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Sound but no bass from 1 speaker

C

chris4reel

New Member
I have some passive speakers, one of which doesn't have any bass to it.
They're 3-way and were working fine. The top and mids are playing, just no bass.
I have ruled out amp, cables and source by swapping out all of these components with different components.

Would replacing the crossovers' capacitors fix this? I have a kit as these are older "retro" speakers, mid 80s, and replacement crossover cap kits are available.
They have new surrounds on the bass elements and were working when reassembled.
or is the element (coil?) itself damaged/broken? Does the whole element need replacing?
Sorry if this is a noob-like question.
 
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Pull the driver to be sure the wires are connected. Some are just pushed on, others soldered. One may have come off.
 
If you don't see anything wrong there, swap the woofers between the cabinets. This will tell you if the problem is the driver or the crossover.
 
Also, push on the driver and make sure it moves in an out to make sure the VC isn't fried, you should also hook up your mutlimeter to see if it shows any ohms
 
If it doesn't move, it is also possible the magnet has shifted and locked the voice coil in place. A fried voicecoil probably will either have no reading or might be a short. If you get something in the 4 to 8 ohm range it probably is is the magnet.
 
Open up the cabs and check your connections first before spending money on new parts.
I bought a brand new horn for a cab once only to find that a wire which was badly soldered had simply come loose. The horn was perfectly fine.
In another instance a capacitor had gone bad in the crossover and again the driver was fine.
 
Disconnect the wires on the back. Then using a AA battery and wires touch the input to the speaker. Should see the drive move in or out depending of polarity and also hear a click.

Click and no movement locked driver. No click open somewhere, voice coil or connection.
 
Hi everyone and thanks for the great tips.

I took the speaker apart and measured input at the terminals and its getting power ok. The bass element is moving with the music, but sounds like a "blown" speaker, it has that dead, bleeh, farty vibration sound instead of the bass.
Next, I'll do what Swetchsler says and swap over the bass elements, that will isolate the problem.

I was careful when I replaced the surrounds about a year ago to make sure everything was centered and the cone moved without scratching, which it does.
These are B&O S80.2 speakers by the way.

@valvenator : I already had the crossover kit as an upcoming maintenance job (for use right after all the other broken retro s**** I've bought over the years and have to fix). So it effectively hasn't cost me anything yet..... but replacing the whole bass element, or both, will.

We'll see what happens when I swap the elements over.
 
chris4reel said:
Hi everyone and thanks for the great tips.

I took the speaker apart and measured input at the terminals and its getting power ok. The bass element is moving with the music, but sounds like a "blown" speaker, it has that dead, bleeh, farty vibration sound instead of the bass.
Next, I'll do what Swetchsler says and swap over the bass elements, that will isolate the problem.

I was careful when I replaced the surrounds about a year ago to make sure everything was centered and the cone moved without scratching, which it does.
These are B&O S80.2 speakers by the way.

@valvenator : I already had the crossover kit as an upcoming maintenance job (for use right after all the other broken retro s**** I've bought over the years and have to fix). So it effectively hasn't cost me anything yet..... but replacing the whole bass element, or both, will.

We'll see what happens when I swap the elements over.
Click to expand...
You can tell i ain’t no expert by my suggestion here, but if it’s a sealed cabinet, check every possible screw and place that it could be leaking. I was thinking about replacing surrounds or even drivers before discovering some cabinet air leaks. Sealed everything up tight and my bass came back!
 
Right, so I swapped the woofers over and I'm a little baffled. I had previously put the speaker back together after checking connections and that had not fixed the issue.
When I changed the elements over I had it in my head what @Puddin’tane said about properly sealed closed cabinets. So I really tightened up all those screws and now
the bass is back!

So either I fixed a loose connection when I swapped them over or I put the front baffle on tighter, or the cone itself that is held in with 4 screws through "spring" brackets (see link for a pic) got tightened properly. This last one was a pain in the ass to tighten, 3 bit sets and couldn't find a good fit for the screw heads, so will find replacement screws in future.

Here's a link to a site that has a pic of the back of the baffle which should show anyone interested how these speakers are put together https://www.audiovintage.fr/leforum/viewtopic.php?t=44658

Sincere thanks to everyone who came with advice, ruling out faults is as valuable as eventually finding the fault (whatever the fault was, i don't actually know haha)..
 
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It's also possible that there was some corrosion on the speaker terminals and when you reconnected them it got worn off. At any rate, I'm happy you got them working properly, and you know how to troubleshoot if you start having problems in the future.
 
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