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SL2 tweeter replacement

A

asmith17

pfm Member
Looks like one of my naim sl2 tweeters has failed. Does anyone know if the solution is any more complex than buying a replacement from scan speak? The Sl2 date from 2002 so would it make sense to replace both tweeters at the same time? Or should I just send them off to naim to have the repair done? Is that likely to be expensive?

Thanks for any insight on this.
 
Yes at that age I would look at replacing both.
Worth mailing or ringing Naim service Dept and getting a matched pair if they still have stock.
Also well worth finding out what caused it to fail before you replace.
Might be worth getting your crossovers looked at also while you are at it.
A quality dealer like cymbiosis will be able to help you.
 
Barry williams said:
Yes at that age I would look at replacing both.
Worth mailing or ringing Naim service Dept and getting a matched pair if they still have stock.
Also well worth finding out what caused it to fail before you replace.
Might be worth getting your crossovers looked at also while you are at it.
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Thanks Barry. I suspect turning the unmute button after my son had turned the volume up to max. Well that is my suspicion but could just be wear. Didn't notice the problem while feeding it sky. Only today when pluging in the lp12. Oh well live and learn ... to look next time I want to un mute
 
asmith17 said:
Thanks Barry. I suspect turning the unmute button after my son had turned the volume up to max. Well that is my suspicion but could just be wear. Didn't notice the problem while feeding it sky. Only today when pluging in the lp12. Oh well live and learn ... to look next time I want to un mute
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that.
Where are you on the planet?
 
If you don't want to fork out for the "official" Naim replacements I wouldn't lose any sleep about buying the Scanspeak driver. Unlike in days of yore, the likes of Scanspeak manufacture to very close tolerances anyway.

IIRC there aren't any additions (damping & the like) to the SL2 tweeters but these can easily be swapped onto the new driver.
 
Thank you Tony. Very insightful. I'll dig out the naim service price and compare with the £60 per tweeter scanspeak's web site was quoting on them. I don't mind a bit of solder work so if naim's price is extreme I have a good alternative. Thanks again Tony and Barry.
 
IIRC, wasn't there a story about Naim doing quality testing on tweeters for the SL2 and ending up rejecting 49 out of 50 or something silly? I can't remember why they rejected so many though. I bet if you go to Naim that's why a replacement costs £lots.

Isn't the gap that you have to leave between the tweeter and the front plate critical?
 
YNWOAN said:
I'm not sure Naim do match the tweeters as such.

If they rejected 49 out of 50 (or even 20 out of 50) the retail price would be astronomic.
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If the rejection rate was that high, they likely wouldn't have used them in the first place. Sounds like a case of urban myth. Tweeters are generally pretty closely matched.
 
Sounds like they are damaged beyond repair - I'll give you £50 for them!

I can ask my good old friend who was a Naim dealer for many years?
 
So the price difference is £110 ish for Oem ones within the same production batch or £460 from naim for "matched pairs". Pretty tempted to go the Oem route for that difference. Or am I missing something critical?
 
Thanks sir. I'll let you know on that score. And yes if you have a guru to hand who could shed some insight I would be very grateful.
 
Pac1 said:
If the rejection rate was that high, they likely wouldn't have used them in the first place. Sounds like a case of urban myth. Tweeters are generally pretty closely matched.
Click to expand...

I don't think they rejected them on sound in isolation, I think the issue was the shape of the surround. There's some sort of effect from the accurate positioning of the tweeter in the faceplate hole and also that it is flush. How accurate it has to be I don't know.

Or this could all be horseshit, but it does mention it in the manual and they've gone to a lot of trouble to design it that way.
 
Naim modify D2008/11's quite a bit in the SBL's. there's a foam and brass damper glued on and they better secure the cardboard backing with hot melt glue all round the circumference.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the d2010/11's in SLT2's weren't similarly modified.

Its an easy enough DIY job to do if you can use a hot melt glue gun, but there must be a charge for the time taken for the factory to do it.
 
have you disassembled the broken tweeter?
you might find the butterfly assembly (Voice coil, dome and carrier) are the same as standard model,
you could just replace this, it's not too difficult
 
Grog said:
have you disassembled the broken tweeter?
you might find the butterfly assembly (Voice coil, dome and carrier) are the same as standard model,
you could just replace this, it's not too difficult
Click to expand...

Not yet I'll take it out and have a look. Thanks for the tip, very kind!
 
no problem,
i don't know if these have ferrofluid or not, but be a little careful if they do,
90% will stay in the magnet gap, but the coil will have a little coating. it stains really bad if you get it on your clothes!
once you get the butterfly assembly out, take a photo and i'll see if it's common to other models.
 
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