Pipey 75 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 (edited) Hi guys, have a look at this picture. Do I need to buy new drivers ? Are they even available? Can these be repaired or do I cut my losses and buy new speakers ? Edited August 25, 2020 by Pipey Link to post Share on other sites
Telecine 3,907 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 They look like they just need a new dust cap, an inexpensive fix. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Ian McP 5,406 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 Do they still work? Looks like damage is only to the dust cap. It's a discontinued Audax driver. Dust cap is purely to stop "dust" getting into the gap between the voice coil and magnet pole. Any trusted speaker repairers in WA? 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Pipey 75 Posted August 25, 2020 Author Share Posted August 25, 2020 They still work but make a noise from the dust cap. This happened the other night with a bit of alcohol induced volume control. All four drivers caps must have been brittle. I wasn’t sure they were a replaceable part. I’m unsure of speaker repairers over here Link to post Share on other sites
Ian McP 5,406 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 introduce some phase plugs.... with some careful surgery, don't know if any major shift in freq resonse https://www.planet10-hifi.com/pp-info.html < The phase plugs work primarily 2 fronts. 1st they fill the hole left when the dust cap removed. The air trapped in the cylinder inside the voice coil and above the pole piece causes what is called an "oil-can resonance". This invariably causes some midrange distress. Removal of the dustcap and filling the hole pretty much eliminates this source of coloration. The 2nd thing the phase plug does is to effectively halve the diameter of the cone. Any side-to-side standing waves, reflections, etc are pushed up about an octave. Related to this is an improvement in high frequency dispersion, widening the sweet-spot, and reducing the laser-like hot spot some full-range drivers suffer from. The smaller effective cone diameter means that the point at which beaming starts is pushed up and due to the shaped nature & the hardness of the plugs some HF energy is redirected. > Link to post Share on other sites
Pipey 75 Posted August 25, 2020 Author Share Posted August 25, 2020 http://www.speaker-doctor.com/Speaker_Doctor.html I’ve found these guys with a quick search. Anyone used them ? Link to post Share on other sites
pete_mac 3,985 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 9 minutes ago, Pipey said: http://www.speaker-doctor.com/Speaker_Doctor.html I’ve found these guys with a quick search. Anyone used them ? I've seen them recommended on SNA before. Replacing the dust caps is a piece of cake. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
muon* 2,710 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 Did one on an Audax Mid-Woofer a while ago. Like Pete says above, it is easy to do. Just get the correct size and they might even supply you with a little packet of adhesive for the job, they did when I bought a replacement....I canny recall where I bought mine from though. Link to post Share on other sites
BATMAQN 1,833 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 Pat at WAR Audio is who I would speak to and luckily for you he's in Perth http://www.waraudio.com.au/ 3 Link to post Share on other sites
Tweaky 1,186 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, Pipey said: They still work but make a noise from the dust cap. This happened the other night with a bit of alcohol induced volume control. All four drivers caps must have been brittle. I wasn’t sure they were a replaceable part. I’m unsure of speaker repairers over here That happened from excessive volume ? Really! And on all 4 drivers ! Looks like an angry cat has had a swipe at them. Must have been some lockdown party. If I were you Id' remove all the effected drivers and check to see that the spider or spyder that centers the speaker cone is still glued properly to the driver basket. If any sign that the glue has started to give, you'll going to want to try and reglue them where the glue has failed, rather than letting the whole thing come away from the basket and then trying to do reglue the whole spider. It's a PITA trying to recenter a spider than has come completely unglued. Get it wrong and you might as well hook up a Kazoo in the drivers place, as it will sound exactly the same. Edited August 25, 2020 by Tweaky Link to post Share on other sites
Pipey 75 Posted August 25, 2020 Author Share Posted August 25, 2020 1 hour ago, Tweaky said: That happened from excessive volume ? Really! And on all 4 drivers ! Looks like an angry cat has had a swipe at them. Must have been some lockdown party. If I were you Id' remove all the effected drivers and check to see that the spider or spyder that centers the speaker cone is still glued properly to the driver basket. If any sign that the glue has started to give, you'll going to want to try and reglue them where the glue has failed, rather than letting the whole thing come away from the basket and then trying to do reglue the whole spider. It's a PITA trying to recenter a spider than has come completely unglued. Get it wrong and you might as well hook up a Kazoo in the drivers place, as it will sound exactly the same. This sounds a little out of my league. I really love these speakers so I’m thinking I better take em to an expert 🤔 Link to post Share on other sites
jdh500 206 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 Looking at the first photo I inially thoight your cat had used the speaker as a scraping post !!! JDH Link to post Share on other sites
Tweaky 1,186 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 1 hour ago, Pipey said: This sounds a little out of my league. I really love these speakers so I’m thinking I better take em to an expert 🤔 It's very very easy to find out if the spider is coming away from the speaker basket. Look at the picture below, you can see the speaker cone tapering down from the top of the picture, it connects to that brown wavy disc, that's the spider. The edges of the spider are glued to the inside of the speaker basket. You want to check is if the glue that holds the spider to the basket is still holding all the way around, just run your finger around the edge of the spider using a very slight upward pressure to see if it starts lifting at all, if it is it means the glue is failing and needs to be reglued. You can also test if the glue on the inner part of the spider is still holding to the speaker cone, by putting your fingers around the bottom of the speaker cone and lifting the cone upward. Fixing these things is a doddle for somebody that does it a lot, and unless the spider itself is torn, it shouldn't need replacing, so the repair, if needed should be quick and cheap to do. But it's best to check these things before you take them in for repair. If you ran these speakers hard enough to tear the dust caps, the spider would have had a even bigger chance to give out, and TBH I wouldn't be surprised that if you are hearing a tissy distorted sound that it's not the dust cap causing it, it's the speaker cone that has become de-centered and rubbing up and down against the voice coil because the spider is no longer holding it in the correct place. I had one of the drivers in my Harbeth SHL5's suddenly sound a bit distorted, then it suddenly got really bad. The spider glue had started to fail on the driver, and if I had removed it earlier I could have fixed it, but I waited too long and the whole spider became detached......to cut a long story short that ended up costing me $500 for a replacement driver and a 4 months wait while they built a replacement, tested it and then shipped it to me. Link to post Share on other sites
