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Strange issue with tweeters on advent loudspeakers

Laricc

Laricc

Member
I recently got a pair of Advent loudspeakers and posted a thread to get help on refoaming. The refoam was a success and they came out perfectly. When I plugged them in though, one tweeter seemed to be struggling with the signal, then suddenly just turned on. After some time though, the issue came back as I noticed that the tweeter was playing sounds faintly on the same frequency as the subwoofer (checked with 30Hz), followed by some occasional crackling sounds.

By my limited knowledge, I could only guess that it is a capacitor going bad on the crossover to the tweeter. Any ideas on what the issue could be?

Thanks,
 
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Laricc said:
I recently got a pair of Advent loudspeakers and posted a thread to get help on refoaming. The refoam was a success and they came out perfectly. When I plugged them in though, one tweeter seemed to be struggling with the signal, then suddenly just turned on. After some time though, the issue came back as I noticed that the tweeter was playing sounds faintly on the same frequency as the subwoofer (checked with 30Hz), followed by some occasional crackling sounds.

By my limited knowledge, I could only guess that it is a capacitor going bad on the crossover to the tweeter. Any ideas on what the issue could be?

Thanks,
Click to expand...
You should absolutely replace the caps. While you're in there, double-check the wiring to be sure they're connected solidly and no wires are touching something they shouldn't.
 
Airjmax said:
You should absolutely replace the caps. While you're in there, double-check the wiring to be sure they're connected solidly and no wires are touching something they shouldn't.
Click to expand...

Is there a website I can go to that sells capacitors for the loudspeakers?
 
NLA_XO.GIF

http://baselaudiolab.com/ADVENT_LA_XO.html
 
Not a lot of vendors carry 13uf caps. Often people will substitute something close, like the 12uf cap. Since running capacitors parallel sums the capacitance you could use a 12uf and 1uf, 10uf and 3uf, etc if you want to go for it. For the record Erse Audio carriers the 13uf size in multiple grades. If you do buy from Erse I can tell you that you need to look to get the lowest shipping price, in my experience the lowest price they first show is several dollars above the lowest available.
 
Guido57 said:
Not a lot of vendors carry 13uf caps. Often people will substitute something close, like the 12uf cap. Since running capacitors parallel sums the capacitance you could use a 12uf and 1uf, 10uf and 3uf, etc if you want to go for it. For the record Erse Audio carriers the 13uf size in multiple grades. If you do buy from Erse I can tell you that you need to look to get the lowest shipping price, in my experience the lowest price they first show is several dollars above the lowest available.
Click to expand...

http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/PulseX400v/MPX40-03-13-0
This is what I found from Erse. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
Nothing wrong with digi-key if they have what you want, I've never found them or Mouser good for crossover parts and nothing on the link you put up looks like what you need. For me learning to navigate digi-key or Mouser websites took a while to learn how to do it efficiently and actually find what I was looking for. For capacitor voltage, just need to keep voltage at least as high as the original, higher does not hurt. I also forgot Erse's $20 minimum order (I think when I've used Erse it was either multiple or larger projects) and right now they seem to have a lot of items out of stock. I have used caps from parts-express and have no issues with them. My first Advent recap I combined 10uf and 3.3uf caps to get as close as I could at the time.
 
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Guido57 said:
Nothing wrong with digi-key if they have what you want, I've never found them or Mouser good for crossover parts and nothing on the link you put up looks like what you need. For me learning to navigate digi-key or Mouser websites took a while to learn how to do it efficiently and actually find what I was looking for. For capacitor voltage, just need to keep voltage at least as high as the original, higher does not hurt. I also forgot Erse's $20 minimum order (I think when I've used Erse it was either multiple or larger projects) and right now they seem to have a lot of items out of stock. I have used caps from parts-express and have no issues with them. My first Advent recap I combined 10uf and 3.3uf caps to get as close as I could at the time.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see. I might try to see if I can find anything from Erse. By what I saw,
http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/PulseX400v/MPX40-03-13-0
http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/PulseX250v/MPX25-03-13-00
http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/PEx250v/13uF-250-volt-Metallized-Polyester-Mylar-Film-Capacitor
This seemed to have a reasonable price.
There are also a few others that are at different voltages (250V).
I'll continue looking for the time being.

On the other hand, should I replace the other cap on the second speaker, just to be on the safe side?

Also, with the BSCs you were mentioning earlier on the last thread, I can kind of see what you were meaning with the low end on the advents not being too strong. The ones I have seem to have really nice responses and show each tone well, but at louder volumes, the tweeter easily overpowers the woofer, even when it is decreased.

