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Thread: JBL L20t3 woofer surround

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    Member Cozmo's Avatar
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    JBL L20t3 woofer surround

    I just picked up a pair of L20t3's and after sitting down with them for an hour of critical listening, I'm happily impressed. However, I noticed that the surrounds on the 6.5 inch 115H-1 woofers are quite sticky and have a gloss to them. As if someone had applied some sort of treatment perhaps. Not being familiar with these, should I be concerned or is the normal state of the surrounds?

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    Hello
    I have a pair of 4406. The 115H-1 is also installed there. The surround is matte and not sticky. I am pretty sure that this is original.
    Greets Oliver

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    Member Cozmo's Avatar
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    After taking the time to search some images of this woofer, I can see that it's not a normal condition (as I figured), and someone has tried to "condition" the surrounds at some point. Very discouraging. These weren't thrift store finds, I paid what is probably fair market value. The surrounds haven't started to dissolve or anything like that so far as I can tell. Is there anything I can do about this? Any suggestions as far as how to remove gunk like this from these surrounds?

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    Member Cozmo's Avatar
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    Senior Member BMWCCA's Avatar
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    Try Goo-Gone?
    It seems to work on sticky stuff without being too drastic. It's citrus-based.
    ". . . as you have no doubt noticed, no one told the 4345 that it can't work correctly so it does anyway."—Greg Timbers

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    Administrator Mr. Widget's Avatar
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    Why risk damaging them? I’d be inclined to leaving them as is.


    Widget

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    Member Cozmo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Widget View Post
    Why risk damaging them? I’d be inclined to leaving them as is.


    Widget
    I would agree normally. It depends on what the "treatment" is. If it's Armor All then that isn't a good thing so I've heard. And if someone thinks putting some sort of treatment on their surrounds to somehow preserve then, I wouldn't count Armor All out. I have no idea how long this stuff has been on here and it seems to have not dissolved the surround material, or to have harmed it in any way at this point.
    The guy I purchased them from was flipping them so I doubt he knows what took place. I'll reach out and ask though.

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    Member Cozmo's Avatar
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    Does anyone know if Goo Gone would be too aggressive for this type of speaker surround? Citrus based means acidic.
    I'd like to bring these back to "as new" condition and keep them. The cabinets need a bit of work as well.
    Otherwise, these are impressive little speakers.

    edit; after a quick search, it seems that Goo Gone will dissolve rubber. So to say that use on surrounds is not recommended would be an understatement.

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    Dang. Amateur speakerdave's Avatar
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    No reason for alarm. The lesser brother L20T's (not 3) are being mined for their tweeters, so there are clean 115-1's lurking in many places, including eBay and my garage. I have mine because I actually bought some spares for an L20T-based low dollar mini HT that never got beyond the proof-of-concept stage. It's all available except the little HT Marantz receiver that went away almost immediately.
    "Audio is filled with dangerous amateurs." --- Tim de Paravicini

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cozmo View Post
    Does anyone know if Goo Gone would be too aggressive for this type of speaker surround? Citrus based means acidic.
    I'd like to bring these back to "as new" condition and keep them. The cabinets need a bit of work as well.
    Otherwise, these are impressive little speakers.

    edit; after a quick search, it seems that Goo Gone will dissolve rubber. So to say that use on surrounds is not recommended would be an understatement.

    Why not just download REW ( Room EQ Wizard ) for whichever computer type that you run.

    Setup ( the recommended ) test-jig needed to measure TS parameters and then have at it.

    By far , getting the Fs of your ( currently modded ) speakers is the most important parameter ( for this discussion ).

    I suspect that Fs will be ballpark and that you're worrying about this needlessly.

    Also, ( I'm sure somewhere in the depths of this forum ) there's an explanation of the surround type used by these 115H-1 drivers.

    I seem to recall it was especially thin and non-replaceable ( from an OEM perspective ) .


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    RIP 2021 SEAWOLF97's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cozmo View Post
    Does anyone know if Goo Gone would be too aggressive for this type of speaker surround? Citrus based means acidic.
    I'd like to bring these back to "as new" condition and keep them. The cabinets need a bit of work as well.
    Otherwise, these are impressive little speakers.

    edit; after a quick search, it seems that Goo Gone will dissolve rubber. So to say that use on surrounds is not recommended would be an understatement.
    personally, I'd just try some rubbing alcohol.
    Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles

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    Senior Member BMWCCA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cozmo View Post
    edit; after a quick search, it seems that Goo Gone will dissolve rubber. So to say that use on surrounds is not recommended would be an understatement.
    Well that's no good! Thanks for the info. I've used it safely on plenty of surfaces. Can't recall using it on rubber, exactly. Wish I had some sacrificial surrounds to try.
    ". . . as you have no doubt noticed, no one told the 4345 that it can't work correctly so it does anyway."—Greg Timbers

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    I use denatured alcohol to clean rubber turntable belts and rubber pinch rollers on my cassette and reel to reel tape decks.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SEAWOLF97 View Post
    personally, I'd just try some rubbing alcohol.
    Personally, I'd just try to drink some alcohol, put the grilles back (hopefully there are some…) and relax . But keep observing the surrounds and refoam the drivers if needed somewhen.

    Best regards!

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    Member Cozmo's Avatar
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    After more searching on the Google box, it seems that alcohol will degrade rubber. Drive belts may be OK on occasion but a thin membrane like these surrounds would likely be damaged. I might just try some soap and water (Dawn). If that has no effect, I'll just leave them and hope for the best. They seem to be performing well at this point. As mentioned, there are replacements available if they eventually go south. Too bad some ill informed owner in the past put something on them in the first place.

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