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Ferrofluid questions.

I am considering changing out the ferrofluid in the tweeters on my Thiel CS 3.6 speakers. It appears that I should be able to do the work myself. Someone gave a link in another thread to little tubes of the ferrofluid that you can buy for less than $10 from Parts Express.

I have been attributing unclear vocals to my Bryston 4Bsst2 amp being not clear enough. I may still upgrade the Bryston amp to the "cubed" version of the 4B but I’m starting to wonder is it more an issue of my older Thiel speakers’ tweeters having overly resinous ferrofluid.

Could too old of ferrofluid in a tweeter contribute to coarseness in the treble range? What about a slight lack of vocal elocution? I have resorted to using the Soundhound app on my iPhone when listening to vocal music in order to bring up the lyrics. Or, I read the lyrics on the CD cover if they are provided.

If the new ferrofluid improved vocal clarity I would be a very happy guy.

I hope I don’t damage the tweeters in the process.

Also, if you can change the ferrofluid on the tweeter, does the midrange cone work in the same manner?

I look forward to optimizing my speakers further. Thanks for any help you can give.


masi61
erik_squires
16,121 posts
 
I'm not an expertin Thiel, but yes, old ferrofluid tends to gunk up the coil.

AFAIK, this was really only a thing in tweeters, so no, you won't have the same issues in the mid.

Definitely worth doing first given the age of your speakers.
erik_squires
16,121 posts
 
To be clear, you need to be prepared to clean the VC as well as replace the fluid. :)
masi61 OP
97 posts
 

thank you @erik_squires . What does VC stand for?

The fasteners for the tweeter are exposed right in front of the speaker and then there is a triangular plastic guard covering the dome tweeter with more accessible fasteners.

I saw a few you tube videos where they show how to wick out the old fluid. One video demonstrated using a piece of masking tape, folded in a way that the adhesive was on both sides of the outside in order to remove the old ferro fluid. The other video I watched, they just used like coffee filter paper one little piece at a time until there were minimal dark stains on the paper. Then they took more of the coffee filter paper with some rubbing alcohol (or pure grain alcohol?) on it in order to get it even cleaner before they put the fresh ferro fluid in.

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