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Faulty Speaker. One side quieter and more muffled than the other. Amp fine.What could the issue be?

Arkless Electronics said:
Just seen update:rolleyes: 6 Ohm is about right for an "8 ohm" tweeter. If the other one quickly goes off scale then that is the series cap charging up and the tweeter has blown.
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Well, that's fantastic to know. Thanks for your insight! There is just too much to learn from people like yourself and Graham R.

I've had my eye on this replacement voice coil. Do you think this could do the trick in terms of fixing the blown tweeter, or is the issue beyond that?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/14414509...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1

The tweeter itself looks like it has a latch mechanism so it looks like I can switch it out fairly easily, if this really is what's the problem.

And personally, would you recommend getting two new Scanspeak D2010 tweeters, or just one new one to replace the broken one (my fear is I'm not sure if there would be matching issues - like the replacement one sounding slightly different from the original one, so having two matching replacements could make more sense)
 
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Don't buy those. You need to rebuild from scratch, and align the voice coils in the gap which is very tricky. You need to try to find out which model tweeters are used from the manufacturer. If you can get the same model you might get away with a single as there will be natural variation in production and a pair off the shelf won't necessarily be a matched pair anyway.
 
My younger sister helped me purchase a pair of Scanspeak D2010 tweeters going for £70 in Germany, that were used in the Tablette 2 and made by Celef Audio. So fairly old, but I'll probably apply some new ferrofluids when the time comes.

Those will be my spares in the event something happens. For now, I'll probably get two tweeters from one of the UK distributors and put myself on that October listing.

I'll also get a voice coil as well, may as well right, to see if I do have the chops to align the voice coil/fix the tweeter.
 
"a.palfreyman" got there first but indeed do not buy those! One's from Scanspeak or UK distributor etc yes but not Chinese made generic ones!
 
1: don't know as you'd need to find out the exact model but the usual suspects don't appear to sell them.
2: sometimes you can repair them if you can find the break and if at the end of the winding by removing a turn and resoldering to the tinsel
 
a.palfreyman said:
1: don't know as you'd need to find out the exact model but the usual suspects don't appear to sell them.
2: sometimes you can repair them if you can find the break and if at the end of the winding by removing a turn and resoldering to the tinsel
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Thanks. I'll try resoldering and see how that goes.

If it doesn't work, I have options for the replacement.
 
Late into the night now. I opened the tweeter up.

No obvious burn marks to be honest. There are blotches of what I assume to be ferrofluid, which is kind of red rather than black, that clears up if I smudge it with some paper (don't think burn marks clear up when I smudge with a paper towel?).

Had a closer look. One of the wires coming off the voice coil has snapped, but close to the coil itself. It's a very clear and obvious break point.

One question.

1. Do I specifically require tinsel to do the trick, or will any metal solder wire do for reconnecting the voice coil wire?
 
Picture of where the coil snapped (circled in blue):

Dk4XTeV.jpg


I was worried I’d snapped it myself while fiddling around. But fortunately I had a video from when I popped the tweeter out and scanned around it, and the breakage was so tiny I didn’t pick up on it from the get go.

But now I knew where to look for it, a tiny black spec gap was there from the very moment I popped out the driver.

So can this actually be fixed? Worth salvaging?
 
Here is a zoomed in shot from the video I took the moment I popped out the tweeter, which seems to show the snap before I went to work trying to fiddle with things.

3gYk0Xw.jpg
 
Great work and good questions. I've never repaired a broken coil as it'd be too fiddly for me...
Is there any spare in the free end that you could maybe pull under the tweeter suspension? Couple of mm might be enough. First up I'd just tin the coil end at the break and see if it measures ok. That way you know that that is the only break. If you keep your iron there for a couple of seconds, it can remove the varnish just at the end of the wire which is too difficult to scrape. Then if you can, work a couple of mm of the free end under the suspension and tin the end that so you have a tiny overlap. Hold the free end with say tweezers against the piece protruding from the coil and touch with the iron to fuse them together. Nothing to loose and you might get lucky! Then just put a tiny blob of glue where the wire exits from under the suspension on the face side to fix it in place. PVA will do, or even super glue, applied with the point of a tooth pick.
 
