Not sure if its been done before...

[97disco]

Well I have a pair of B&w p6 speakers that have began to loose their "sparkle". DId some reading and found the ferrofluid issue. I took 'em apart and the former fluid has gone crusty.

So rather than paying $145.02 per tweeter (quoted direct from B&W) I tracked down some ferrofluid (less than $20 for 1 oz shipped) and am awaiting its arrival.

My question is: Has anyone attempted to replace the ferrofluid? Seems pretty ridiculous to pay over $300 to correct the ferrofluid issue.

[Briz vegas]

No idea - I guess it just depends how its sealed in there etc.

I would be interested to hear how you get on and a photo of your setup would be good also. Those old speakers with tweeter on top look interesting. I wonder why they did not elect to do that with the current CM series.

[bleeding ears]

From memory I read somewhere that when the ferro fluid dries up it causes the tweeter to fail, I could be wrong but my guess is that because there is no fluid to cool the tweeter it overheats.

You may be lucky enough to have got it before any damage was done or maybe they have not been driven hard enough to get hot.

Considering most tweeters as far as I am aware do not have any fluid, maybe they can operate ok without the fluid, up to a point.

Why not email B&W and ask ?

Interestingly I tried to look up this speaker on the B&W site and I could not find it listed anywhere.

It would be good to know what you find out.

[97disco]

Thanks for the input.

When I spoke to B&W (a couple times over the past couple of months) I got different answers depending on who I spoke to. I did ask yesterday about obtaining the ferrofluid and got a story on how its some special carcinogen in which B&W England will only send them a couple of ounces each year.

Personally I believe it to be a design flaw having the ferrofluid exposed like it is. But they are great speakers and I probably wont replace them till I get the $ for some 800 series.

[97disco]

here is a picture:

[RobP]

you can replace the ferrofluid, and it is readily available here in the states, but if the current fluid has gone crusty as you said it may be stuck to the VC and will cause rubbing, but, if it is not stuck, you can clean out the old and replace it. To clean out the gap just roll up a piece of masking tape back on itself so the sticky side is out, run this in the gap until you get all of the debris out, you can wipe down the VC's with cotton balls.

[97disco]

Rob,

Thanks for the input. Have you done this before?

I did order ferrofluid yesterday and I'm anxious to do this!

[97disco]

Here are some requested pics...

B&W P6's
B&W DM 303's
B&W LCR3
Rotel RSP 1066
Rotel RMB 1075
Panasonic BD-55 Blu-ray
Apple TV
... and some audioquest cables

[RobP]

I did it around 15 years ago on a pair of car audio tweeters that I had, really wasn't hard at all, I was lucky though, the speaker manufacturer gave me the fluid in pre- measured capsules, so there was no guessing as to the amount to use.