Recapped Tannoy crossover, a bit of static

[davstev]

I just recapped one of my Tannoy Gold crossovers with Sonicap Gen 1's. Immediately it sounded great, noticeably clearer and better- but I am bothered by a bit of static here and there, especially in musical passages with prominent bass.

Is this static a symptom of a not-yet-broken-in cap, or have I done something wrong? Time will tell, of course, but any input at this stage is welcome.

David

 

[elitopus]

Is it static or distortion? If it is static, there is a good chance you are just hearing more of the high frequencies from the recordings that your old caps probably blocked.

If it is distortion (you mentioned bass heavy tracks, which makes me think of voice coil rattle), something else could be wrong.

 

[davstev]

I would say that it's sonically akin to the sound of a dirty potentiometer (my pots are clean though), whatever you would call that- midrange static sound.

And, it is really only periodically, this static. I can say with certainty that the speakers themselves are in good shape, it's not a voice coil issue. When I was recapping, because of the increased size of the sonicaps, I was forced to put the caps in so that they were touching each other. I wondered if this might cause interference.

I should reiterate that it is generally sounding great, other than the occasional bit of static. It's not serious, but occasional static interference is bothersome. I hope it goes away with time... I'll give it a bit more volume and break-in time tomorrow and see what happens.

 

[F1nut]

It is absolutely not due to burn in or the caps touching each other. It could possibly be a cold solder joint.

 

[essNeff]

Ditto the solder joints, probably the woofer leg.

 

[bberkom]

Yep, I've had this with cold solder joints before. Not familiar with that specific crossover, but if it uses a big inductor for the woofer, sometimes they need to be heated up real good before soldering. They act as big heatsinks, especially if the gauge is heavy.

 

[dshoaf]

You're going to need to localize the problem to determine where it is coming from and, therefore, what things can be done to mitigate it.

To localize it, the normal approach is to run a sweep frequency generator across the spectrum of the speaker at various levels while listening for the problem. You can change the frequency back and forth to narrow down where it happens and at what volume level(s). A sweep frequency generator is simply an audio frequency signal generator you can control by hand.

Once you can cause the problem to occur at will, you can now use a small rubber hose or, perhaps, a small cardboard tube (think: paper towel tube) to figure out where it is coming from. First step is to find the offending driver or point on the cabinet.

Hope that gets you started on the path!

Cheers,

David

 

[davstev]

You're going to need to localize the problem to determine where it is coming from and, therefore, what things can be done to mitigate it.

To localize it, the normal approach is to run a sweep frequency generator across the spectrum of the speaker at various levels while listening for the problem. You can change the frequency back and forth to narrow down where it happens and at what volume level(s). A sweep frequency generator is simply an audio frequency signal generator you can control by hand.

Once you can cause the problem to occur at will, you can now use a small rubber hose or, perhaps, a small cardboard tube (think: paper towel tube) to figure out where it is coming from. First step is to find the offending driver or point on the cabinet.

Hope that gets you started on the path!

Cheers,

David

Belatedly, thanks for the helpful post. After some time, it seemed to go away, the static, It no longer seems to be an issue, I'm happy to report. Can't say what the problem might have been, but glad it is gone. On a side note, the Sonicaps in my crossovers sound....simply amazing. It's a revelation!!