Painting Drivers

[JAS]

Has anyone attempted or is it maybe a bad idea to paint inside of a woofer? I've seen a product on PE to make them glossy without affect sound quality but what about changing the color from black?

In reference I'm working on a pair of Statements and thought it would be cool to have the RS225's match the W4's.

Thinking it may be better to play it safe and only paint the frame outside of the foam surround but was just wondering about other possibilities.

[---k---]

If you paint the cone, you will add weight and change the response of the driver. Some people do this intentionally (especially with paper cones), but I don't think it is what you want to do. You would most certainly hear a change.

[Mazeroth]

Bad. Idea.

[bluewizard]

Can you paint them - YES.

Should you paint them - probably not. Others have already explained why.

Now, exactly how much the resonance and weight of the cone will change is debatable. Enough to mess with the cabinet design, who knows for sure?

Next, what kind of paint would you use, and what kind of material is the cone made from?

Solvent paints and plastic or plastic coated cones might not get along too well.

If paper cones, how much paint will they absorb to change their color. You may spray paint them and they look fine, only to come back in half an hour and find the paper has absorbed most of the paint and is looking very gray or charcoal-ish.

How flexible is the paint? If not flexible enough, it will eventually crack and look like shhhh...**cough**.

If the cones are plastic or plastic coated, can you even be sure paint will stick to them?

Will the paint you choose cause the cone to age prematurely, and in a couple of year become dried out and cracked.

So, yes you can, but should you ...eeeeeeee... I don't think so.

Steve/bluewizard

[Johnloudb]

A test! Find a paint you like that will adhere to the driver material well, if possible. Will it's limited mass change the sound? Maybe ... maybe for the better!

It's your choice. You should test some small areas first, and see what happens.
If the paint destroys the driver, buy a new one!

Disclaimer: I'm just in an experimental mood, and am trying new and different ideas that don't me too cost much.

[ThomasW]

Ok people enough of this silliness . We're talking about an anodized alu cone driver with a cone not much thicker than foil. In addition there's a phase plug to contend with. So the answer is no don't mess around.

[eyekode]

At the parts express forum there was a guy who left some RS150's exposed to the sun. It made them look pretty cool, sorta like a W4 with a black phase plug:

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/showthread.php?t=208098

[---k---]

Will it's limited mass change the sound? Maybe ... maybe for the better!

Doubtful. The w4-1334 being discussed here is one of the finest drivers on the market right now, and a metal cone driver. And, at $54/ea, a little expensive to experiment with.

[Face]

I wouldn't recommended it for the reasons above, but you could try black automobile radiator paint, it's made to go on very thin.

Hmmm...what about magic marker?(kidding, kidding!)

[Johnloudb]

Doubtful. The w4-1334 being discussed here is one of the finest drivers on the market right now, and a metal cone driver. And, at $54/ea, a little expensive to experiment with.

I think he was considering painting the RS225 woofers silver. I agree, I wouldn't paint the TB W4 drivers either.

[JAS]

Yes I was just looking to add some silver color of some sort to the RS225's. The W4's are an art the way they are.

So I already felt painting the plastic was probably out of the question and after thinking more would be to much silver anyway. I would think that all would be ok painting the metal cone though as long as it was kept back a little from the the part that surrounds it(not sure proper term) but then again even though I like to experiment I should leave thing well alone.

[Winter]

Painting is a reasonable consideration. I have used used dyes and the Parts Express polymer cone coating before. I designed/tested the crossover after applying the black dye and polymer coating to the paper woofer. My goal was a black cone with a more humidity resistant paper cone to extent its life.

Natural resonance frequency is equal to square root (spring constant / mass). The Dayton RS225 driver moving cone mass is 32 grams. The weight of the paint coating should be realitively small, so little change there. For a tuned port enclosure, maybe the port/enclosure tuning should be checked.

Painting aluminum or anodized aluminum takes special preparation, which I have done. The marine and aircraft industries have products for this. You can do a google search "painting anodized aluminum". You need to clean the surface well, use an etching primer (AutoZone carries one), possibly zinc chromate or zinc phosphate (very sparsely applied in your application - not a covering coat, just a dusting for the topcoat to adhere), and lightly topcoat.

I have used a Sharpie permanent black marker on silver aluminum. The coat was left a permanent black, but had very evident marker lines, fine for a woofer behind a grill cover, but not visually pleasing without a grill cover.

I have attempted using one of the gunsmith aluminum blackening solutions, but the results were not good, very little blackening of the cone occurred. Maybe my prep was not adequate.

The coating cannot interfere with the tight cone clearance around the stationary phase plug.

[AJINFLA]

No paint option

cheers,

AJ

p.s. painting the (removed) phase plug is ok.

[ThomasW]

No paint option

That option was referenced in post #7 .....

Anyone deciding to do that should protect the surround from exposure to the UV.

[AJINFLA]

Might be that time..