Bozak b201 one speaker sounds weak

[boomboombop]

Greetings,

I'm pretty new around here, so my apologies if this is posted in the wrong place. I picked up a pair of Bozak b201's a while back. I noticed that one is louder than the other. The quiet one has almost no bass either. I'm nearly positive that the problem lies in the speaker and not the amp. I've replaced the capacitor in the speaker, but that didn't seem to fix the problem. What do I do next?

 

[drbiggles]

Hey!

How come no responses here? I think people's psyches are pointed in other directions. Don't give up hope and bump this thread once a day until someone stops by.

I'm not familiar with your speakers, don't know the particulars. I know if I had a similar problem, I'd disconnect the woofer and run it wide open from the amp and see if that helps. It could very well be the crossover that's bad, or in need of a little freshin'. The capacitor you replaced is for the tweeter or midrange, so that wouldn't have helped with the bass. If that wasn't it, I'd disconnect both woofers and put my meter to them and see where they come in.

Something else I would do is pull both woofers and do a very thorough, visual inspection of both woofers. To see if I could find out why one is doing what it's doing. I would also check the cabinet to see if I had any air leaks, or if a port is clogged.

After running through all those things, one generally comes up with something that would tell you what's going on.

Biggles

 

[crazy-in-az]

Are they connected out of phase? Out of phase speakers can sound weak, especially in the bass. Make sure both speakers are hooked up properly (positive cable to positive speaker terminal, negative to negative).

 

[Mike Sutter]

Necroing a thread here since I'm experiencing the same issue with my Bozak B-201 Sonora. I've posted in the Bozak group on Facebook, a great resource for anyone who owns Bozaks, and this is what I got in response:

Off hand, if one woofer is quieter than the other, if it is not a bad woofer here are my best guesses.

1. Corrosion on one of the four spade lugs in the woofer circuit in the crossover (connection between choke coil and input (thick black wire) - connection between choke coil and output connector (thick black wire) - input to woofer red - input to woofer black)

2. Corrosion one of the two spade lugs on the woofer's input at the woofer, red and black.

Ideally you would remove all six spade and spade lug connections and clean with DeOxIt, but if these were mine, I would just remove each spade lug and put it off and on half a dozen times and see if that is enough 'cleaning' for the next 42 years.

The next level would be to look for cracked or corroded soldering jobs on every soldered connection in the woofer circuit.

Last would be the wires that go from the inputs on the woofer to the woofer's speaker coil.

I checked on the connections and everything was intact and fine, with no noticeable corrosion. I replaced the crossover capacitors with Dayton Precision caps a few months ago, and the solder had come loose from one of those joints (soldering amateur here) so I resoldered it and made sure it was solid. However I still seem to be dealing with uneven bass. I verified the issue was with the speaker rather than the amp after swapping L/R.

The strangest part of this whole thing is that, while I'm almost positive there is some issue with the speakers, there is also some acoustic weirdness at play. When I'm sitting at my desk listening to the speakers, with the woofers at roughly chest level, I can hear the bass unevenness. When I stand up behind the chair, the bass appears to center itself perfectly. When I shut the door to the room, the problem also seems to be alleviated somewhat.

In other words, sometimes I hear it and sometimes I don't.

 

[Nat]

That sounds like a phase issue, though I can't figure out how and why. Have you placed the speakers face to face and played a mono signal through them? If there is no bass, one of the woofers is out of phase. Sometimes, someone at the factory screwed up and a woofer is either marked wrong, or is actually wired wrong. If that isn't it, it gets much harder to diagnose.

 

[Mike Sutter]

That sounds like a phase issue, though I can't figure out how and why. Have you placed the speakers face to face and played a mono signal through them? If there is no bass, one of the woofers is out of phase. Sometimes, someone at the factory screwed up and a woofer is either marked wrong, or is actually wired wrong. If that isn't it, it gets much harder to diagnose.

F it, I heard there were some Bozaks that had this issue, but everything appeared labeled correctly in the speaker. Let me try flipping the phase on the woofer and I'll get back to you in a second.

 

[Mike Sutter]

That sounds like a phase issue, though I can't figure out how and why. Have you placed the speakers face to face and played a mono signal through them? If there is no bass, one of the woofers is out of phase. Sometimes, someone at the factory screwed up and a woofer is either marked wrong, or is actually wired wrong. If that isn't it, it gets much harder to diagnose.

Update: Internal wiring definitely not the issue. Then again, I feel like it sounds centered tonight... &#@^$!