Related Articles
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.
A little bit of maintenance now goes a long way towards preserving the quality and function of your favorite speakers, and it’s easier (and cheaper) to keep them clean rather than have to replace them. Here’s how to care for your speaker’s parts, along with additional cleaning products to safely use on your sound system.
How to Clean Your Speakers
Just like you would clean your car, regular cleaning of your speakers helps ensure that they stay sounding crisp and accurate. Dust and debris can often get lodged in your components, affecting the way they work and ultimately, causing middling audio. Cleaning your speakers keeps them in good condition to keep your music sounding great.
Here’s what you need to know about how to clean your speakers.
Woofer: Cleaning the membranes and rubber surrounding the woofer is easier than you may think: Grab your mildly moist microfiber cloth, wipe it down then gently wipe it down again with a dry cloth. For the surrounding rubber, a rubber care solution works well since it’s made for soft rubber specifically, but the material is usually pretty durable.
Tweeter: While the woofer’s materials are generally sturdy and can deal with rougher handling, the tweeter and dome is a different story. These are much more fragile and easily damaged, so to remove dust from it (and the surrounding membrane), don’t touch or wipe it – instead, air is your best bet.
Either through a can or just by blowing, a few puffs of air should get a good amount of debris off. While it may not look as sparkly clean as the wiped-down woofer, the sound quality won’t be affected at all. If your dome has accidentally gotten pushed in, the opposite can fix that: As bizarre as it sounds, instead of blowing, a quick inhale with the dome against your mouth can pop it back out again. It may look and feel weird, but it works. A dome that’s in its right place, rising above the surrounding surface, delivers better sound dispersement than a pushed-in one.
Exterior: A damp microfiber cloth may be all you need here to remove dust that’s built up on the outside of your speaker’s housing. Unless you’re absolutely sure that a polish or pre-moistened wipe is going to be safe, or wiling to take the risk on discoloration or ruining the finish, stick with water.
Also, we don’t recommend fully opening up your speakers either. It may seem like a good idea to do a thorough deep clean, but you’re more likely to end up damaging the parts, and possibly voiding the warranty too.
Not only will frequent cleaning bring some shine and sparkle to your speakers and their sound, it’ll also extend their life and keep them playing your favorite music for years, even decades, into the future.
