Are My HH-Scott Speakers Blown?

Shakedown

Active Member
I just came across a pair of HH Scott 2-way speakers, hooked them up and sounded surprisingly loud and good for the size due in part of the thick solid wood cabinets. One day as I was unplugging the audio cable from my laptop I was using to test the speakers it gave out a high pitched static feedback until I managed to turn off the amplifier. Ever since then the speakers can't handle anything, the sound distorts or muffles very easily; too bad as before they produced a killer sound. I tested the speakers with a multimeter and they're both putting out 1 ohms, if that is the case could it be a problem with my Solid State amp that is already 30 years old?
 
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What model of speakers and amplifier are you using? Do the speakers have a fuse that may be blown?

For future reference- ALWAYS turn off the amp/receiver BEFORE unplugging any cables.:eek:

Anyway, welcome to AudioKarma! I hope we can help.
 
Great to know, haha! It's a Sony AV910 amp, and here is a pic of inside the canal.
 

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As for the model of the speakers there is none listed on the back but stamped on the inside "SP-W6-8".
 

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I have a feeling it's the fuse on my Solid State Sony amp, this is a good excuse for testing out my "new" Dynaco Stereo 70; then I'll know for sure if it's the speakers. There was a burning smell coming from the amp I should note and it happened after I tried my new audio cables out. Also if this would have done anything to the amp, when plugging in the cables for about thirty seconds of audio I had accidentally mixed them to the wrong color inputs.
 
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Found the culprit, it isn't the main bass lower end speaker at the bottom it is the top high end speakers that blew on both; not vibrating at all and mushes to the touch. Guess I just need to swap in a 3" replacement.
 
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Measure the resistance at the terminals after you disconnect the tweeter. Should be 3Ω or higher (depending on what the impedance of the speakers is - is it indicated on the connection plate?). At 1Ω you're presenting what is very close to a short circuit to the amp (high current amps can usually handle this, but very few, if any, receivers). If you're lucky, that 1Ω resistance being caused only by a shorted voice coil in the tweeter. Most receivers aren't happy with anything lower than 4Ω, and many newer ones aren't rated to work with anything lower than 8Ω (although you can usually get away with it if you don't do anything foolish like run them at maximum output).

This might be a good opportunity to upgrade your tweeters - large cone tweeters generally don't have good high frequency output or dispersion. You can probably find a fairly inexpensive dome tweeter that matches the hole size and impedance that would majorly improve the sound. It looks like your crossover has a high frequency level adjustment, so if the efficiency of the new tweeter is a little higher than the old one, it shouldn't matter too much. Parts Express has a good selection. or you might be able to find something cheap on eBay. but do your research first.
 
If that 1 ohm reading was at the rear input terminals of the speaker cabinet, likely you were only measuring the woofer voice coil due to the way crossovers are typically designed. The proper way to check drivers individually is to disconnect at least one wire from the driver and measure across the driver's terminals.

If your amp overheated with new cables, it would not be from swapping leads red to black or plus to minus. Phase doesn't really matter with audio signals EXCEPT you should hook up both speakers the same so they are not cancelling each other out (which sounds weird). Possible you had a short somewhere though, like a loose strand of wire from one lead touching the other one either at the amp or speaker end.

Whatever it was that caused the amp to smoke, may have put a lot of DC onto the output terminals which can smoke drivers. You may want to check crossover components for signs of overheating.

If you post a pic of your dead tweeter front and back we might be able to advise you on a good replacement.
 
Oh no that ohm reading is what I'm getting out of the tweeters disconnected, on the driver terminals. Here are the front and back of the tweeters, not sure how good they were to begin with; Marantz shared the same design.
 

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Before you go any further, you should disconnect the woofers and measure their resistance. If you're still reading 1Ω with the tweeters disconnected then your woofers may be shot as well. If they read a reasonable number, then there's something wrong with the crossover. I wouldn't connect them to your amp again until you've fixed this issue.
 
Yep woofers are reading below 1 ohms as well. Now as far as replacements go, is looking out for those same vintage drivers any good or would you be better off going modern?
 
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Does that crossover component look fried to you? Is that burn mark at the end of the copper wires normal?
 

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Crossover component better angle: signs of overheating? Before I look to getting new woofers and tweeters I should make sure it's not more serious.
 

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