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Can tweeters fade?

J

Joddle

pfm Member
Having enjoyed my Linn Saras for many many years I have noticed recently the top end is not as crisp or bright as it once was. At first I thought maybe the tweeters had simply failed but putting my ear to them they are definitely doing something but don't seem very strong. The tweeters are the Linn branded type so not Scanspeaks. Any ideas on how best to test further without pulling the boxes or tweeters apart!
 
Best thing to do is to replace the tweeters.
They are either from Scanspeak or Hiquphon but there is such a large variety of tweeters available these days that finding one that matches well is doable.
I had success doing it with a Morel MDT 29 or 30.......don’t recall which one but anyway, they are both very similar sound wise.
 
Is there any way of knowing if my tweeters have ferrofluid? they seem to be the Hiquphon variety with concentric rings and "Linn" on the face of them. I note many people advocate the new Hiquphon tweeters but they are very expensive. The Scanspeak versions are cheaper but will the crossover still be suitable for those? Or can tweeters be repaired?
 
Nytechy said:
It's a downhill race between your tweeters and your ears ;)
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Ha Ha - I am aware that at 70 my ears won't be as sharp as they once were - but I don't get the same sense of high end dullness on any other speakers I own so am pretty sure there is an issue with the Saras.
 
Joddle said:
Ha Ha - I am aware that at 70 my ears won't be as sharp as they once were - but I don't get the same sense of high end dullness on any other speakers I own so am pretty sure there is an issue with the Saras.
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As an aside I just bought one of those cat and fox deterrents for the garden that emit a high pitched noise when triggered. My kids complained of the "horrible noise in the garden", which they were hearing from, say, 20 metres away - I couldn't hear a thing...
 
I have just received a very nice email from Oskar Wrønding from Hiquphon who actually made the D20-LP-1 tweeters I have in my SARA's. He states they do not have any "magnetic oil" and alas can not be repaired. He recommends their OW1-92 as the perfect replacement / upgrade for the old tweeters as they will fit perfectly without need to change anything else such as mountings or crossovers. The bad bit is they are around 300e plus P&P so I will have to think about that one! Meanwhile if ferrofluid is not the culprit, what else could cause the tweeters to go dull??
 
My Ditton 66’s tweeters had this problem, which was caused by weak magnets.
Loss of magnetism?
 
If there's no ferrofluid then I'd be surprised if it was a problem with the tweeters. As said above, it's more likely to be electrolytic capacitors.
 
I would be really surprised that Linn used any electrolytics in their speakers. But I could be wrong.
 
I did not think there were any electrolytic caps in the CO but it is a real pain to get to the CO boards without major box surgery. I have to admit the speakers did suffer a while back from long blast of feedback when my kids misconnected their mic to the system and did not know how to shut it down quickly. That resulted in two blown B200s - but only the front ones seemed to suffer the rears are still perfect. But could that have also damaged the tweeters? I suspect that is a real possibility. Since then there was a time when the volume pot on the amp became noisy and created a very loud rasp, again possibly not at all good for the tweeters.
 
chartz said:
I would be really surprised that Linn used any electrolytics in their speakers. But I could be wrong.
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I'd be amazed if they didn't. Almost all manufacturers do/did, especially when you back a decade or two.
 
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I think I will end up replacing the tweeters with those recommended by Oskar Wrønding from Hiquphon as I wrote to Linn giving the serial numbers of my Saras and received this replay from them:

Hi
Thank you for your e-mail
I can advise that we do not use electrolytic capacitors in our crossovers.
It is more likely that the treble drivers have developed a fault than the crossovers having issues.
Best Regards
Colin
Customer Support
Linn Products Limited
 
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