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La Scala tweeter not working

Gregavi

Gregavi

Member
I have a pair of La Scalas from the mid 80s with a serial #8425978 if that matters. I replaced the crossovers a few years ago with a B&K Sound Xover and am very happy with the improved sound. Today I was fine tuning speaker levels after running Audyssey and noticed that one of the La Scalas sounded muffled. Upon more testing I discovered that the tweeter on the one that sounded muffled was not working. I disconnected it from the crossover and tested the ohms, which was reading at around 6. I did the battery test with a AA battery that puts out 1.2V and the tweeter produced the clicking sound that I guess verifies that the tweeter is working. I checked for any loose connections on the crossover board but didn't find any.
Any advice on what my next step should be is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
 
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Gigantic said:
Depending on which version of tweeter you have, you may be able to replace the tweeter diaphragm and it will sound okay. My recommendation would be to upgrade them both with a sMAHL from @Daveintn at http://machinedaudiohornlens.com . it will make your LaScala sound better than you ever thought possible.
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This is assuming the existing tweeter is blown? Doesn't the fact that it reads 6 Ohms and produces a click when I connect a battery to it indicate that it isn't blown? BTW, it's this tweeter (in the photo)

tweeter.jpg
 
fwiw, I would recommend the sMAHLs even if your tweeter was operation normally. They're an order of magitude (several orders, tbh) better than any tweeters Klipsch has produced. I have a quasi-standing offer to anyone that I recommend them to: if you're unsatisfied, I'll buy them off of you. I don't need them, but to date, I've never had to make good on my end of the deal. They're incredible and you won't believe how good your speakers sound with them in.
 
I would swap tweeters between your two speakers to determine if it's a crossover or tweeter problem. If it's a crossover problem a new tweeter isn't going to help. What crossover did you by from Crites?
 
I've pretty much confirmed that it's not the tweeter after some additional testing. Gotta be the X Over. It's only a few years old.

BTW, after getting this issue fixed, I might just take you up on your Gigantic offer. (pun intended!) I'm ALWAYS looking to improve the sound of my system. Been doing so for over 50 years.
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Hopefully it's just a loose connection with one or both of the jumper wires going from LF Input to HF Input. Loosen and tighten those screws and see it works after that.
 
I also checked the voltage while playing music on the xover board tweeter connectors and it showed voltage jumping around on the speaker with the working tweeter and zero on the one with the non working tweeter, which apparently indicates that the problem is the xover.
 
mboxler said:
Hopefully it's just a loose connection with one or both of the jumper wires going from LF Input to HF Input. Loosen and tighten those screws and see it works after that.
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I checked that and all the connectors are tight. Wouldn't that cause all of the speakers to not work if those wires were not making connection?
 
Gregavi said:
I checked that and all the connectors are tight. Wouldn't that cause all of the speakers to not work if those wires were not making connection?
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I've fixed several heritage speakers by loosening and tightening crossover screws. Of course they were older and original crossovers, unlike yours.
 
Gregavi said:
I checked that and all the connectors are tight. Wouldn't that cause all of the speakers to not work if those wires were not making connection?
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That crossover is set up for bi-wire/bi-amp. Now that I look closer, the HF Input also goes to the Squawker. If the jumper(s) were bad you would only hear the woofer.

Most multimeters can only measure 50/60hz. To do an accurate voltage test you should pass a fixed frequency and have a true RMS multimeter to measure high frequency voltage. My Fluke 115 has that capability.
 
As I stated the tweeter works based on a test that is a for sure test. I ran wires +/- from the known working xover tweeter connection to the non working tweeter and the tweeter worked. Check all connections on the xover and all seem to be tight.
 
Gregavi said:
As I stated the tweeter works based on a test that is a for sure test. I ran wires +/- from the known working xover tweeter connection to the non working tweeter and the tweeter worked. Check all connections on the xover and all seem to be tight.
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Does your multimeter have a way to measure capacitance?
 
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