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Taking the moisture out of the speaker of your amp improves tone?


dem00n

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Yup - I have done this with my open backed cabs for the last few years - it makes perfect sense with the damp climate here - especially for the gear I keep stored in what is really a glorified warehouse at the studio me and the band use. Same would go for playing in sweaty clubs and bars. As for what difference it makes in a modern, centrally heated house, or in a drier climate, I am not so so sure...

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Yeah, just play outside, on a humid summer night, and listen to your amp go from nice and tight,

to flabby, in the course of one set! Not sure, what you do, about THAT?! The article says to

"box up" your speakers, with silica gel packets. What about when they're attached, and being used?!

Humidity still adversely effects them, in that situation. So...??? I've often wondered, if a small

fan, in the back (of open back amps) would help that, as well as keep the tubes cooler, too?

 

What say you, amp fanatics?! [biggrin]

 

CB

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Yeah, just play outside, on a humid summer night, and listen to your amp go from nice and tight,

to flabby, in the course of one set! Not sure, what you do, about THAT?! The article says to

"box up" your speakers, with silica gel packets. What about when they're attached, and being used?!

Humidity still adversely effects them, in that situation. So...??? I've often wondered, if a small

fan, in the back (of open back amps) would help that, as well as keep the tubes cooler, too?

 

What say you, amp fanatics?! [biggrin]

 

CB

 

 

I would suspect that a fan might make the effect worse. Moving air transmits whatever quality it has (heat coolness, humidity) more efficiently that still air. This is why one can dry a carpet out with a fan – the dry air absorbs moisture, and then is blown away and replaced with more dry air. In the reverse situation, the dry cone absorbs some of the moisture from the immediately surrounding air, drying it slightly. Replacing that air with new humid air would seem likely to increase the absorption rate, not decrease it. In short, if the air is already more humid than the cone, you can’t make the cone dryer by blowing the air over it.

 

 

On the other hand, if the air has already been dried in some way by the heat from the tubes evaporating moisture from it, a fan circulating this air over the cones might help? Any thermodynamics majors out there?

 

 

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Well, all I know is that if I hang wet clothes, in the bathroom, they dry a LOT faster,

with a fan, than if just left there, hanging. And, since the humidity, in the room goes

up, with all the wet clothes, it (still) seems like moving the air, helps, rather than

making things worse. Also, the same effect works on clothes hung outside, even in humid

weather, if there's a decent breeze, as well.

 

But, I'm no thermodynamics expert, at all. [tongue][biggrin]

 

CB

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Yeah, just play outside, on a humid summer night, and listen to your amp go from nice and tight,

to flabby, in the course of one set! Not sure, what you do, about THAT?! The article says to

"box up" your speakers, with silica gel packets. What about when they're attached, and being used?!

Humidity still adversely effects them, in that situation. So...??? I've often wondered, if a small

fan, in the back (of open back amps) would help that, as well as keep the tubes cooler, too?

 

What say you, amp fanatics?! [biggrin]

 

CB

I can't vouch for other amps but a lot of ac30 combo owners put a fan in since they are pretty notorious for running hot (but this is done in the head area). I won't comment on wether it would help with moisture at all since, to put it frankly, I have no idea. I'm not sure one in the head would affect the speaker area there.

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