why is dust bad for speakers?

[dpopiz]

^

 

[Budman]

Is dust good for speakers?

 

[RussianSensation]

...hmmm apparently dust is composed of 90% of dead human skin...then dust is general is lets just say ... unpleasant lol

but on a serious note speakers usually have protective covers to protect the components from being dropped, scrached, liquid spilled on, etc. I doubt that dust degrades the performance in one way or another. Also in general speakers with covers on look better in a home environment and thats i another reason for their implementation

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

dampens the sound I would guess.

 

[drag]

dust can attract moisture. Most speakers (or at least the good ones, if I remember correctly) are made from some sort of heavily treated paper composite material, lots of speakers are some sort of plastic, and cheap speakers use paper and the foam stuff in there is fragile.

All that can be damaged by moisture... Dust can also promote mold.

Now all this stuff may not ruin a speaker by themselves, but in a humid enviroment or over a long long time it can probably do some damage and weaken it.

Other then that I can't think of a whole lot.

 

[adams828]

personally i'd say that it's not a huge deal, unless you really let a lot of dust build up. that could lead to some sound degradation or eventual damage.

of course, don't say that to any audiophiles, who will tell you that they can hear sound difference from a single piece of dust on a speaker

 

[dpopiz]

oh hm. I always thought dust was really bad for speakers. I thought it had something to do with it causing the cone to disintegrate or static electricity or something. I guess I was wrong.

oh but one more question: since a large amount of dust built up over a long time *is* potentially bad, is it ok to use canned air to blow the dust off? is there any chance that the weird toxic gasses and cold temperature of the canned air could damage a speaker?

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Speakers aren't *that* sensitive. Just blow the dust off with compressed air or wipe them off carefully.

 

[adams828]

Originally posted by: dpopiz
oh hm. I always thought dust was really bad for speakers. I thought it had something to do with it causing the cone to disintegrate or static electricity or something. I guess I was wrong.

oh but one more question: since a large amount of dust built up over a long time *is* potentially bad, is it ok to use canned air to blow the dust off? is there any chance that the weird toxic gasses and cold temperature of the canned air could damage a speaker?

i'd say it's probably better to try wiping it off. either that or be careful with compressed air, you don't want to point it too close and blow a hole in your speaker (probably not an issue with most computer speakers imo, as most won't have paper cones)