Dust cap over a front vented speaker coil?

[Ivan Funk]

What happens if I install an aluminim dust cap on a neo speaker that has a breathable mesh dust cap and no rear vent hole in the magnet?
Will the coil or magnet overheat or should I not worry about it?
Will it dampen movement?
Speaker in question: Emminence Li'l Texas Neo 12" 8 ohm 125 watt.
Reasons for wanting to do this:
Extended frequency response and looks.

[Donny Hinson]

What happens if I install an aluminim dust cap on a neo speaker that has a breathable mesh dust cap and no rear vent hole in the magnet?

Nothing good.

Will the coil or magnet overheat or should I not worry about it?

There's a good chance that the voice coil will overheat if the speaker is pushed anywhere near it's rating. I'd worry, you might not.

Will it dampen movement?

Definitely! You'll lose bass response, and you might also introduce some distortion. In any event, the frequency response will change, probably for the worse.

Speaker in question: Emminence Li'l Texas Neo 12" 8 ohm 125 watt.

Which already has good highs up to 5k hertz.

Reasons for wanting to do this:
Extended frequency response and looks.

I'd get a can of silver spray paint. Mask the small hole with a coin, and mask the cone outside of the paper cap with a large funnel made of paper. Spray a few thin coats on the black paper cap to make it "look cool", and let it go at that. (We did that when I was in high school.)

[Ivan Funk]

Thanks for the replies Donny.
I saw the 5k response chart but these speakers are very dark / dull sounding.
My plan B is to put the JBL K120s back in.
Was excited about the high efficiency and lighter weight of the Lil Texas but they just don't sound good.
Appreciate your input.
I won't mess with them.

[Dave Mudgett]

What amp is this in? That frequency response looks more like it's designed for classic rock guitar or hot country guitar type of thing:

That sharp, narrow dip around 1500 Hz and the sharp, narrow peak between 2K and 3K Hz seems wrong for pedal steel to me. And the secondary peak between 700 and 1K also seems wrong to me. I'm usually cutting just a bit around 700-800 anyway, even with a fairly flat response speaker. Exaggerated response in that area just says 'woof' to me. Pretty narrow, high resonant peak in the impedance curve around 90 Hz also, doesn't look too promising.

But I agree with Donny - someone will love it, and if you mess with it, it probably will kill it for a guitar player.

For comparison, here's the frequency response of the Telonics Neo 12" 4 Ohm speaker:



Pretty flat in the critical 500-1500 Hz midrange region, moderate fairly wide-band extended highs in the 2K-5K Hz region, conservatively handles 250 Watts, and they're light to boot - 7.2 pounds for the TS-NEO-12-4. Discussion about these from when they first came out - viewtopic.php?t=241968. I have a pair of these - one in a separate Telonics cabinet and another in a cut-down Session 400. I really like them. Definitely plenty of crispiness if you want it, but I don't find them obnoxious, and decent bass response.

Can't hardly beat a K120, but they are heavy. I use D120Fs in my Deluxe Reverbs, and have a separate cab with a K130. But you need to be a bit careful to not push them too hard. I have blown JBLs, and I don't mean at extremely high volumes.

A lot of people laugh when I mention Celestion Vintage 30 and pedal steel in the same breath. But if I don't need a ton of power handling and want fairly high efficiency, I have one in a small cabinet. It sounds pretty good (not only for steel but for guitar too - I double a lot), and when you look at the frequency response and efficiency (100 dB, 1 Watt, 1 meter), it's easy to see why:


Pretty flat response between 200 and 2000 Hz, and again that moderate extended response between 2000 and 5000 Hz. I used them in Deluxe Reverbs for a long time, they really cut through the mix even on a loud stage. Eminence makes a speaker that pretty closely mimics the V30, I forget what the call it now, it changed about 15-20 years ago.

[Ivan Funk]

Excellent info Dave.
Thanks.
You're interpretation of looking at the graph and heaing "woof" is spot on.
I'll retire them or sell them to someone who plays woofey sounding guitar.

The JBL Ks have always been my favorite.
I have a couple K120s and K130s.
Always on the search for the same sound and efficiency but lighter weight.
Ill look into the Telonics or others.
Thanks.

[Michael Brebes]

I agree with the Vintage 30. Works well for pedal and regular guitar. The only 12 I like better is the EVM 12L, but the weight can be a bit much, especially in a combo amp.

[Ivan Funk]

Thanks Michael.

Does anyone know where to get the Telonics TSNEO 12-8 speakers?
I sent an email to Sophie at telonics.
I can't find anywhere else that sells them.
Is this the best route?

[Ivan Funk]

I heard back from Sophie at Telonics.
She says they're out of stock and doesn't know when they'll be ordering more.