testing a tweeter

[bobva]

Is there any way to test a tweeter to hear if it works?

It ohm's out fine but I cant here anything.

I know you can take a 9 volt battery to a woofer and test for movement.

 

[iflopdanutz]

I'll be watching this thread :scratch2:

I'm picking up some Polk LS50's in original boxes today for free.
One tweeter is apparently dead so I'll have some trouble shooting to do.

 

[Nikko75]

You can use a 1uF to 2uF non-polar capacitor in series with the driver, and apply a low power level musical signal or high frequency tone.

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

9 volts is a great way to fry a voice coil. It will heat the coil up and either warp the former or open the coil. A 1.5 volt penlight or C cell will acheive the same result, only in a safer manner. When testing a tweeter or horn, be sure to use a cap in series (as Nikko noted) with a small amount of signal.

 

[Haileyburian]

An earlier posting that I saw/read/used was to use a 1.5V battery. Hold a length of wire to one end of the battery, other end on tweeter lead. Use a second length, hold one end to other end of battery, and quickly/briefly touch other end of wire to second tweeter lead.

I tried this on a pair of Boston Acoustics A100 tweeters - difference was quite noticeable between good and dead tweeters: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=284821

**EDIT - GO WITH CELT'S ADVICE**

 

[bobva]

9 volts is a great way to fry a voice coil. It will heat the coil up and either warp the former or open the coil. A 1.5 volt penlight or C cell will acheive the same result, only in a safer manner. When testing a tweeter or horn, be sure to use a cap in series (as Nikko noted) with a small amount of signal.

Oh #$%^#@& that was a before coffee this morning.

 

[bobva]

Ok I found the right way

speaker wire for stereo very low volume========= black to tweeter - black ======== red wire to 3.3uf bi-polar cap to tweeter + red =touch and hear

 

[Bigears]

I've tested tweeters, including very expensive hard to fine Be tweeters, by applying an output signal at very low level. Polarity is unimportant for testing and all you do is carefully ramp up the volume from zero and listen. No capacitor is necessary.

I would never apply any level of DC voltage to test a tweeter. Typically zero resistance in any driver indicates a damaged VC or open wiring leading to it.

 

[TWTRTECH]

I've tested tweeters, including very expensive hard to fine Be tweeters, by applying an output signal at very low level. Polarity is unimportant for testing and all you do is carefully ramp up the volume from zero and listen. No capacitor is necessary.

I would never apply any level of DC voltage to test a tweeter. Typically zero resistance in any driver indicates a damaged VC or open wiring leading to it.

I also would always do the same, except that I would turn the bass all the way down and treble up a bit, and ramp up slowly.