Tiny dent mark in tweeter? Lose sleep? Cry? Forget about it? (1 Viewer)

[Chris PC]

Hahah...ok, so I replaced the tweeter in my front right speaker and its fine and then I realized that my centre speakers tweeter was also blown, so off to PSB I go. Its less than 10 minutes my door to Lenbrooks door I was careful replacing the tweeter, but when I was going around tightening it up the last go around the screws, I slipped and the screw driver hit the face of the tweeter. At first I thought and I hoped that it only hit the plastic frame, but upon close inspection, I hit the face of the tweeter. The mark is a tiny line about 1 or 1 and 1/2 mm long and I'd be surprised if it was more than half a hairs width deep. Just wondering if I should care about it and do anything about it or leave it as is. PSB is pretty cool, and so if I went back and explained what happened, they may replace it. Anybody have any experience with minor tweeter cone marks or damage? I played the speaker and it sounds ok. My speakers are first generation PSB Image 6T towers, 9C centre and 2B surrounds.

Should I bother trying to have it replaced or what?

 

[Larry Fabbri]

A true purist would say replace it. You said it sounded fine, so I wouldn't worry about it. Then again, if it bugs you to leave it that way, get another tweeter, carefully replace it and keep the one you took out in a safe place in case you cook another one. On that note, if you are frying tweeters, there may be an underlying condition in your amplification. Make sure every thing is OK and you possibly may need more power. Blowing two tweeters seems unusual unless something is amiss.

 

[Chris PC]

Something was amiss. My speaker wiring was lose where the banana plugs and wires connected. Totally my fault and I'm going to re-do them all before using my receiver again.

 

[John Garcia]

Ignore. Shouldn't cause a noticable difference, as you've already mentioned. If knowing that it is there is the only thing that bothers you, I'd say put the $$ towards DVDs or something else in the system. If it isn't immediately audible, it isn't a problem.

I had a similar issue when I got my A/V-2s. I bought them used without the x-over upgrade, so I purchaced it and proceeded to pull the speaker apart. During the disassembly, one of the leads broke off of a tweeter!! I was able to carefully resolder it on and it sounded fine, but it was still only being held in place with a dab of solder. I decided to replace it, and ended up replacing the tweeters in both mains because they come from GR in matched pairs.

 

[ScottCHI]

well, how much do they cost? are they that expensive? audible or not, it'd probably bother the @$%* outta me if i had done that; especially with a replacement just 10 minutes away. the whole point was to get the speakers back to A1 condition and you flubbed that. so do it right. my $0.02.

 

[Chu Gai]

Dent the other tweeter.

 

[Chris PC]

Hahaha...those are funny responses. And good advice generally. I'm going to check and see if PSB will have mercy on me. They sell the parts for $60.00 out of warranty, so its not that huge of an expense, but perhaps they'll give me a break. I replaced it under warranty, and I'm still under warranty for another year.

BTW...its a centre speaker....hahaha...so I can't "dent the other tweeter"..unless you mean I dent all the other tweeters to match. Hmmmmm...nope, not gonna do that

 

[John Garcia]

Dent them ALL, it's free

Even MORE reason to just leave it... Steak dinner or tweeter, steak dinner or tweeter?

How bad is the dent? Is there actually a crease or is it just pushed in? If it's just pushed in, a little masking tape will fix that lickety split. If there's a crease, well it's a little reminder to you. Heck, maybe it will correct a response issue that you weren't even aware of and it will actually improve your sound

 

[ScottCHI]

yeah, doubtful it's audibly affected and on the center it would be hard to tell anyway, even if it was, as it has no "mate" on another speaker for comparison.

so it all comes down to how much it's going to bother you knowing that it's scratched like that.

 

[John Garcia]

The tell tale heart. The tweeter will make the sound of a beating heart until you go mad and replace it

 

[Chris PC]

You know, if I could post pics, I would. No word of a lie, the mark is so tiny its amazing I can even see it. I felt the screw driver bang against the plastic of the tweeter first and then I released pressure on my hand, but I still felt the screw driver flail like a murderous weapon of death about the face of the tweeter. I have tried to take a picture of it, but its so hard to photograph. It is literally about 1 & 1/2 mm long, maybe 2 mm long. And its about as wide as it is deep, which is maybe 1/10 of a mm. Hahaha. If I made a mark this small, I bet nobody could possibley hear the difference between this and another tweeter, at least no differences attributed to the mark.

I called PSB and they said they'd sell me a tweeter for less than the retail price, so I'll think about it. I don't think its worth bothering about, but then again, my only concern is whether the mark could tear in a few years time.

 

[Chu Gai]

Either John or I will dent them for $30 + shipping per tweeter. We don't want to take advantage.

 

[Chris PC]

You know, I think you are right. I don't want to risk denting them the wrong way. If you guys will provide the denting service at such a reasonable rate, I wonder what you charge for damaging other equipment? Do you offer package discounts? How much to take my tower speakers and drop them off a 12 story building onto a concrete sidewalk? Will you do two for the price of one?

 

[John Garcia]

Yes, package deals are very cheap. Shipping will cost you though. My company just closed our office in Toronto (Markham), so no free trips up there to render services, though I can still write it up as a business trip for my side business, which is HT

I can design a tool based on measurements from the original dent to recreate it exactly on all subsequent tweeters.

 

[ScottCHI]

i'll undercut john by 10%

 

[Kevin. W]

Take it back and tell them it was there and you noticed it on install.

 

[Marc LaPalme]

i garantee you a dust particle floating past the front of the speaker while watching a movie would make just as much difference.

the room is so full of reverberations and discrepencies that even my TWO dented tweeters... i still can't tell them apart.

(and my mine are far worst then yours. 3mm long and about .25 mm deep)

you'd have to be playing at reference level on a 120, 000 dollar system to tell a "perfect" tweeter and a slightly used tweeter.

even then...

so.


use it.

it now has character.

 

[Chris PC]

Character...I like that. Like a rough and tumble crash up derby car that out accelerates and out handles the porsche and ferrari....lol....

My main concern was that the impact to the face of the tweeter went beyond the surface of the aluminum dome driver and affected something that would alter the operation of the tweeter. Now when I look at the tweeter, I believe it is highly unlikely, since the mark is so small, the impact must also be small. I can test this by pushing the dome in gently on one of my burnt out tweeters ... and I just did. If I really had hit the surface hard, it would have left a much larger mark. I'm guessing the small mark I made is nothing.

Seriously, its not worth caring about. I'll leave it. If it dies, I'll take it back and hopefully they will forget I mentioned about the dent.

Anyways... :p