[dconant]

Hello, I have a Philco 650 with the speaker that has fabric covering the openings. What is the purpose of this and will removing hurt anything? I want clean it as it looks crappy.

Thank you,
Dan 


   

[morzh]

I think this cloth keeps dust and particles from getting into the space between the voice coil and the magnet pole.

In today's speakers the rippled spider protects that space but in the older speakers where spider did not go over that space it would easily get clogged.
When you remove the cloth, it is fine if you clean the speaker and keep it in the clean environment, but then there are still particles and dust, and perhaps pet hair etc etc, so I would re-glue the cloth back after cleaning.

[dconant]

Wonder why other Philco speakers of this era don't have that fabric? I've restored many Philco radios that don't have the fabric. This is my first. My Philco 3650 I sold (should have kept it) did not.

[RodB]

That'll keep it nice and warm in the winter.

I've had several speakers for the 650 and one had the dust shield. I've seen older radios and quite a few European models draped with cloth.

[morzh]

In fact many Philco's larger (10" and up) speakers have that.
All my Philco 16 10" speakers have it.

[dconant]

I guess I have not seen enough yet.

[MrFixr55]

Same here. I have never seen these coverings and don't know how effective they are when the front of the voice coil is not covered by anything other than the grille cloth.

It is interesting, as many radio speakers, from the 30s up to about 1950, including those with the more modern phenolic corrugated "spiders" do not have dust caps on the cone, covering the voice coil, let alone this cloth covering on the frame. Sets with this cloth covering usually do not have that felt dust cap over the voice coil. It was understandable that the original speakers where the "spider" almost looked like a spider, but more like the 45 RPM adaptor. These were not covered because of the screw that held the spider to the magnet pole piece.

[dconant]

I took my fabric off and underneath was a good deal of rust and yes there was some dirt as well. I will not be putting that fabric back on because it is full of crap.

[MrFixr55]

If you want, you can likely find a similar fabric from a fabric store. It looks similar to a thin cotton fabric that they used to cover the underside of upholstered furniture with.

[morzh]

The cloth should probably be reasonably permeable to air. Else it will impede the cone's movement.

[Joe Rossi]

My 37-630 has a 10.5 inch speaker but no cloth covering.  Was I ripped-off? 

Joe

[RodB]

Joe, speaking of ripped off, you can use an old pillow case cut to size and drape it over the speaker. Maybe even tie-die for that 1968 look.

[morzh]

Well, in my Grundig the big speaker was simply put in a cloth bag that was tied around the magnet.

[Arran]

It seems to have been a common thing among European radios of the 1930s to insert the speakers into a cloth "bag", But I noticed that not every company did this, and most British ones did not. However whenever I watch a radio restoration video featuring such speakers they are almost always full of as much dust as vacuum cleaner bag. I don't know if the intent was to keep normal household dust out, coal dust, or insects, but they obviously did not do much as they seem to have largely disappeared after the war. I think that the stuff used on those Philco speakers was probably muslin, other then keeping larger debris out it's probably only slightly more effective then bug screen. Other then facing car radio speakers, which are normally installed facing up, I haven't encountered speakers with fabric glued to them, Philco or otherwise.
Regards
Arran

[RodB]

Arran,

More likely keeping fingers out of the speaker. ;-)