This may sound stupid, but what is Ferrofluid? And how or does it improve the speakers? I already searched for it in the forums but I couldnt find anything matching ferrofluid

Not a stupid question at all....

Sounds like liquid iron to me!

Actually - if I am not mistaken (help me here Alan!)- it actually IS a type of very fine powdered iron suspended in some sort of oil or silicone that is injected around the voice coil of (usually) tweeters and thus it "sticks" to the magnets. It is supposed to help with disipating heat from the voice coil (cooling and such) but not restrict movement.

I know that AR used to make tweeters with this (and perhaps they still do) and I think that there are other companies that do it as well.

Randyman

Hi Randyman,

You're absolutely correct. Lots of speaker manufacturers use ferrofluid to provide superior heat dissipation in their tweeters. That way, the tweeter is capable of greater power handling and higher playback levels.

I may have mentioned this elsewhere, but in the old days before ferrofluid ('70s, '80s) in one speaker we reviewed, the tweeter dome (a popular British tweeter) actually began to melt at high playback levels from the voice-coil's heat. The dome's shape distorted and the tweeter's frequency response and dispersion went totally haywire. If you lowered the playback level, the dome assumed its original shape and the speaker's response returned to normal!

File "ferrofluid cooling" under advances in speaker design.

Regards,