POV 516 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 5 hours ago, BATMAQN said: Pat at WAR Audio is who I would speak to and luckily for you he's in Perth http://www.waraudio.com.au/ Seconded. Pat is a gentleman and will no doubt look after you and give you a very fair price. Link to post Share on other sites
Sub Sonic 1,062 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 FWIW, the drivers are from one of Audax’s low/mid tier plastic frame HDA (High Definition Aerogel) series. There is a more expensive cast frame HDA series too, usually with rubber phase plugs. Plastic can also be a good material for driver frames. SS 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Mushroom01 527 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 9 hours ago, jdh500 said: Looking at the first photo I inially thoight your cat had used the speaker as a scraping post !!! JDH Exactly what I'd thought too! Link to post Share on other sites
blakey72 1,368 Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 18 hours ago, Pipey said: They still work but make a noise from the dust cap. Hang on, that doesn't just sound like a damaged dust cap. Damage to the dust cap shouldn't change the sound at all. And all four? Hoping it's not the coils @Pipey Is it a crackling noise? 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Pipey 75 Posted August 26, 2020 Author Share Posted August 26, 2020 No just like air flapping the cap. I’m going to take them to Perth when I can and get someone to look at them I think. All the spiders and cones look ok Link to post Share on other sites
Peter_F 1,716 Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 21 hours ago, Pipey said: http://www.speaker-doctor.com/Speaker_Doctor.html I’ve found these guys with a quick search. Anyone used them ? Jason AKA The Speaker Doctor is the best tech in Perth (possibly Australia) and I wouldn't bother with anyone else. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
Pipey 75 Posted August 26, 2020 Author Share Posted August 26, 2020 3 hours ago, Peter_F said: Jason AKA The Speaker Doctor is the best tech in Perth (possibly Australia) and I wouldn't bother with anyone else. High praise right there. I think I’ll take them up to him next week. I do like how these sound and don’t want to try and find replacements. Cheers 1 Link to post Share on other sites
blakey72 1,368 Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 If you can get hold of some dust caps it's damn easy mate. Could you cut and glue in primary school? That's about the level you need Save you heaps of cash. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
pete_mac 3,985 Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 20 minutes ago, blakey72 said: If you can get hold of some dust caps it's damn easy mate. Could you cut and glue in primary school? That's about the level you need Save you heaps of cash. So true - it's a very easy job. Purchase dust caps which are slightly larger than the originals in diameter, cut back as much as the original dust cap as possible, then glue on the replacements (I use Aleene's tacky glue for speaker repairs). Lie the speakers on their backs and sit a light weight on each dust cap whilst the glue dries (sockets from a socket tool set work really well). The challenge is sourcing plastic/poly dust caps to suit your woofers. Paper and felt are uber-common, whereas I had to order plastic items from China via ebay when repairing the below speakers: 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Pipey 75 Posted August 26, 2020 Author Share Posted August 26, 2020 I’ve decided I’m going to give the speaker doctor a ring tomorrow. See if he can give them a once over too. Check the crossovers and whatnot. Not sure of the age of these speakers 1 Link to post Share on other sites
spamnoj 289 Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 I had an oopsie with the exact same model of speakers. Dust caps were dented and I took a shop vac (mistake 1) to it to try to suck them back into shape. They took the dust caps right off........... So I bought new ones for a few dollars each and glued them on. Easy peasy. I would try carefully removing the remaining bits of the dust cap, having a good listen to check for any other driver issues, but if none I'd just get new dust caps. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
jdh500 206 Posted August 29, 2020 Share Posted August 29, 2020 On 27/08/2020 at 8:56 AM, spamnoj said: . I would try carefully removing the remaining bits of the dust cap, having a good listen to check for any other driver issues, but if none I'd just get new dust caps. I tend to agree, considering the age and used value of these speakers a DIY solution is the best path to take. I had a similar issue with a couple of my dust caps on some Whatmough speakers that were pushed in by my daughters when they were babies , I used both the vacuum cleaner and double sided tape method to pull the existing dust cap back out, never had to fully replace it though. JDH Link to post Share on other sites
Pipey 75 Posted November 6, 2020 Author Share Posted November 6, 2020 Got these back yesterday. Good as new. Speaker Dr did the repairs and checked them over. I’m so glad I got them repaired instead of buying different speakers. 👍 4 Link to post Share on other sites
jdh500 206 Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 Do you have a photo to share of the final repair ? JDH Link to post Share on other sites
Pipey 75 Posted November 10, 2020 Author Share Posted November 10, 2020 15 minutes ago, jdh500 said: Do you have a photo to share of the final repair ? JDH I'll get a snap tomorrow. Very happy with the result Link to post Share on other sites
Pipey 75 Posted November 11, 2020 Author Share Posted November 11, 2020 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites
jdh500 206 Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 Looks like a pretty good quality repair !,, JDH Link to post Share on other sites
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