Busted: crossover or tweeter?

Since you didn't share what kind of speakers you have, I don't know anything about the crossover engineering of them either!


But the easy way to find out would be to swap the tweets. If the problem follows the driver, then it's the driver. If the problem stays in the cabinet, then it's the crossover.

Thanks AZ. It's the Paradigm Studio 100 v.3. With your understanding of crossover design/engineering, is it more likely a tweeter or xover problem?


I wanted to swap the tweeter as you suggested, but they can't be unscrewed with your standard screwdriver. It's looks like it needs the pentagonal screw head, which I don't have. Looks like I'll just take it back to the dealer and have them swap it out.

I repair speakers for a living. I have yet to see a tweeter that stops working in only part of it's frequency range. Typically they die outright (open voice coil), but sometimes they still work but with added distortion throughout the range. My money is on the crossover. Of course the best option is to swap tweeters, as the other poster mentioned, or to remove the suspect tweeter and test it independently, as well as inspect the suspect crossover.



Aaron Gilbert

It's probably the x-over.


But if it's not, I didn't say that.

Guys,


The feedback is much appreciated. Just got back from the dealer and it was the tweeter. I don't think they bothered to try and figure out what the exact problem was. Since it was under warranty, they just slapped in a new diaphragm and I was good to go.

Are you sure it worked normally above 4000Hz? I have never heard a tweeter lose just the bottom octaves and sound perfectly normal over the rest of it's range. But hey, if it works fine now, who am I to argue? Crossovers do tend to fail far less often the the drivers themselves. Did they inspect the crossover to make sure there was not a fault in it?


This is why over the phone/internet diagnosis is never ideal.



Aaron Gilbert

I busted a tweeter today on one of my Studio 60s. After a few searches, it appears that many people have blown tweeters on their Paradigm speakers. I wonder if there's a problem with Paradigm's tweeters.