Cotton Balls for your Pachislo! Very Bad Idea

[SpeedRacer888]

Using cotton balls to soften the sound is not a good idea since it restricts the movement of the speaker cone. I have replaced at least 10 speakers for other people because they did this. Its just not a good idea to do it all. Eventually it will burn out the voice coil in the speaker. I thought I would mention this to anyone that has done this or has had someone do this to their machine. So Cotton balls or anything that restricts the movement of the speakers cone is a no-no.

Tony

[arbycoffee]

who puts them in that tight ?

[RKnarr01]

when i did put them in i did it loosely never tight enough to damage the speaker.

[arbycoffee]

My question is better stated is "will it hurt the speaker if cotton is used if it doesn't touch the voice coil / cone" ?

[SpeedRacer888]

Anyway you slice it your going to restrict the cone movement to some extent. If they were place over the front like grill it would not be as bad. If there is any contact with the cone or the cones surround or even the dust cap your apt to have trouble. I have been dealing in old vintage Hi-Fi tube amps, speakers and audiophile components for years and when I first heard about the cotton ball idea, I lost it. I thought who ever thought of that one must have been a cotton head. The speakers in these machines are actually quite nice and I am sure no one here would want to purposely ruin one and I thought I would help everyone out by mentioning that the idea of it is not a good one at all. A one K resistor will work great or even better a potentometer is the best and they are cheap and plentiful enough to find. Unplugging the speaker is another sore issue with me. Here is why. Transistor amps require a load. (speakers have resistance this is your laod whether it be 4 , 8 or 16 ohm or any other its resistance meaning it is a load. When the speaker is unplugged there is no load the outputs can self destruct and burn out. (I have seen it for myself) Now if the amp in these machines were Vacuum Tube... I would say GO for it as tube amps do not require a load.

Tony

[arbycoffee]

Thank you for infomation spelled out in laymans understanding.

Ebven an old farth as me can learn.

[Tony Junior]

Thanks for the advice, Tony. I've wondered about that for a long time.

[SpeedRacer888]

Thank you for infomation spelled out in laymans understanding.

Ebven an old farth as me can learn.

I am an old fart too and I enjoy sharing information with everyone. Thanks for the compliment Tony J.

[Tony Junior]

I am an old fart too and I enjoy sharing information with everyone. Thanks for the compliment Tony J.

You're welcome..................................Dad!

[scooby_doo_m2002]

You're welcome..................................Dad!

Ok, there is something fishy going on here

[Tulsa]

A cotton ball restricting the movement of the concave cone? Then again, to such a degree as to damage the speaker? How in the world is it going to restrict the cone's movement unless you have so many packed in there you'd break the speaker from the pressure against it.

Before we had the tiny Syscom volume controls, the pots we were using were too large to fit in pachinko's. So I put cotton balls (the dreaded wonders) in my Thunderzone. They've done such a good job that I've never replaced them. That was two years ago.

Somehow I just don't see the sky falling...

[luckydog]

I haven't had any problems with pachis that I have cotton balls in.

usually 5 to 10 cotton balls do a good job, and fit in there loosely

[scooby_doo_m2002]

must have a whole bag in one speaker for it to get damaged.

[SpeedRacer888]

Restricting cone movement is a no-no. No matter what. I would love to meet the cotton head that came up with the idea. Yes I admit it works however its just a really crude way of doing something. Its like the old days when your rear dif in your car was noisy just add thick grease and some saw dust. (yes it worked) but was it a good thing? No.. just a time bomb waiting to go off. I am old school and I like to do things right. Would you put cotton balls in front of you Stereo Speakers? Same diff.. I don't want to come off like I am some arse.. however I do know what I am talking about. I have been selling speakers and Hi-Fi since 1977 and I am 40+ years old. I collect old tube hi-fi and repair it. The cotton ball thing actually insulted me when I first came across it on the i-net. I was like.. what fool thought of that.. must have cotton balls for brains. LOL!! A potentometer is cheap or a 1k resistor (1k resistor is about 5 cents) probably less then the cost of a bunch of cotton balls.


Anyway.. no matter how you cut it. Your going to restrict the movement of the cone. The cone moves and blocking it off even a bit will reult in eventual damage. Trust me.. been there done that own the t-shirt.

Tony

[dattia]

I don't think the price is the issue...I think it is the convenience and fear of a soldering iron (in my case). However I did not do the cotton ball thing...I just suffer.

[Tulsa]

I'm still waiting to hear how a tiny little ball of air and cotton fibers is going to physically restrict cone movement.

[scooby_doo_m2002]

Well when the speakers go sour I guess we will replace them then won't we.... We all know that speakers move. but if we are happy with the choice we have made about cotton balls, so be it. your acting as if we have committed a major crime.....

I VERY MUCH APPRECIATE your suggestions to the boards and your wealth of knowledge but sorta dogging over and over about what we do to/with our machines is kinda aggravating. Most of us that use or still use cotton balls are doing it because of the following: wanting a quick fix, scared to death of soldering, find that we are willing to take the risk of a broken speaker so we can have quietness but yet avoid the soldering thing and possibly the best one of all, convience.....

[luckydog]

I had a pair of $400.00 air suspension speakers for over 25 years, my sons bumped or ran stuff into them many times while growing up.

even with all the dents in the center of the cones and small tears in the fiber they still sounded great.

one day my ex decided they took up too much room and off to Goodwill they went.

[alstonj1]

heres the theory speakers produce sound by moving air and if you restrict air movement your restricting cone movement be it cotton balls or tape over the speaker grill much the same way as putting your thumb over the garden hose causes a back pressure in the hose .....(if it didnt it wouldnt muffel the sound same air flow same volume .) so in theory this could cause damage to a speaker . Is it bad to do this thats your decision it is much better to add the resistor instead in my opinion and its much better than getting hearing loss by suffering the loud volume. on a technical level i see his point but its your machine do with it as you will but if you want that real parlor feel go deaf !!!!!

[DaStooge]

"cotton head", "cotton balls for brains" a little harsh imho

my view on this is.........maybe it will cause damage using cotton, but using a soldering iron without knowing how will cause more damage.

the cotton may cause damage over a long period of time, but the majority of us have many, many pachis that will never get as much gameplay as they would if they were in a parlor so the risk is low. I havn't read a post yet related to speaker issues that occoured from using this method.


As far as the comments towards people that use this method, I'm sure many of them have knowledge related to things that you know nothing about, but I personally don't think that the majority of them would use terms towards others that did not know what they know.

Just my 2.5 tokens worth