Passive loudspeakers/monitors broken. Worth fixing?

condra

Heres an old pic of me and one of the speakers which I busted at a gig a couple of weeks ago.

As you can see, they're pretty big, but my mates amp still managed to bust them. Ahh well, I deserved it, I had the amp up to 11;)

I dont know much about them but I think they're about 150 watt.

In both speakers, the sound has gone "muffled". The bass response seems fine, but I think one or both of the tweeters may be fooked in each speaker.

Does anyone know exactly how I might fix them?

There is circuitry inside and I'm wondering if the damage is to that, or directly to the speaker coils. I'm replacing them with active monitors anyway, but it would be a nice project if they could be fixed, otherwise I'd sell them for parts but I'd rather not do that.

Thanks for any thoughts at all.

studiorat

Have a listen, put your hand in front of the tweeter and take it away again. If the sound doesn't change then it's broken.

Chances are the tweeters aren't fused so they are probably blown. If you like the monitors then I'd see no point in changing them. The problem now is trying to find replacement parts, looking at the picture they look kinda old so an exact replacement may be tricky. What make are they?

If you do get an exact replacement then fine, otherwise you are going to have to find a driver with the same impedance and frequency range, otherwise they will not match the crossover in the box. (the crossover will be passive BTW)

When you do get it sorted put 500 milli amp fuses into the tweeter circuit. This should blow before the tweeter the next time. We used to do it with NS-10's all the time.

You could also look at getting some stands or isolation pads for the speakers, this should help them to be a little more efficient.

Let me know how you get on.
Dave

condra

Dave thanks so much for your reply.

Yep, its the high tweeters on both speakers which are gone. The mids I'm a little unsure about, there is sound coming from them but I'm not sure if its perfect.

Before they bust, they sounded really good and didn't colour the sound much, and very loud too.

I dont know anything about the speakers really. They were given to me by a nice old man from Griffith Avenue. He said his son had built them years ago.

A dude on the Ableton forum saw the photograph and said he thinks they might be Whaferdale's, but I doubt that, considering the cabinet is made of chip-board.

I opened up one of them and there is not much labelling on any of the internals. The huge magnet on the bass driver has "HA5" printed on it. Here's some pics:







You can see some coils there on the circuit board, I always thought the coils were wrapped around the magnet on the driver. (?)

I have no idea where I would get drivers for a good price, maybe Blue Aran:
http://www.bluearan.co.uk/ (?) Is there a chance that the drivers are fine but the circuit board has the problem?

Considering I'm planning on getting active monitors anyway, I think I might just sell them for parts. I'm sure those big drivers would be usefull to someone, maybe the ready made cabinets too.

Thanks again.

studiorat

Plywood? Hmmm...
They look like an old pair of Warfdales though. Plywood was used for enclosures before MDF was used, problem with it is that is can have voids in the wood itself that can have resonances otherwise it's not that strange for speakers that old. The coils in on the crossover circuit board are inductors, they and the capacitors are what split the signal up and send it to the different drivers.
I still think it's the tweeters that are blown, though it's a bit odd that both are gone, maybe not!
I don't think they would be worth all that much to part out and sell though. I think it could be a plan to fix them up. They could be hard to beat cheap.
What kind of active monitors are you going for?

You didn't get that rig from us by any chance?
Dave
http://www.virtustudios.ie

condra

Ahhh great stuff. Thanks again for all the info. I'm getting to the bottom of this now!

I always thought they were home-made but thanks to some persistent googling, I came across this picture...



.. from this site:
http://www.wired4sound.net.au/speakers/wharfedale/wharfedale.htm

Further investigation came up with this:



and then finally, I came across a dude on last.fm who had this picture:


This is what was written beside the picture above:

The noisy stuff comes out my pair of Wharfedale Glendale 3XP speakers (c. 1970s?) which I found beside the recycling bins in Camden, London.

So they are Wharfedale Glendale 3XPs! Kool. I guess I'll be able to find out more about the tweeters with a little more digging.

I think now I'll have a look for some tweeters with a view to fixing them, and maybe just using them for personal listening in my bedroom, or perhaps as an A/B in studio if they sound good with the new tweeter.

If you have any ideas, do please let me know!

The monitors I have in mind are probably either Rubicons or KRKs from Thomann.

My set-up has changed since that photo was taken, but most of my stuff is second hand. Thats the first I've heard of virtustudios but I'll definatly check out the site tonight!

Thanks again for all the advice.

condra

Just found this picture:



Only 40 watts?:eek: No wonder I bust them!

condra

From this site:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Electronics-photography/Home-audio/Vintage/auction-130898224.htm
.. it said they are "Fuse protected". I wonder does that mean that a fuse on the circuit board could be the problem.

Anyway, the more I learn about these, the more I realise they aren't worth much more than sentimental value!

squibs

Different speakers methinks - the layout is similar, but the cab layout, the tweeters and the woofers look completely different.

condra

Are you talking about the pictures up top? They were just to reference what put me on to Wharfedales in the first place.

The speakers I have are almost definatly Wharfedale Glendales, as you can see from this site:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Electronics-photography/Home-audio/Speakers-and-stands/Floor-speakers/auction-133530630.htm

They look exactly the same as the black and white picture from the guy at last.fm and almost the same as those above, except for their lack of stuck on lino, but the exact same layout, shape etc.

studiorat

womoma wrote: »

From this site:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Electronics-photography/Home-audio/Vintage/auction-130898224.htm
.. it said they are "Fuse protected". I wonder does that mean that a fuse on the circuit board could be the problem.

Anyway, the more I learn about these, the more I realise they aren't worth much more than sentimental value!

I love 70's speakers the look of them and the sound of some of them. Old Tannoy Golds, Rogers LS, love it!!! I digress...
I dont see a fuse anywhere on the photos, they could of course be the drivers and crossovers put into a diy cabinet. Some one on cloney audio's site may want them!
Also I see that they are 6 ohm speakers, I wonder have you hurt the amp. As a rule for impedance low into high is ok but high into low may damage the amplifier.

As for the new monitors, I'd go for the KRK's. I find the Samson stuff a bit crap really. We will be auditioning some KRK's in the studio soon. PM me if you want to sit in.

Regards,
Dave

condra

studiorat wrote: »

I dont see a fuse anywhere on the photos, they could of course be the drivers and crossovers put into a diy cabinet. Some one on cloney audio's site may want them!

Cheers for the heads up on cloney audio! Looks like a place I might find a buyer.

Also I see that they are 6 ohm speakers, I wonder have you hurt the amp. As a rule for impedance low into high is ok but high into low may damage the amplifier.

My friend who owns the amp gave me a lend of some Sony passives and luckily the amp is sill working perfectly. The old speakers busting was a wake up call though, no more borrowed gear!

As for the new monitors, I'd go for the KRK's. I find the Samson stuff a bit crap really. We will be auditioning some KRK's in the studio soon. PM me if you want to sit in.

I'm swaying towards KRKs and have also been advised on them elsewhere. Even though I've read some great reviews about the Samson Rubicons, I've also read about some peoples tweeters busting on the Rubicons.
Thanks so much for the invite, but I've heard the KRKs (RP5) already and was quite impressed. I'd most likely go for the RP6.
They also look way cool

Thanks again Dave.

Dec