# Bose 601 speakers



## Jason1976 (Aug 13, 2009)

I just picked up a set for next to nothing but they need new foam on the 8" woofers. I am wondering do they just take a stock 8" foam or do I need a bose foam? 

they are just bose 601 so i guess that would make them the first series.


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## jackfish (Dec 27, 2006)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bose-601-Speake...06?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item45ea839f76


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## Jason1976 (Aug 13, 2009)

I can get foam dirt cheap from a supplyer i know but it's a standered 8" foam. I saw the ones on ebay but I am not sure if they are the same foam as the standered 8" foam that someone adds a little glue to and sells as a kit.


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## gsmollin (Apr 25, 2006)

Bose used (and still uses) pretty ordinary, paper-cone drivers in their speakers. I expect the standard, 8-inch foam is the right stuff. I found the glue in the kit difficult to use, because the set-up time is hours, and the foam jumps away from the basket while the glue is wet. I had to rig a fixture so I could weight the foam surround down to the basket until it hardened.

One other issue is making sure the voice coil is centered in the gap. Some kits require shimming, but that means you must remove the dust cap, then replace that too. My kit used a 30 Hz test tone to center the voice coil in the gap before you glued the surround. This has apparently worked.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

I have done hundreds of refoam jobs and rarely had to remove the dust cap and shim the gap. Even if you do, it does not assure that the voice coil will travel centered if the foam is not uniform or you apply it unevenly. What I do is carefully center the surround on the cone using a slow drying glue. Once that is set, I weight the cone with another smaller driver, centered carefully to stretch the spider. This pulls the edge of the surround up off of the rim slightly. I check the travel, run a bead of glue around the rim under the outer of the surround, then tap it down into the glue. Once the glue gets a little tacky I remove the weight from the cone, allowing the voice coil to come back to its nominal position. I tap the surround down more and check the travel of the voice coil in the gap to be sure there is no rubbing. I let it set up some more, re-assemble the edge covers, and run some low frequency tones to verify no problems.

This method accounts for irregularities in the cone, spider, and surround, if any, does not require removing the dust cap, and keeps debris out of the gap.


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## Jason1976 (Aug 13, 2009)

I am very picky when I refoam them. I am out of the cheap 8" foam I just wanted to make sure it was a standard size. were I order foam I have to have a min of a 25 dollar order. 8" foams are like a dollar each. I normally can refoam them without removing the dust cap. I had issues with some larger 15" drivers before. I thought they were good and I could hear the voice coil rubbing. I ended up pulling all the foam back off. I cut off the dust cover. Used a plastic cup cut into strips as shims. I have better luck with smaller drivers without having to shim them. after I was done I have a high power sweeper with a hose hooked up to the air return. down sized into a small tube at the end. It blows out good like an air compressor but you don't have to worry about condensation and blowing water into things. I always make sure to keep a good clean work area when i am refoaming speakers. A lot of the time I will take speakers outside to clean off the old foam. It keeps the mess out of my shop. 

I have a little pair of infinity speakers here that I can not find foams that will fit. I will have to post the model number on here to see if anyone can help me find a set of foams.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

When you need foams that you cannot find anywhere, try the distributors listed in the stickies in the Service and Support forums and in the vendor listings. Two that come to mind are The Speaker Exchange in Tampa and Orange County Speaker in CA. They can often match them based on the model of the speaker, but you can also measure them to match them.

There really is not a standard for any particular size woofer. Lots use the same size in a given speaker diameter, but many will use something slightly different. There are litterally dozens of surround sizes, densities, and shapes.


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## kenwoodfanboy (Oct 22, 2010)

personnally i think you could get away with cheap foam


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