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Vifa D26TG-15 substitute

Tom_r

Tom_r

Well-Known Member
I need to replace the burnt tweeters in a pair of original PSB Stratus (ie not Gold, Silver, etc) speakers. The voice coil isn't shorted. The model of the tweeter is Vifa D26TG-15. I see there are a few versions of the D26TG with different suffixes and I can't find any specs to determine what the different suffixes mean ... if anything. All the part number variations I've seen are 6 ohm drivers, which these are too.

Or maybe there is a replacement that doesn't require modifying the crossover?

I haven't bothered contacting PSB as word on the street is they are just a warehouse to ship speakers out ... they are a five minute walk from our house. And I'm sure they wouldn't be stocking these old tweeters, because in my search I found out they aren't stocking the crossovers anymore.

BTW, I haven't seen a fuse on these speakers so the burnt tweeter may have been preventable if there was a fuse. The amp driving the PSB's is an Aragon 8008.

Thanks.
 
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The PSB's aren't mine and I forgot I have a pair of PSB50MkII speakers which are probably from the same era.

Had a look at the tweeter and its a D26TG-06. The first obvious difference is the magnet height: by eyeball the -06 is about 1/4 shorter than the -15 tweeter.
 
Thank you for the link. Is the voice coil/lead wires the only part that goes bad? I checked it across the terminals with a 1.2v battery and there was nothing happening. While trying to remove the connectors one of the tabs/plastic ears broke off. They must have crimped them on at the factory. Anyway, then I checked the coil with an ohm meter from the remaining wire at the broken tab to the good tab and it wasn't shorted. So maybe just the fine wire burnt itself into two pcs kind of like a fast blow fuse?
 
The wire usually goes bad where it flexes the most due to excursion, but it is certainly possible to break at the terminal as you found. This is the over excursion failure mode, the other is thermal where too much average power overheats the voice coil. It will usually look burnt and might be coming off the former due to the glue breaking down. The ferro fluid (FF) is often "baked" from thermal overload but you can even buy FF from Parts Express.

Tweeters designed to work lower in frequency usually employ tinsel lead in wires that usually do not break due to excursion.

Those domes are for tweeters that have alignment pins on the top plate that make them very easy to replace.
 
Thanks Pete B!! I think that gives me what I need to know to fix these ... and probably a Monitor Audio MA4 I've had kicking around since I bought them; one of which has a bad Audax tweeter.

Have a great day!
 
Why not contact PSB? I needed a tweeter dome for some 10 yr old Paradigm speakers, I emailed them and the next day the had the item ready to ship. All I had to do was give them my C Card #.
 
noise gate said:
Why not contact PSB? I needed a tweeter dome for some 10 yr old Paradigm speakers, I emailed them and the next day the had the item ready to ship. All I had to do was give them my C Card #.
Click to expand...

I did call them yesterday morning and left a v-mail; we'll see what they have.
 
Tom_r said:
Thanks for that link! Had a look, the D26TG-15 tweeters aren't shown there.
Click to expand...

I have read that some of the drivers that PSB use are OEM models. This might be why the tweeter is not in the Vifa archives.
 
PSB does stock replacement drivers but they tend to charge more money than Vifa. It's worth a shot though.

Edit: just saw PSB was contacted by email, They do answer their phone though :)
 
Madisound has parts as noted a few posts back. They usually list which tweeters the diaphragms will work on as a replacement. They didn't have the exact replacement for my Vifas, but they had another compatible diaphragm and listed my tweeters and a few others as ok with this part.

Weird, I chopped off my post..

I pretty much restated what Pete B said, but I was going to add that it's very cool of Madisound to have the thorough compatibility list that they offer.
 
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