May have Damaged a Monitor

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Phyl

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I have a pair of M-Audio SP-5B monitors. Yesterday I noticed that the left channel of my DAW seemed a little muddy sounding. I did some trouble shooting and isolated it to the left monitor.

The tweeter had no obvious physical damage so I took the speaker apart and checked internally; no obvious damage and both fuses are good.

I never monitor at extreme volumes, and have never abused these speakers, except for the occasional accidental feedback loop that might last a 5-10 seconds before I can turn down the volume.

I'm assuming the tweeter is damaged and needs to be replaced. Does anyone know how a tweeter typically fails? Does the internal coil open? Could the feedback loops I've described ruin a tweeter?

Thanks.
 
feedback is a main cause of blowing drivers...especially for 5 or 10 seconds. it esentially heats up the coil and it will melt. depending on the frequency of the feedback, if can blow either woofers or tweeters.
 
Take a volt/ohm meter and check the continuity between the two terminals of the suspect tweeter. It the meter reads OL or some mega number (it should read like 8, 16 or some 2 digit number) then she's fried! You HAVE to make this test before you purchase a replacement and then you HAVE to figure out two other things: why your getting feedback loops and how to make them go away in less then 2 seconds! 8-)'
 
It does not have to be caused by feedback or any other type of overloading. The voicecoil can just fail. This can be as simple as the soldered joint failing or bacause of previous abnormalities during the manufacture of the wire or winding of the coil, surfacing latter on in its lifetime.

This has just happened to me on a P.A. compression driver that has just gone short circuit for no apparent reason (the voicecoil looks perfect no signs of overheating at all).
 
I had the same issue with a pair of sp5's and it turned out to be a bad solder. I brought it into the shop that I bought it at and luckily the guy was able to fix it for me...
 
JesseD said:
Take a volt/ohm meter and check the continuity between the two terminals of the suspect tweeter. It the meter reads OL or some mega number (it should read like 8, 16 or some 2 digit number) then she's fried! You HAVE to make this test before you purchase a replacement and then you HAVE to figure out two other things: why your getting feedback loops and how to make them go away in less then 2 seconds! 8-)'
Click to expand...


And I thought I was the master of the obvious.

The local Guitar Center won't sell me a tweeter, they want me to bring the monitor in for a service call. Bastards. Looks like the local Mom/Pop music store has spare parts though.
 
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