Tweeter life

Why to replace tweeters and not the woofers? Dry ferrofluid can be replaced. Large midrange drivers in my speakers also have ferrofluid, plus unique design - not replaceable. Replacing tweeter is not an easy task, unless you reinstall exactly the same. In addition to sensitivity, that you might have to measure somehow, you need to match resistance and inductance of the coil. Also dispersion characteristic might be different. My 11 year old tweeters are short horn by unknown manufacturer while speaker manufacturer bankrupted. There is no provision to replace ferrofluid - would have to unglue membrane. I found similar short horn tweeter (Morel), but would have to measure and compare inductance and sensitivity. Current speaker has no markings on the posts. How to determine polarity of the tweeter? (some speakers have tweeters wired in opposite phase). Would new speaker improve sound or make it worse? My brother’s Cabasse speakers are over 20 years old and tweeters still
work fine. Perhaps "if ain’t broke don’t fix it", unless you have "Gardener’s Syndrome" (constant trimming and repotting).

If they're working well, why replace them at all?  

If they’re working well, why replace them at all?


Well thats what Richard Gray told me, when i asked him 2 months ago,, he said Quote<< do they produce sound?>> *Yes* , <<Then they are ok>> Now after the tweets are on his test equipment,,he says,, **they are out of balance* = perhaps its time for new tweets, @ $350 each,, well, they are 17 yrs old,, but for 10 yrs i had no sound system as i could not finda line stage preamp to mmatch the Defy7,, So lets just say, with new xovers,, why not replace the Millennials. ?? uh? why not? anyone care to dispute,, the old ones with new voice coil diaphrams will go up for sale on ebay.
Who know they may sound close/same to old ones.. I just don’t know.. But again its time after 17 yrs to go ahead and replace,, This way, I will never have to worry about changing the Millenniums ever again.
paul
New Orleans
The Audiophile Mountaineer.

I just googled *do magnets lose power over time*, Yes overa  long period of time magnets lose some power.
Of course the Millenniums use the high tech Neodynum Magnet system , which is far superior to ferro fluid magnet system. 

mozartfan, AFAIK ferrofluid in tweeters is used for damping and cooling.  It has nothing to do with type of the magnet.  Neodymium magnet tweeter might be designed with or without ferrofluid.

The fact that magnets "lose some power over time" speaks against replacing them, because other speaker magnets (midrange and woofers) lose some power as well.  I would rather lose some efficiency than risk unbalanced sound.