pioneer hpm100 problems

[mike hatt]

i picked up a pair of these for a good price, cabinets need refinishing, and i thought they were perfect otherwise. Well, testing them on the floor not possitioned makes them sound different, when i put them in the front speaker locations of my room, the midrange was huge. Great soundstage, but i noticed a lack of top end trebble. These are what appear to be four way corect me if im wrong, woofer mid, tweet and supertweeter. Well ne neither the tweet or super tweet on either side seem to work. There are knobs to adjust midrange and tweet, and the tweeter one does nothing. All wires appear to be solidly connected inside the speaker, so where do i look next? These have a truly awesome midrange, andi bet the highs match that clarity, just don't know. What should i test?
Mike

 

[RussinOhio]

Something I feel should be mentioned...

It is very, very VERY difficult to hear any sound coming from the HPM device in any HPM100 even under the best of circumstances. I found this out when I bought my HPM100's brand new back in the late 70's.

As far as the conventional tweets are concerned.....they might be blown.
Those speakers are worth getting new tweeters!

Russ

 

[Charivari]

Mike Hatt,

Since it sounds like you've already pulled the woofer to check the wires, grab a meter capable of measuring ohms (ie all fancy and generic multi-meters) and see if you can measure anything across the connections on the pots (the level controls). These are fairly easy to access to do this check. I'm suggesting this because it could be that the tweeter potentiometers on both speakers may have gone bad or are just very dirty and thus preventing any signal getting through. Hopefully this is just your problem, as its easier and much cheaper to fix than direct driver replacement.

In regards to the previous comment about both tweeters being bad, look closely at the tweeter tinsels (the little copper wires that arc up from the faceplate into the tweeter cone) and see if they're broken. If so, you may be able to resolder them and thus avoid the cost of direct replacement with minimal impact on performance.

Good luck.
- JP

 

[B3Nut]

HPM-100 tweeters show up on ePay regularly, I think I paid $30 and shipping for a minty set. I haven't checked the supertweets by themselves as the regular tweeters give me all the highs I could want.

Do check the tinsels, and try testing the tweeter voice coils for continuity with a meter - make sure you remove and disconnect the tweeters first, to avoid false readings.

Todd in beerbratistan

 

[mike hatt]

thanks all for the suggestions, i will work on it tommorrow and report back.
Mike