FST drivers

[Jmac]

Greetings All

As a fan of B&W speakers, I came across this site, and just couldn't resist joining! I have a pair of the orginal B&W DM2A's circa mid 70's and still going strong and able to beat many a speaker today! Excepting the newer B&W's of course.. :-)

I am currently thinking on some new speakers for HT/movie use predominately, and am interested primarily in the 700 & possibly 800 series.

What concerns me is the use of foam in the cone termination of the driver, as here in Australia heat and humidty take their toll in only a few years to rot the likes of foam headphone earpads, speaker surrounds, and speaker grills etc, away.

I am wondering as this is an international forum, if anyone has experienced any difficulty in this area with the FST drivers? I have been told by a dealer that there are 'types' of foam materials that are resistant to this rotting and disintegrating, but I have not heard of, nor am I aware of this generally.

Still, maybe B&W do something special in that regard with the FST driver surround.


Hoping that someone with experience in this matter may be able to shed some light on the subject.

All comments appreciated

Many thanks

Best Regards

John...
:T

[sugarmedia]

jmac-

I would suggest taking a look at Martin Logan speakers. They beat many a B&W's!

[Jmac]

heheh, yes, planar speakers such as maggies have their strengths and weakness like any other speaker - v/nice.

Do they have foam in them that could rot though?

Best

John... :T

[csuzor]

Jmac, I am from Melbourne as well, but you make the place sound much worse than it is. The climate here in the south of France is very similar, but I don't think "foam rot" is a concern for anyone here... probably not a concern for the first 30 years, if you are planning on keeping the speakers that long again.
Go for the sound you like.

[RobP]

There are foam surrounds on speakers now that are "rot" resistant, I have serviced a fair amount of 10-15 year old speakers from Florida where the humidity and heat is at high levels and the glue actually fails before the surrounds do. I dont know about B&W but with all of the technology that are put into their speakers I would venture to say that it was considered.

[Jmac]

Greetings All

Soundgravy: Great to hear that there are such speakers with foam surrounds that are 'rot free' and yes, I most certainly would hope that B&W would consider it in the design of their speakers, but was looking for confirmation or others experiences on this. Certainly your experiences fill me with a lot more confidence!

Csuzor: Heh, I should really explain the usuage of my DM2a's a little more - oh and sorry if I seemed to be damning Melbourne with faint praise re it's weather.. :-)

I bought them new in around '74. From approx '81 to '86 they remained stored in their orginal boxes in a large hall cupboard whilst I was travelling.
They then saw 'normal' use until I eventually bought a complete new system circa 95 with Naim-Audio electronics and speakers. I gave the DM2a's to a close friend on 'permanent loan' where they still do good service and provide a lot of satsifaction. I wouldn't have got much for them after 20 yrs, so as I still loved them in many ways, it was a good move to give them a 'home' to go to, and from which I still hear them from time to time.. :-)

Heh, I don't think I'm likly to have speakers much beyond 20+ years without change again, but still, speakers are pretty much the last thing to change in a top-flight system IMHO, so long term reliability is a concern.

Cheers, and all the best

John.. :-)