The repair journey has come to an unsuccessful. Ended up poking a tiny hole through the tweeter foam with the soldering iron as I was trying to solder the snapped voice coil strands back together.

I’ll just roll with ordering in some new tweeters then. But god damn, these sure are finicky. I can understand why these Scanspeak have a silly failure rate with the tweeter voice coil being so absurdly thin.

So, as was being discussed, will any Scanspeak D2010 do the trick?
 
Bad luck. All tweeter VCs are thin wire, to get the necessary resistance from about 60 turns, and keep the weight down. Didn't you buy some S/H D2010 tweeters? Without measuring gear it's hard to know if they are drop in replacements TBH, but I'd be tempted to just fit them and try them. You COULD just fit one and see how it images. If image is good, well defined with no unusual tendencies then they are a pretty good match. Do the other for completeness and save spare original.
 
a.palfreyman said:
Bad luck. All tweeter VCs are thin wire, to get the necessary resistance from about 60 turns, and keep the weight down. Didn't you buy some S/H D2010 tweeters? Without measuring gear it's hard to know if they are drop in replacements TBH, but I'd be tempted to just fit them and try them. You COULD just fit one and see how it images. If image is good, well defined with no unusual tendencies then they are a pretty good match. Do the other for completeness and save spare original.
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I ordered two from Falcon Acoustics. In addition to the pair my sister helped me snag from Germany, I'll have five tweeters on hand including the original one that works.

I think I'll also nab one of those knock off voice coils for £20. With the original tweeter foam + voice coil gone, I basically have a free enclosure to experiment with.

I will probably run a test and report back, as to whether there's sonic difference between the original voice coil and the knockoff Chinese ones.
 
That was quite fast.

Falcon Acoustic's replacement tweeters arriving today. I thought I would be waiting for an October shipment.

If the voice coil replacement goes well, bought from someone in Spain, and I don't think I hear an audible difference, that will put me on one set and two spares (including the German made for Celestion pair). Perfect, because if some SEAS T14RCY drivers ever become available, I know I'll be trying to make some Response 1SC clones too.
 
Are you 100% sure the original tweeters are Scanspeak? The front does indeed look like the 2010, but the rear looks nothing like it, and is stamped made in Norway, which would suggest SEAS, not Scanspeak. Have you spoken to Proac to find out what a suitable replacement tweeter for the 118 is?
 
James Evans said:
Are you 100% sure the original tweeters are Scanspeak? The front does indeed look like the 2010, but the rear looks nothing like it, and is stamped made in Norway, which would suggest SEAS, not Scanspeak. Have you spoken to Proac to find out what a suitable replacement tweeter for the 118 is?
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I may have made a fatal assumption. I was under the impression Scanspeak did all the tweeter for ProAc bookshelves.

I had contacted ProAc last friday but haven't heard back. Sent them another enquiry.
 
You are I imagine right, it's probably just production variation, or proac specific manufacturing. The made in Norway thing just made me think as I've only ever seen Scanspeak marked made in Denmark.
 
James Evans said:
You are I imagine right, it's probably just production variation, or proac specific manufacturing. The made in Norway thing just made me think as I've only ever seen Scanspeak marked made in Denmark.
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So yeah. I gave ProAc a ring. Turns out it's a special SEAS driver modelled after the Scanspeak D2010 but tweaked/tuned to how ProAc likes them.

Truth be told, I'll probably keep the pair to use in Response 1SC clones.

But I guess I'll be off to get the actual replacement tweeter for £110 then.

As for the German pair of Scanspeak D2010s, probably going to test them using multimeter, re-silk the driver if everything seems okay, and plop them onto eBay.
 
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