I saw a pair of speakers I liked on ebay. The seller noted that he had replaced all of the surrounds on the woofers (2 per speaker). Scrolling through his feedback to make sure he was on the up and up I find that he had purchased exactly 4 cerwin vega surrounds of the same size the week before. He did not have any other audio gear listed, just random clothes. I did not call him on this but I wanted to know if he used the recommended surrounds for the drivers (which are important for these specific woofers) or some generic surround that fit.
His response was;
"friend. i don't know how to take your statement of "proper surrounds used" as opposed to ones that "fit". would surrounds that don't fit be proper ? is the foam surround that i used better or worse than the foam surround that you or somebody else would have used ? i consider myself an audiophile, and i have been buying, selling, trading, restoring, and collecting all levels of audio hifi equipment for over 30 years. most people that know or have dealt with me, consider me an authority on this. wherever you got the idea for the question/statement posted, you may want to reconsider the source. the people i know at jbl and paradigm, that have built and/or designed some of the most classic and high end speaker systems, over decades, have clearly stated, that there have not been any noticeable difference in sound. at least unless you were in a laboratory or using "reference" audio equipment. chances are, if you have "reference" audio equipment, costing upwards of $25,000-$50,000 a piece, and a laboratory, you would not be buying these cheap speakers. having said that, i do recognize the importance of sticking with foam where foam was first, and not rubber, or cloth accordion where that was the intention of the design, and respecting attaching on the inside or the outside of the cone, as the manufacturer produced. on that note, these speakers represent beautifully, accurately, as the manufacturer, VMPS intended them to.
i hope i have addressed your concerns adequately. regards."
Amazing the nutbags that are out there.
