raynmanwerks
New Member
Greetings AK, I am troubleshooting a pair of woofers that are not performing - I hear sound but very low. Let me start with some background and current state and perhaps you most wise speaker experts can help me get to root cause.
Background:
A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to help out an old audiophile friend out who was in a jam by buying up a bunch of his gear, perhaps 50 pieces to include a number of speaker pairs. Among them were a pair of Jensen Model 6 4-ways in fantastic physical condition. The woofers and mids needed refoaming, but cones in grreat shape. So I wrapped them and placed them in storage. I recently pulled them, ordered foam surrounds, fixed them, conditioned the cases and only then, did I bring them into the listening room and fire them up (they are big and heavy). So I had never heard them until after I did the work on them.
Well, to my dismay, the woofers were not performing. With ear in the speaker I could hear sound albeit very low - this is the case for both woofers - and I may have heard some crackling (not steady, just a little crackling sound that came and went at least once).
Analysis
This seemed to be he case for both woofers. First thought - OK my son in lay who I tasked to put drivers back in cases hooked them up wrong. That wasn't the case - at least the cables are marked with red dots that match the red dot on the terminals so they are kind of idiot proof to reinstall.
I tried swapping pos and neg on one woofer, no change. I pulled out the woofer and checked for resistance on across the terminals and there was a decent resistance present. I have not tried a 9v test to see if the cone jumps..going to do that today.
I cant lay my hands on a schematic to help diagnose, not that I'm an expert or anything but I have suspicions and no good way of troubleshooting from here.
Could it be:
- A crossover problem - old or failing crossovers? but both speakers ?
- a wiring issue: could the wiring be incorrect from the crossover to each speaker? the mids and tweet seemed to be functioning OK on both speakers
- voice coils shot on both speaker wooofers?
I suppose I could find another woofer from a mancave speaker pair I have and test with another woofer to see if I get the low frequencies?
What should I do next to sort the root cause? here's where I could use some advice. I can post pics if that would be at all helpful.
thanks in advance for your feedback,
respectfully Ray
Background:
A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to help out an old audiophile friend out who was in a jam by buying up a bunch of his gear, perhaps 50 pieces to include a number of speaker pairs. Among them were a pair of Jensen Model 6 4-ways in fantastic physical condition. The woofers and mids needed refoaming, but cones in grreat shape. So I wrapped them and placed them in storage. I recently pulled them, ordered foam surrounds, fixed them, conditioned the cases and only then, did I bring them into the listening room and fire them up (they are big and heavy). So I had never heard them until after I did the work on them.
Well, to my dismay, the woofers were not performing. With ear in the speaker I could hear sound albeit very low - this is the case for both woofers - and I may have heard some crackling (not steady, just a little crackling sound that came and went at least once).
Analysis
This seemed to be he case for both woofers. First thought - OK my son in lay who I tasked to put drivers back in cases hooked them up wrong. That wasn't the case - at least the cables are marked with red dots that match the red dot on the terminals so they are kind of idiot proof to reinstall.
I tried swapping pos and neg on one woofer, no change. I pulled out the woofer and checked for resistance on across the terminals and there was a decent resistance present. I have not tried a 9v test to see if the cone jumps..going to do that today.
I cant lay my hands on a schematic to help diagnose, not that I'm an expert or anything but I have suspicions and no good way of troubleshooting from here.
Could it be:
- A crossover problem - old or failing crossovers? but both speakers ?
- a wiring issue: could the wiring be incorrect from the crossover to each speaker? the mids and tweet seemed to be functioning OK on both speakers
- voice coils shot on both speaker wooofers?
I suppose I could find another woofer from a mancave speaker pair I have and test with another woofer to see if I get the low frequencies?
What should I do next to sort the root cause? here's where I could use some advice. I can post pics if that would be at all helpful.
thanks in advance for your feedback,
respectfully Ray
