A Couple of General Questions

[george_k]

I just had a couple of questions regarding what I noticed comparing my new center channel to my existing mains (2 yrs old now)

1. Does the color of the kevlar cones fade with time?

2. I also noticed that the rubber surrounds have faded on my mains when compaired with the newer center channel. Is there any maintenance required here?

Thanks in advance!

[JKalman]

I just had a couple of questions regarding what I noticed comparing my new center channel to my existing mains (2 yrs old now)

1. Does the color of the kevlar cones fade with time?

Colors fade over time in general on most everything. The key rule of thumb is, the more sunlight exposure something has the quicker it will fade.

2. I also noticed that the rubber surrounds have faded on my mains when compaired with the newer center channel. Is there any maintenance required here?

Rubber surrounds? I'm not sure what you are referring to here. Around the cone? What do you mean by faded? The color is faded, or is the rubber drying out? If it is just fading in color then it doesn't matter IMO, except aesthetically. If it is drying out, then that is serious and I'm not sure if there is a way to fix that beyond replacing the rubber. I don't think you can put elasticity/flexibility back into dry rubber, you just have to replace it. It is like old rubber bands, they eventually break instead of snapping back into shape. If this is what you mean, it is probably negatively affecting your sound in noticable ways already. I could be wrong though.

I hope that was helpful.

[caleb]

The kevlar material does fade with sunlight exposure as does the material for the bass drivers - at least on the "old" 802s, and fades quicker if you have the grilles removes.

It does not seem to affect the sound.

I changed the bass drivers on my 802s last year because they had faded from black to grey, and as I listen without grilles they didn't look good.

[george_k]

They just sound & look better with the girls off.

Well the rubber surrounds appear dry and faded (but not cracking), similar to the color of a black rag top on a convertable that's been left out in the sun too long. I'm almost tempted to wipe them with some sort of oil treatment to give them that slick black finish although I'm not sure if that would eat away the rubber.

I guess it's just as important to me that my speakers look as good as they sound

[JKalman]

They just sound & look better with the girls off.

Well the rubber surrounds appear dry and faded (but not cracking), similar to the color of a black rag top on a convertable that's been left out in the sun too long. I'm almost tempted to wipe them with some sort of oil treatment to give them that slick black finish although I'm not sure if that would eat away the rubber.

I guess it's just as important to me that my speakers look as good as they sound

I would contact B&W about what to do before doing anything like that. You could ruin them and end up costing yourself some money. I'm sure they have recommendations on what kind of things to do in this situation, they have been around long enough to have dealt with this problem before.