How can I tell if I blew a tweeter (1 Viewer)

[JoeyR]

I was programming my 1014 remote, I know this sounds crazy but I heard a loud pop, couldnt tell if something hit the side of my house or if it came from my right side surround, any suggestions?

 

[John Garcia]

If you don't hear anything coming out of it, its blown.

 

[JoeyR]

John I cant really tell if anything is coming out of any of the tweeters over the sound coming out the woofers.

 

[Mark--M]

Thats not exactly true. If you dont hear anything from the tweeter you have a problem, doesnt necasarily mean its blown. Could be a wire popped off the back or a problem in the crossover.

Put your ear directly in front of the tweeter while at a low volume and you should defenatly hear it. If not, pull the tweeter from the speaker and connect it directly to the reciever (dont crank it) and see if theres any sound. If theres still no sound then its toast, if there is theres a problem somewhere else in the speaker.

 

[Dick Boneske]

DON'T connect the tweeter to a receiver directly, even at low volume!! The foolproof way to check any speaker is to us a 1.5 volt battery (D, C, or AA) size. Get two wires about three feet long with alligator clips to attach to the speaker terminals. Momentarily touch the other end of the leads to the battery + and - terminals while you listen for a "pop" or "click" from the speaker. You can also clip the leads to the speaker cabinet terminals while listening to each driver in turn to see that it produces sound.

This method is also useful to confirm that all drivers are in phase. At the moment the battery is connected, the cone will move in or out, depending on polarity. Be sure that woofer, midrange, and tweeter all move the same direction. Some tweeters are difficult or impossible to determine phase this way, but most can be seen to move.

White noise, the hiss between FM stations, is also useful in determining if all drivers are working. It contains frequencies from the very low bass to extremely high treble. Most receivers allow disabling the muting function so you can do this.

Good Luck!!

 

[Chu Gai]

Usually they'll be having a cigarette and a smile on their face

 

[Mark--M]

Either method will work fine without damage. To be honest the tweeter will likely see more current with the AA battery then a reciever at a low level.

 

[John Garcia]

Put your hand over the tweeter with your ear near it (at a low level, as Mark suggests), then remove your hand. If you cannot hear a difference, the tweeter isn't functioning. It is highly unlikely that a wire popped off inside, though the x-over could be damaged. I've never had that happen in home gear (wire popping off), though it is more common in car audio. Frying tweeters does not always involve a "pop", so you may not hear the moment that the tweeter or x-over fails, it just won't be playing any longer.

If the speaker sounds "normal" compared to the other side when you play something familiar, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

 

[BillyHC]

you could probably try receiver test tones at a very low volume also.

anyway, tweeters hit the side of my house all the time. and they like hopping around on my roof.

 

[Greg_R]

Why all the fancy solutions? Just twist the balance knob on your receiver (or disconnect the other channel). Play a sine sweep and you'll know...

 

[John Garcia]

Got a sine sweep handy?

 

[Chu Gai]

http://members.tripod.com/nanhifi/tools.htm

 

[trey-m]

Just play some '80s music. There won't be much bass. If you can't hear the difference between the two speakers, you're fine.

 

[Dan Lindley]

I once 'blew' my tweeters, but it was only a fuse. Make sure you check your speakers' fuses. Big relief if that's the trick!

Dan

 

[JoeyR]

Thanks for all the help havent had time to check it out, Im partially deaf in my right ear so I guess its no big deal, its just the principle of a messed up speaker in my system.

 

[brentl]

Most speakers don't use fuses anymore.

Brent

 

[John Garcia]

I haven't seen a speaker that had an actual fuse in it since the 70s, maybe early 80s. There are self-resetting fused crossovers, but generally these sort of components are something you don't really want in your x-over circuitry.

 

[Chu Gai]

But not such a bad idea to put one inline if you've got kids that just might want to play with dad's system while he's away.

 

[Alan Pummill]

Some Magnepan speakers have fuses.

 

[John Kotches]

Alternatively, one could use a disc with something like a treble decade and use that to test to see if the tweeter has failed.

Connect directly to the tweeter at low volume and see what the output is.

If nothing, you've lost the tweeter.

Cheers,