are these old enought to think about that? I wouldn't think so.
 
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