Have I blown a speaker?

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davek_964

Original Poster:

8,796 posts

174 months

Tuesday 13th February 2018
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I've suspected for a while that I have a problem with one of my speakers, and I don't think I can ignore it anymore.

Mostly, it seems to sound fine. However - for certain tones, it is definitely not right - the tone isn't "smooth" - it almost sounds like something is vibrating. It happens most with the kind of tones you'd hear when you were moving around a menu item on a console and selecting things - the kind of "bing" as you select things tends to be the tone that sounds a bit broken.

I assumed I'd blown the speaker but I'd expect this to have a much greater effect on overall sound?

Having never blown a speaker before, I'm not sure what to expect.

B17NNS

18,506 posts

246 months

Thursday 15th February 2018
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Can you try the speakers with a different source? That way you can at least isolate which component has the issue.

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah

12,787 posts

99 months

Thursday 15th February 2018
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A bass driver on my Mission 752's was damaged recently, a kitten putting her claw through part of the rubber surround. On certain notes you could detect a vibrating type rasp. I know it's not the same scenario, but just in case it is of any assistance.

legzr1

3,843 posts

138 months

Thursday 15th February 2018
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B17NNS said:
Can you try the speakers with a different source? That way you can at least isolate which component has the issue.
Swapping speaker cables from left to right will rule in/out the speaker with the same sources.

OP, what speakers are they?

Crackie

6,386 posts

241 months

Thursday 15th February 2018
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OP....can you play sound from your PC / laptop / phone through your 'suspect' speaker?

If yes then you can use a sweep test to work out what is wrong. These YouTube links should work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNf9nzvnd1k

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnFX-68TINQ

Assuming the sweep highlights the problem then you can also download your own signal generator to play the specific frequencies where the problem happens. Just Google audio signal generator freeware...........there are loads to choose from.

Its not going to fix the problem for you but will identify what's wrong.

Good luck.


davek_964

Original Poster:

8,796 posts

174 months

Monday 19th February 2018
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Thanks for the suggestions.

To answer some questions, they are KEF Reference 201/2s.

I am 100% sure that the vibration noise comes from the main driver of the RH speaker (as I look at them). When I am playing something that causes the problem (watched a film at the weekend which had some piano music in it, and it was quite bad) it is easy to listen closely to the speakers to isolate it. However - I do have some other reasonable speakers as part of my surround setup (Monitor Audio GS10s) so will try putting them as the front left / right to be sure the problem disappears.

Dealer I bought them from has guessed it might be the drivers, and has quoted slightly under £300 or slightly under £200 depending on which it is. That wouldn't be too bad.

davek_964

Original Poster:

8,796 posts

174 months

Monday 19th February 2018
quotequote all
Well, the fix seems to have been surprisingly simple.

I swapped the suspect speaker with one of the GS10s and sure enough the problem disappeared.
Then I swapped the original speaker back, and the problem has not returned. The vibration noise was definitely coming from the main driver, and the speaker did seem to be properly mounted on the stand when I disconnected it. But I can only assume that there was something wrong with how it was seated on the stand which was causing the vibrations at some kind of resonant frequency.

What's really odd though is the difference it's made. Not only has the vibration disappeared, but the whole sound stage at the front is massively improved, which I don't understand at all. But not going to worry about that too much!