S600 grills foam & torque settings

[rsch]

Yesterday, After a few weekend of non use, i played a CD on this system (L. Gerrard- Exaudia) not a very balanced recording, however the bass seemed more bloated than usual. So i detached the grills and retorqued the woofers, about 3.55 nm. The problem was that a foam behind the woofer grille pretty much disintegrated, let alone the difficulty to insert one of the grills again.
Most important is that now the sound appears more balanced btw.
My question is, such foams have an effect on the tuning of the bass?
Or like a suspect,

are there just for aestethics hiding the woofers, not very nice too see behind, Imho.

[Unit16]

The foam does have an effect on the sound as I found when the foam on my S400’s
got sticky. Replacements were no longer available so I bought a 3mm sheet online and just cut them out. A welcome improvement in the sound even though it wasn’t original foam.

[rsch]

Do you think this may be a similar spec?

[Unit16]

Yes it looks the same. I placed the grille cover on the foam and cut around it using a sharp box cutter. The extra diameter will be taken up by the dome shape when fitted. FYI I tried 5mm foam and it didn’t sound right. I got mine off Ali-X. Cheap!

[rsch]

Thanks you

[sound-hound]

Only limited auditioning with grills off, but I don’t recall much difference.
No experience of foam deteriorating here, unfortunate.

Your mention of the torque settings for the bass units - the figure you quote isn’t that on the spec sheet. Also worth bearing in mind the torque setting for the bases, when to spec, brings added benefit.

[rsch]

I don’t think that with or without grilles/foams have much influence on the bass units. Torque for the bass should be 3.6 nm. I leaved the BMRs untouched
I don’t remember the torque for the base. Same as woofer perhaps?

[sound-hound]

Perhaps you can enlighten us with the source of your torque settings?

[Richard.Dane]

BMR is 2Nm.

8 inch drivers are 3Nm BUT the bolts should be tightened to 4Nm in a criss cross sequence and then loosened and re-tightened to 3Nm in the same sequence.

Crossover is 2.5Nm and front base to cabinet baffle bolts are 3.6Nm

[rsch]

It’ s PDF from Naim.
I used this to check mine

[sound-hound]

See @Richard.Dane comment, which matches the spec sheet in front of me!

[Richard.Dane]

Yes, these values are taken from the Naim Ovator S600 technical document so should be considered “gospel”.

[sound-hound]

Interesting about the temporary “over tightening” then to spec - iirc I’ve not seen that mentioned before Richard, which I guess applies to the three models.
Different owners have suggested round the clock or diagonal, i’ll follow your wisdom - pity there hasn’t been mention of a pair existing in your ‘extensive’ collection of all things hifi!

[Richard.Dane]

Here it is;