Cabinet temperature and drivers affected heat/sunlight
 

We have recently had some warm weather and I noticed the mid woofers on my S1s were pushed out from the cabinet more than usual. I wasn't sure if this could damage the drivers but I decided to remove the top allen screw from the mid woofer and a "psft" of air came out and the drivers returned to their normal place.

Because the S1s are sealed the combination of the sun and heat caused the air inside the cabinet to expand and pushed out the mid woofer. I would guess it was in the low 80s temperature wise but the cabinet were not hot to the touch or anything like that.

I put the allen screw back in and as the air cooled the mid woofer acutally sucked in, I assume as the air inside condensed.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is there any reason to be concerned that the cabinet could get too hot and create enough pressure to cause the drivers to be damaged?

http://www.uky.edu/Pharmacy/faculty/...roup6/gasx.jpg

Sorry... :dunno:

:D

I'm off to Walgreens. I'll report back with my findings.

I highly doubt any damage could have occurred, nor would I be concerned. ;)

Considering the amount of thinking that goes into the Magico, I think we can safely assume that they took normal temperature variations into account.

My (educated) guess is that, while there may be an optimal range of temperatures for optimal performance, variations in the 50-100 Farenheit are highly unlikely to cause any damage.

I am not sure about Magico speakers and how they are sealed; but "classic" acoustic suspension speakers (e.g. ARs) are not perfectly/hermetically sealed because they must let minute amounts of air in/out to account for atmospheric pressure variations. I think that if you'd given it more time, the pressure would have equalized by itself.

I'd love to hear Magico's answer on the topic.

Alberto

djn04.......Now that the cabinet has cooled you have a slight vacuum in the sealed cabinet. I would loosen the same Allen screw and allow the air pressure to equalize again, then tighten the screw back and leave it alone after that. If the speakers are in direct sunlight, the radiated heat from the sunlight will be higher than the air temperate in the room. Consequently the air inside the cabinet will be warmer from the radiated heat than the room temperature air.

I suggest you close your blinds or curtains when the sunlight shines on the cabinets or relocate the speakers to a more temperature balanced location. Manually altering the air pressure inside a sealed acoustically suspended speaker cabinet is not the best thing to be doing, otherwise the manufacturer would have installed a pressure relief valve and instructions on its use.

Thanks. I already removed the screw to eliminate the vacuum. They don't get much direct sunlight and I've closed the blinds on the windows when the sun hits them in the morning. I think the pressure occurred because we had a 30 degree temperature change in less than a day.

Magico ships the speakers with the allen screw removed to account for changes in pressure during shipment.

I think I'll remove the screw again and leave it out for awhile to allow the temperature to equalize. I'll send an email to Magico and see if they have a recommendation.

Ivan-

No luck with the GasX and the hardest part was getting the gel caps through the tiny screw holes.

I wrote an email direct to Irv asking this exact questions, regarding variation in atmospheric pressure or air transport issue. No answer back from him at all. I suggested him to install some spring loaded pressure relieve valve in the back so that user Can equalize inside and outside air with a single push. Imagine the burden presented to an amplifier if air pressure inside and outside is different, and multiply by cone surface area. That is a lot of air load presented to amplifier. Toga

Here is my post from 2012 discussed exactly about this.
http://www.audioaficionado.org/gener...-speakers.html

I didn't notice that with my S5. Although the sealing are done very well, but I wouldn't expect it be vacuum perfect. I assume any pressure differences (due to temperature or air pressure changes) can be equalized automatically. However a 30 degree change over one day may be too steep for the speaker cabinet to equalize normally. My room temperature rarely differs by 5 degree from day to day.

I emailed Magico and they responded within an hour.

They are aware that this could occur with a big swing in temperature in a short time period. They said the best way to relieve the pressure is by removing the screw and letting the pressure equalize, and potential for damages is very low within the normal environmental uses.