Woofers in cold?

[McCoolidge]

A couple of my friends have said its a big no no to use a woofer when it is cold, and here it has been consistently cold, so I took out my 12". I was wondering though, since I park in the garage, if it's ok to keep it in the car and use it?

[Erik j]

From what I heard long ago you should let the woofer warm up by running it at low volume for a little while, just like when your engine is cold. once it is warmer you have less of a chance of cracking the spider or cone.

[SamE30e]

From what I heard long ago you should let the woofer warm up by running it at low volume for a little while, just like when your engine is cold. once it is warmer you have less of a chance of cracking the spider or cone.

Just keep the volume down till your car warms up and you should be fine.

[Simon S]

ditto

.

[StereoInstaller1]

Cliff Notes: Don't be silly. First, cold is BETTER for a woofer, second, you aren't going to warm up anything by playing it quietly. Boom away, man!

OK with that being said, if you would care to read what I have to say on the subject...let me scratch my head on this one for a minute.

So, a woofer is made of a magnet, generally ceramic. No real issues on temperature there, even down to -100 or so. The shit is tough, unless you break it by dropping. Frame? No, that would be either stamped steel or cast aluminum, so no worries there.

Cone? Either aluminum, paper, some kind of polymer or maybe titanium. There are some balsa wood cones, a few bamboo, a couple of ceramic...Those are NOT going to be seen in a car, much less on R3V, so nothing that low ambient temperatures are going to effect. No worries there.

Voice coil...either Kapton, aluminum or in cases of absolute crap, paper voice coil formers, with either aluminum or copper windings...all will withstand subzero temperatures just fine. In fact, since heat is the only enemy, cold is better.

Surround, spider and dust cap are all that is left of a woofer...plus some glue. So, if butyl rubber or foam is going to be bothered by low temperature, I would say that the only chance of real failure would be the glue...and just how damn cold are we talking here?

So, as far as the actual motor structure of the woofer goes, colder is better, period. Heat is the enemy of woofers, cold will allow better electron flow, less "heat soak", less chance of damage. In fact, the higher oxygen density will likely make for better boom, too.

As far as "warming up", that is just silly. First, cold is better for the motor, and you are not going to warm up your woofers suspension by playing it quietly. It simply does not get enough movement for internal friction to play any part at all...so the only thing that will warm up is the voice coil...we already told you, colder is better.

So, I would boom yourself silly with absolutely no fear of cold damage. Water, frost, any kind of moisture is woofer death...but far more of a concern if it is that wet is amplifier issues...but we weren't talking about that, were we?

Luke

[Erik j]

Surround, spider and dust cap are all that is left of a woofer...plus some glue. So, if butyl rubber or foam is going to be bothered by low temperature, I would say that the only chance of real failure would be the glue...and just how damn cold are we talking here?

The spider isn't made from butyl or foam, its a more like kevlar coated in a hard glue or something(my spell checker says kevlar needs be have a uppercase K in it...go figure)... I have been out of the loop on stereos so long that I've forgotten most of what I used to know. So I will leave it to the people who know more about it than I.

[StereoInstaller1]

The spider isn't made from butyl or foam, its a more like kevlar coated in a hard glue or something(my spell checker says kevlar needs be have a uppercase K in it...go figure)... I have been out of the loop on stereos so long that I've forgotten most of what I used to know. So I will leave it to the people who know more about it than I.

Erik, you are absolutely right. It is a resin covered cloth, typically polyester.

I think I got tired of typing!

[SamE30e]

Cliff Notes: Don't be silly. First, cold is BETTER for a woofer, second, you aren't going to warm up anything by playing it quietly. Boom away, man!

OK with that being said, if you would care to read what I have to say on the subject...let me scratch my head on this one for a minute.

So, a woofer is made of a magnet, generally ceramic. No real issues on temperature there, even down to -100 or so. The shit is tough, unless you break it by dropping. Frame? No, that would be either stamped steel or cast aluminum, so no worries there.

Cone? Either aluminum, paper, some kind of polymer or maybe titanium. There are some balsa wood cones, a few bamboo, a couple of ceramic...Those are NOT going to be seen in a car, much less on R3V, so nothing that low ambient temperatures are going to effect. No worries there.

Voice coil...either Kapton, aluminum or in cases of absolute crap, paper voice coil formers, with either aluminum or copper windings...all will withstand subzero temperatures just fine. In fact, since heat is the only enemy, cold is better.

Surround, spider and dust cap are all that is left of a woofer...plus some glue. So, if butyl rubber or foam is going to be bothered by low temperature, I would say that the only chance of real failure would be the glue...and just how damn cold are we talking here?

So, as far as the actual motor structure of the woofer goes, colder is better, period. Heat is the enemy of woofers, cold will allow better electron flow, less "heat soak", less chance of damage. In fact, the higher oxygen density will likely make for better boom, too.

As far as "warming up", that is just silly. First, cold is better for the motor, and you are not going to warm up your woofers suspension by playing it quietly. It simply does not get enough movement for internal friction to play any part at all...so the only thing that will warm up is the voice coil...we already told you, colder is better.

So, I would boom yourself silly with absolutely no fear of cold damage. Water, frost, any kind of moisture is woofer death...but far more of a concern if it is that wet is amplifier issues...but we weren't talking about that, were we?

Luke

Why is it that whenever you speak, I get this sudden urge to make sweet sweet love to you?

[netcsk]

Awww. You beat me to it, Luke.
Oh, and we are starting up engineering of bamboo cones for cars. ;)

[StereoInstaller1]

Awww. You beat me to it, Luke.
Oh, and we are starting up engineering of bamboo cones for cars. ;)

[koolaid man voice] OoooooOOOOH YEAH! BAM-BOOZLE![/koolaid man voice]

Hey Chris, instead of fcking around with stupid materials, get them to make a combination 2" dome midrange/ribbon tweeter combination...something that is tiny (like 3" in diameter), handles some power, plays from 400Hz to 40Khz, presents a purely resistive load from 2Khz and up, and is fairly cheap.

Think about the imaging options you could do with something so precise.

[netcsk]

hey those stupid [cheaper] materials are what everyone in the OEM world wants. What you are talking about costs more money. That doesn't fly ;). I completely agree. That kind of stuff is so cool. I could see maybe Honda/Acura going for it, but probably not.
I've been busy over the past few days drooling over reference/studio B&W's, Yamaha's, JBL's, and Diatones. I've been having fun!

[StereoInstaller1]

Hmmmmmm...the OP seems to be missing in action

[McCoolidge]

Thanks alot, I am using the internet at my school which doesn't work half the time. Thanks for the help, My amp had an RCA break off in it so before any bumping, I have to fish it out of there...