speaker damage (1 Viewer)

[Joseph Anlacan]

hello. my 3 year-old daughter recently played with my B&W 302 which i use for my surrounds (it was not mounted during that time). she pressed on that round convex thing at the center. she did that to both the tweeter and woofer and now both drivers' middle part are depressed and concave. i haven't been able to try them yet. how would this affect the speaker's performance? and, any idea how much it would cost to have the speaker repaired?

 

[Aaron Gilbert]

How it affects the response, and possible methods of repair, will depend on the material used in the tweeter dome and woofer dust cap.

If the tweeter is a metal dome, it will likely require replacement. The dispersion will be affected, so the off-axis response (and probably on axis as well) will be different than your non-damaged speaker. If the tweeter is a soft dome type, there are several things you can try. First, I'd try some duct tape or masking tape stuck to the dome as best you can, and try to pull the dome back to it's normal shape. If that doesn't do it, some people have reported success using a vacuum cleaner to suck it back out. As a last resort, I myself use a needle or pin to poke through the center of the dome and pull it out.

For the woofer dustcap, the same situations apply. If it was a hard cap, you won't have much luck getting it back to it's normal shape. However, an inverted woofer dust cap in theory, should have less effect on the sound quality as compared to a completely dented in tweeter. You could always dent in the woofer dust cap on the other surround speaker.

Replacement loudspeaker drivers are typically quite expensive. In some cities, there are loudspeaker rebuilding companies which can often fix the damage to your drivers for a fraction of the new driver cost. In the case that all the above don't work for your speakers, such a company would likely take the tweeter dome and woofer dustcap completely off the speaker, and then reattach it.

You might ask your loudspeaker manufacturer if they can supply just the tweeter dome/voice coil assembly. Often they are user replaceable and much cheaper than a whole new tweeter. Manufacturers differ as to whether they will provide this to the end consumer.

Good luck!


Aaron Gilbert

 

[John Garcia]

Try the masking tape first, and it should work for just about any kind of dome. Stick the tape to another surface first, to make it a little less tacky - you don't want to leave any resisue on the dome or damage it further. Even a few slight creases in the tweeter will not destroy their functionality unless you are VERY picky. They are surrounds after all.

I would strongly advise against poking a pin through.

 

[Michael R Price]

It's not so expensive to replace drivers unless the manufacturer gouges the prices. It depends on the specific speaker but the drivers probably don't really cost more than $50 apiece.

Aaron gave good advice on how to fix the things, try that first.