[Tone Depth]

My tweeters seem to have some dust particles on their domes and/or surrounds. Should I "dust" them by lifting the dust particles off with a brush or something, or just leave them be?

[RDavidson]

To clean tweeters I have VERY VERY VERY gently used Scotch tape to lift dust and lint. You want the tape to barely make contact with the tweeter surface. Painters tape might be better since the adhesive is less sticky. With a hard dome I imagine you can use a Q-Tip to gently clean it. The surrounds are trickier, but I have cleaned them with the tape method to lift debris out. Just take your time and use a steady hand.

[NIGHTFALL1970]

Would compressed air be ok?

[WGH]

... or just leave them be?

I would leave them Be unless you want to find out how fragile beryllium is. Arizona is dusty, cleaning tweeters would become a weekly job.

Now you have me interested in Ostrich feather dusters, I need a better solution to dusting around the house. But I still wouldn't touch a beryllium tweeter with anything.

[newzooreview]

Beryllium is toxic. It is perfectly safe just sitting there doing its job as a tweeter, but if the tweeter dome is broken then there is the risk of toxic dust or fragments getting into the room. These are small risks, but we used to handle the beryllium windows in our lab equipment very carefully because it's not something one wants to be exposed to.


The CDC has a 50-page training on beryllium toxicity:

https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/beryllium/docs/beryllium.pdf

[Saturn94]

I would leave them Be unless you want to find out how fragile beryllium is. Arizona is dusty, cleaning tweeters would become a weekly job.

Now you have me interested in Ostrich feather dusters, I need a better solution to dusting around the house. But I still wouldn't touch a beryllium tweeter with anything.

This.

Beryllium is very brittle.  The dust won’t affect sound quality or the function of the driver.  I had ADS speakers for 25 years that had sticky mids and tweeters.  It was normal for some dust to stick to the drivers.  SQ/functionality was never affected.

If you absolutely must, very gently/lightly use something like a swifter or feather duster that won’t put pressure on the driver.  I would NOT try using any kind of tape!  I would also avoid using compressed air as it would likely put too much pressure on the driver, risking shattering it.

[Norman Tracy]

My votes are ignore the dust no tape no compressed air. Suppress the audiophile OCD tendencies and enjoy the music. I will spare you all sharing the painful examples from my HiFi practice.

If something goes wrong current replacement costs in USA for beryllium tweeters ranges $330 to $645 each.

BTW I believe much of the concern surrounding beryllium toxicity results from the poor aerospace workers performing tasks like machining ICBM nose cones. If you are a machinist running a CNC machining center cutting or grinding beryllium its a real concern. Breathing or wearing beryllium dust is to be avoided. A couple of square inches of beryllium as foil in my tweeters I do not lose sleep over.