If it's possible to build one of those boxes with a 1/4 inch jack, I might try to see if I can do that since It'le directly pass directly out of the Focusrite and directly into the BSC.
 
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Yes, replace BOTH caps. The originals were electrolytic, which degrade with age, and, in any case, you want the caps to match in both speakers. Erse are generally very reasonable in price, but then again there is their $20 minimum order so you may need to go somewhere else. Some say to replace electrolytic caps with new electrolytic caps, but most believe the film caps have better sound. Generally, the higher the voltage capacitor, the higher the price within the same product line.
I think you can make the BSC with any type of jack you want, just so as long as it's wired properly.
And don't forget to check the wiring in the speakers, as AIRJMAX said.
 
Guido57 said:
Yes, replace BOTH caps. The originals were electrolytic, which degrade with age, and, in any case, you want the caps to match in both speakers. Erse are generally very reasonable in price, but then again there is their $20 minimum order so you may need to go somewhere else. Some say to replace electrolytic caps with new electrolytic caps, but most believe the film caps have better sound. Generally, the higher the voltage capacitor, the higher the price within the same product line.
I think you can make the BSC with any type of jack you want, just so as long as it's wired properly.
And don't forget to check the wiring in the speakers, as AIRJMAX said.
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Yea I'll definitely be checking the wires. If it's just touching wires, then phew!

I may just try to buy everything from Erse. I'll try and see if I can get the circuitry supplies for the BSC from them, if not I'll probably get them from digi-key. I'll keep you updated on that if you'd like!

For the BSC, I'm definitely making it a 1/4 inch jack mount since it's more compatible with my Focusrite in that sense. I'm glad to know that it should work, thanks!
 
image0.jpg

Bit of something I just realized...Two dayton audio caps are in here when I popped this thing open, verses the picture of the usual single cap that is used. Possibly swapped before?

image0.jpg

This picture is a picture of the other speaker I got, seems this one had some replacements as well...
 
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Yes, that speaker was definitely opened before with the original replaced by parallel Dayton caps. Are the tweeters soldered in or are the wires attached with quick connects? (At this moment I don't feel like opening up one of my pairs to check). If the wires have quick connects put the questionable tweeter in the other cabinet. If it's the tweeter, the problem will follow the tweeter. If it's good in the other cabinet then the problem is the caps or wiring. Should have suggested this before, but I guess we all assumed original caps.
 
Ah okay...Guess I may have to look elsewhere then. Kinda sucks, even then I might pick up some other things from their site.

I'll check out the tweeter, but I have doubts it would be the tweeter itself, seeing how It randomly died out, caused occasional pops and crackles, and outright was tapping off the subwoofer's frequencies. And yea, I assumed it was the original components as well...But even then, these woofers did have a previous refoam job on them.

Another thing I forgot to add, was that one of the tweeters had the metal guard on it pressed in. It was touching the tweeter, though I seriously don't expect that to of caused the problems.

Not to mention, these speakers usually didn't have foam, right?

UPDATE: Tweeters do have connectors. I'll do that quick check soon on em.
 
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Generally Advents with the Masonite woofers (OLA's) had red fiberglass insulation, ones with "metal framed" (NewLargeAdent's) woofers had foam blocks. It is better to have the guard squished than the tweeter, you may want to CAREFULLY pull the guard back out. The previous work is not the prettiest so it might be part of the problem; however, my first tries were downright butt ugly and did not cause problems. The Dayton resistor is obviously a replacement also.
 
Guido57 said:
Generally Advents with the Masonite woofers (OLA's) had red fiberglass insulation, ones with "metal framed" (NewLargeAdent's) woofers had foam blocks. It is better to have the guard squished than the tweeter, you may want to CAREFULLY pull the guard back out. The previous work is not the prettiest so it might be part of the problem; however, my first tries were downright butt ugly and did not cause problems. The Dayton resistor is obviously a replacement also.
Click to expand...
When I first got the thing, the tweeter was slightly squished by the metal, and I just carefully pried it away from the tweeter with a screwdriver. In the end, it seems to be okay, and no further damage was seen.

Yea, that resistor stuck out like a sore thumb the moment I looked in. Besides all of that, I guess I'll test out the tweeter tomorrow and make sure it isn't just that.
 
The foam stuffing appeared in 1975 during the run of the original Advents and continued with the New Advents.

Doug
 
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