Question about the 'cloth' on Duetta Signature

[WongKN]

I apologize as I do not know exactly what is the term commonly used for the 'cloth' that covers the rear of Apogee panel speakers. Are they what people calls the 'socks' ? Anyway, in my pair, they are just a piece of thin cloth that is stretch over the rear of the speakers and then stapled on the edges at the front. My question pertains to the fact that on my pair, the cloth does not cover the bass ribbons but covers the front of the MRT ribbons. To make it clear what I am referring to, the photo of my speaker (left side) is below:



I wish to ask you guys whether this is correct or not ? I.e. should the cloth cover the front of the MRT ribbons ? It seems to me that by covering the front of the MRT ribbons, it would degrade the sound ever so slightly. I am unsure because the dealer I bought my pair from proudly told me they have 'refurbished' the speakers and by that, it includes replacing the old 'cloth'. So the 'cloth' on my Duetta Signatures are new and fitted by the dealer. I don't know where they got it, but it is tightly stretched and covers the rear well. However, I am not sure if they made a mistake or not, by covering the front of the MRT ribbon. On my good friend's pair, where I -think- the 'cloth' are intact and as original from Apogee, the cloth do -not- cover the front of either ribbons. They are just folded (rather untidily though) at the side of the MRT ribbon metal frame.

I also dislike the fact that the dealer (whom sold me the Duetta Signature) actually stapled the cloth over part of the bass ribbon. I.e. like the photo below. Will this cause any ill-effects ? In any case, I intend to remove the staples and redo the cloth again.



Many thanks for reading this post and for any answer given.

Best Regards,
WongKN

[Groove-T]

If you have front grills, there is no sock over the Tweeter Front.

[Vansloneker]

Wow that looks horrible. Who did this and why? Any cloth or sock could be better then that.
I don't know what should be or not covered on a Duetta. It is my opinion a good sock or cloth will catch a lot of dust that otherwise would end up on your ribbons. Others have different point of views.

[Graz]

Hello WongKN

The pictures you have posted indicate they have had some work done on them by somebody who didn't understand the speaker. The grills on a real Duetta Signature and late Duetta 2 should have the "half sock" arrangement, a trapezoid stitched as a tray in the four corners, fastened by velcro on the MRTW side, and staples on the three other sides. The bass and MRTW should be covered at the rear, and not be covered at the front at all.

Grills play an important part of the sound of such a speaker - symmetry is important as the stretch fabric is considerably excited by the bass ribbon, and the arrangement needs to be consistent and symmetrically balanced.

Take care - Graz

[WongKN]

Many thanks to all who responded. So the situation is as I suspected.

Just a short history to any who might be curious. The DS was bought from the local FM Acoustics/Audio Note dealer. He sold a pair of Advantgade speakers to the previous owner who then proceeded to move the DS to his 'game/party room'. After serving some time there, he passed the DS to the dealer and asked them to help sell them off. Because the dealer was more interested in selling his own speakers to his very well to do clients, the DS were lamenting in the back of the store-room for some time. Thus the considerable amount of dust on the ribbons. When they learned that I was interested (thru a friend who is the nephew of the owner), the assistant was instructed to 'refurbish' the speakers. Once I determined the speakers, especially the ribbons are intact, I just bought them even though I do not think that assistant knew anything about 'refurbishing' Apogees. He never sold any before !!

Eventually I had my friend (the ex-Apogee dealer for Malaysia) checked the pair out and he said it is in good condition. The pair plays well and actually sounds very good except for a very mild buzzing on a very few selected songs (maybe less than 1% of what I have) so I am looking for long term planning on how to -really- and -properly- refurbish them. I think they do not lose out tremendously to my friend's Magico Q3 and with some work, might come quite close. In case anyone is wondering, Graz has already took the trouble to respond to my initial email (many many thanks to you Graz) and after he responds to my follow-up email, I will settle down to a long period of preparation, hopefully for some work with Graz in the medium term future (cannot do so immediately due to the constraint of finances, esp the very unfavourable exchange rate between my local currency and the USD).

I will be doing some work on the speakers myself then.

Thanks again and best regards,
WongKN