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how resilient are speakers? (1 Viewer)

Rob Michaw

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May 2, 2000
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I have a pair of JM Lab Cobalt 816 S, and last night my wife opened a basement door (hollow door not weighing much) and it swung open and banged into my speaker. It didn't hit the grill, nor did it damage the outside of the speaker. It just gave it a moderate 'whack'...not unlike rapping your knuckles hard on the side of speaker. I seriously doubt that anything negative happened, but how would you know if something shook up inside? On that note, how much abuse can a speaker of this nature handle before it is too much abuse? I ask, as I have a 3 month old son, and I wonder about what he might end up doing to my speakers in the future.

Thanks.
 

Brian Bunge

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Sep 11, 2000
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If it didn't leave any type of ding on the cabinet and didn't knock it on the floor you should be fine. Most kids like to stick their fingers in the dust caps of the drivers or punch in the tweeters so that's the only real thing I'd worry about from your son once he's walking. He could also pull it over on himself when he gets to the age where he's starting to pull up and walk.

I imagine you're speaker is just fine right now though. Everything inside should be tied down pretty well one way or the other.
 

RobCar

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Nov 27, 2002
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Most speakers can take a pretty good beating. Consider, for instance, that most come with 5-year warrantys. That certainly says something. And when I think of the abuse mine were subjected to in college, well, it's a wonder they worked at all after that. But they did, and they sounded great right up until the day I gave them away.
 

Danny Tse

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Nov 1, 2000
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Just consider all the knocks and hits speakers take (even inside their sealed boxes with the packing materials) during transit from factory to dealer. I think your speakers are fine.
 

Mike_J_D

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Mar 3, 2003
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213
Yeah they are just fine. I dropped an old pr of Klipsch KG3.5 on concrete. And it worked just fine after. Actually four yrs later they still work fine. A buddy of mine has them.
 

Chris Tsutsui

Screenwriter
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Feb 1, 2002
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I'm thinking that the abuse the speaker puts on itself, (from the sound vibrations and transients) could be worse than a door hitting it.

That does remind me of some the things that have gone wrong when tipping speakers over/knocking them:

Cone on the driver gets misaligned and starts to rub. (had to buy replacement driver)

Soldered or connector becomes undone and sound starts to come and go. (Had to resolder a component I didn't do a good job with)

Cracked the base of a subwoofer. (used glue and clamp to fix)

Then another thing that may have happened could be the driver gets loose so you just re-tighten it.
 

Jack Briggs

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Jun 3, 1999
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I certainly hope no one reading this takes it as a license to handle one's speakers roughly.

If properly cared for, a well-designed speaker system should last for decades. But, then, one could say the same thing about well-designed amplifiers, preamplifiers, and receivers.

They can be fragile, however. In the days when vinyl LPs ruled, it was not unheard of for careless owners to blow out cone or dome tweeters by dropping the phono stylus onto the LP with the volume levels still set high.

White noise run at too high a level can also fry tweeters.

Just treat the speakers nicely and they should last.
 

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