The original speakers had a piece of cloth glued over the front to keep objects
from settling on the cone & rattling, but of course, most are likely rotted by
now. If you put in new speakers, you may want to cover them in the same way.
John
Anthony Foster wrote:
> Hello All;
> One thing that I have noticed is that speakers that are mounted facing
> upward tend to have more problems then those mounted in the vertical
> position. The speaker for the radio in my Imperial is in perfect shape and
> is so because it is mounted in the front of the dash rather then on top.
> Even without the heat the horizontal mounted speakers tend to collect dust
> which often works its way in between the voice coil and the pole piece
> causing a grinding noise. If the dust doesn't work its way into the voice
> coil it still makes a rattling noise from the dust bouncing around in the
> cone. The only exception seems to be if the speaker has some sore of baffle
> on top of it to reflect the sound to the side. These baffles seem to prevent
> the dust from getting into the speaker as much since they are usually
> mounted inside of a cabinet that encloses the speaker. But since your car
> speaker only has an open grille on top it will encounter not only the dust
> problem but the U.V light braking down the cone.
> Back in the mid thirties it was quite popular to mount speakers in this
> fashion in house sets, needless to say this trend didn't last long. Not only
> did they have the dust problem, that I described, but they usually had the
> speaker mounted over the tubes which produced enough heat to broil the cone.
> Another factor that probably killed the idea was the fact that you couldn't
> put anything on top of the cabinet or put the radio on a bookshelf as the
> sound would be blocked, they didn't have those deflecting baffles in those
> days.
> The auto industry started mounting radio speakers in the horizontal fashion
> in the late fifties, I guess for styling purposes. In spite of the fact that
> they encounter the same speaker problems, as previously described, they
> still continue the practice. Obviously they have learned nothing after
> several decades of experience, if they did they would mount the speakers in
> the kick panels as a standard rule.
> Best Regards
> Arran Foster
> 1954 Imperial Newport
> Needing a Left Side Taillight Bezzel and Other trim parts.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bob Schmitt" <bsbrbank@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2002 5:56 AM
> Subject: Re: IML: An auto speaker tutorial
>
> > Mike -
> > >
> > > Actually, the two most important characteristics of a
> > > speaker (in terms of quantifiable measurements, at
> > > least) are dB/1 watt (sensitivity) and frequency
> > > spectrum.
> >
> > Nice tutorial. The non-quantifiable quality is "SOUND". Obviously, all
> > speakers don't sound the same, even if they have the same specs
> > (Consumer Reports notwithstanding). Listen to the speakers and try the
> > better brands. BTW, I think the/my orig. '66 mono speaker has a decent
> > sound.
> >
> > Bob
> >
> >
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