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Dying KLH Model 6 tweeter or dying caps?

shnaggle

shnaggle

Active Member
Recapped pair of Model 6's, but the tweeter on one speaker is now not working.

I'll then take everything apart, and attach my speaker wire directly to the tweeter, which then comes alive. Put everything back together, woofer/tweeter then sounds fine. (Woofer never dies).

But then not even an hour later, the tweeter dies again. The connections appear to be fine. Tweeter will live again after some direct amp juice, tweeter/woofer works...then, eventually, tweeter dies again.

Do these KLH tweeters have internal caps which could go bad, or maybe the new crossover caps could be defective?

:(
 
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No, the tweeters don't have internal caps. I'd try swapping the tweeters between cabinets and see if the problem follows the tweeter or stays with the cabinet.
 
I recommend you inspect the integrity of the wire insulation on the tweeter wires particularly where the wires pass over the metal housing. I had a similar problem to what you are describing with a pair of Model 6's a few years ago and I found the insulation was slightly cracked exposing one of the wires. I believe the exposed wire may have come into contact with the metal housing while I was listening to music causing the tweeter to cut out, but I'm not certain. I put heat shrink tubing on the wires and never had the problem again (with plenty of usage). Electrical tape would work as well if that is the problem. Good luck.
 
shnaggle said:
I'll then take everything apart, and attach my speaker wire directly to the tweeter, which then comes alive. Put everything back together, woofer/tweeter then sounds fine. (Woofer never dies).

But then not even an hour later, the tweeter dies again. The connections appear to be fine. Tweeter will live again after some direct amp juice, tweeter/woofer works...then, eventually, tweeter dies again.
Click to expand...

Please correct me if I am wrong. Aren't you supposed to never directly connect a tweeter up to an amp or any power source, including a 1.5 battery? Isn't that part of the purpose of the coupling capacitor, to protect the tweeter from low frequency energy?
 
sound hound said:
Please correct me if I am wrong. Aren't you supposed to never directly connect a tweeter up to an amp or any power source
Click to expand...
You can do it at low power without damage. Most tweeters can handle a few watts at least, and at low volume you're going to be sending significantly less than a watt. Obviously it's not something you want to make a habit of, but it's a legitimate way of testing.
 
Do the battery test with a AAA battery, wont hurt, fool proof and I've it thousands of times.

Connect one wire of the tweeter to the negative side of the battery and the other end you
momentarily touch the positive side of the battery (a touch and release) If you hear a
scratchy sound it's good! Don't be afraid it will not hurt or blow. I have KLH's as well.
Do not do it with the cap in place as the cap could be bad as was the case with mine.
 
So on the problem at hand. it's the tweeter wire on the tweeter itself.
I had to do surgery on one of mine as the wire broke.
I had to solder it with a voice coil wire I had laying around to make
a connection again. Was not easy but it happened.
This is why you have the intermittent sound.
 
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