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In Reply to: Yes, remove them.
:)
Follow Ups:
In my humble experience, the advantages of the bugscreen removal result in significant reductions in turbulence in the throat area — which translate into in less distortion and better transient response.We (the Central Florida Audio Society) once had a blind A/B comparison of identical TD 2001 drivers, one with, and one without the bug screen. What was significant, was not that all of the members preferred the sound of the driver without the bug screen, but, in under 30 seconds, everyone that participated in the AB listen was able to tell which driver had no bug screen.
The disadvantage to this modification is that the bugscreen is there for a reason: To keep bugs, dirt and ferrous materials from migrating to the voice coil gap. This however, is more of a concern in a pro audio where the TD 2001 is used in commercial sound reinforcement. I have found that nylon pantyhose stretched at the junction of horn throat and mouth makes an effective seasonal bug (kid and pet) screen for compression drivers that have had their bug screens removed, as well as traditional drivers (with an exposed gaps area) that have a phase plug or no dust cap.
Paul B
on nylon hose. I had Tom Brennan over one Saturday, and while we were dicussing removal of the screens, we watched a Chinese lady bug crawl up one of the horns - in spite of the SPL...
Yeah, tell me about bugs here in the semi-tropics! [AKA 'Swamp World']. But one of the things that our local Chamber of Commerce will never admit to, is well known (to locals) as Florida's' “Secret Shame.” A indigenous tropical bounty of airborne and flying insects in the form of: Dozens of varieties of flying cockroaches (which include Palmetto, German, Asian, Cuban, Madeira, dusky brown, brown banded, Blaberus giganteus, and deaths-head), flying ants, love bugs, moths, termites, fleas, sand fleas, midges, mites, citrus gnats, no-see-ums, mosquitos, bees, wasps, yellow jackets, hornets, horse flies, fruit flies, and regular run-of-the-mill houseflies.What, no ladybugs? The lizzards eat them...
For those of you with similar environmental problems, I have found that bigleg hoochie mama nylon pantyhose does indeed make an effective seasonal bug screen.
Paul B
I have some 15" drivers with a phase plug. I guess the only thing I can do would involve covering the entire driver with something?I suppose building a speaker cloth grille will do the job.
Charlie
Removing the bug screens on all compression drivers has made them sound better to my ears. Some people will try to argue that the screen is “acoustically transparent”, but it was rather easy for me and others to distinguish which driver had its screen removed. If you are used to listening to your drivers with the screens in, it may initially sound like the drivers are “in your face” after removing them. However, you will get used to the new sound very quickly. The primary advantage of removing the screens is an increase in apparent dynamics. This is especially true during music passages that are complex; with the screens in, the music sounded congested, compressed, and muffled. Not that the TD-2001 can be described as muffled; all of this is relative in nature. Removing the screens just give you more of the good things the TD-2001 already does. Without the screens, the sound is more dynamic, free flowing and unveiled. If you have to have something to protect your drivers from dust, etc., than I recommend you go ahead and remove the screens and use the cloth speaker grill material between the driver and horn. The cloth is far less harmful to the sound than the metal screen. Stretch the cloth out as far as possible and then tighten the driver on the horn. This will keep the cloth in place and you won’t have to worry about air leaks either. You will get enough compression on the cloth to make a good seal between the horn and driver. I hope I have been able to address all your concerns.Best regards, JLH
P.S. Is the Ray that assisted Bruce at the show in Lima?
:)
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