# Drilled holes in Focal dust caps



## hueman (May 9, 2015)

i got an old as heck used set of focal comps, and the dust caps have large center holes drilled into them. previous owner said it was done on purpose and the sound would not be affected since there is an opening in the magnet so it's like a tunnel straight through and that it would alleviate heat. i dunno. He said that this isn't an uncommon practice, but i can't find any information out there about this, so i'm assuming he's either lying or exaggerating. 

everything else is fine, the speakers work but i didn't put them in an enclosure or anything, just hooked them up to my home surround system to see if they put out sound. sounds ok but i can't really tell since they were just chilling on top of my cabinet when i had them hooked up. 

emailed focal, they don't know anything about these other than they're old as heck and i wouldn't be able to get them factory serviced. 

should i make an effort to replace the dust caps? any tips? some ppl say the dust caps don't do anything, or that they affect certain ranges, or that they mold the sound... is there a general consensus here for car audio comps?

thanks in advance. i've been kinda just side eying them since i bought them. not putting together my car stereo for a while so i wasn't in a rush to fix them straight away


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

is this KR 165....


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## hueman (May 9, 2015)

i'm actually not sure. i don't believe so. like i said focal couldn't tell me anything about them. here is a shot of the back


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## hueman (May 9, 2015)

they came with tn-52 tweeters, if that helps.


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## cajunner (Apr 13, 2007)

dust cap design is a fickle art, it's possible the guy is well-intentioned trying to keep his K2 Powers from burning up but it's also possible that he made a boo-boo and then made both speakers symmetrical by damaging both speakers.

there used to be a need of a vent in the cap for old design, Altecs sometimes came with one, old Peavey I think? but it's long since been discontinued, probably around the time the schemes for getting air to the voice coils happened.

If I owned this pair of speakers I would apply a small thin piece of porous cloth just to cover the opening, and forget about the holes afterwards as a charming bit of trivia, and not assign any weird response anomalies to them because, they are there you are here and going back, you can never go back...


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## hueman (May 9, 2015)

hmm, thank you. if the only thing that's really in question is the ability to keep dust out, then i feel pretty good about the purchase since they were so cheap. i may yet do as you suggest and find something to cover the holes


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## goodstuff (Jan 9, 2008)

This reminds me of the "cone is smashed and magnet is missing, but does not effect the sound" disclaimers in the classifieds that always make me chuckle.


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

goodstuff said:


> This reminds me of the "cone is smashed and magnet is missing, but does not effect the sound" disclaimers in the classifieds that always make me chuckle.


one of those is not like the other


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## CrossFired (Jan 24, 2008)

They are dust covers(not so much with a hole). If it were better with a hole, I think Focal would have made the hole.


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## Victor_inox (Apr 27, 2012)

goodstuff said:


> This reminds me of the "cone is smashed and magnet is missing, but does not effect the sound" disclaimers in the classifieds that always make me chuckle.


:laugh::laugh::laugh:


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## JPOSEY (Nov 9, 2011)

I would replace the dustcap. Very cheap and very simple. Simply Speakers - Official Speaker Repair Page - Speaker Parts and Repair Service


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

guys, thread is over a year old lol


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