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Blown speaker????

mariner

mariner

Feb 18, 2005
113
11
56
Front Royal, VA
#1
I have a BW 1502-4 and it sounds a bit messy. I'm trying to determine if it's the speaker or the head inside the combo.

Can anyone tell me if a speaker is blown even if it shows no signs of damage to any of the surfaces?

It looks to be in great shape....
 
#2
Outside appearance means nothing. A speaker is "blown" if its voice coil is fried or out of alignment, which constitutes most "blown" speaker situations. The cone does not have to be torn, and rarely is.

If it isn't working at all, or its buzzing, its most likely blown regardless of any viewable defect.
 
#5
matt_chew said:
The easiest way to tell is by pushing in the cone of the speaker *gently* and if you hear any kind of rubbing, your voice coils probably blown.
Click to expand...


check the speakers for Voice Coil Rub by placing clean,dry
hands at the 9 & 3 position and gently/evenly press the cone inward.
Listen and feel for rubbing (zipper like).
The cones should 'bounce' with no resistance whatsoever.
If there is a faint 'saw-like' sound, could be voice coil problem
 
#6
You guys are great!!!!

I pushed "gently" on the cone and felt resistance. I also looked in the back of the assembly and saw some huge dust bunnies floating around in there. I got adventurous and took the magnet/voice coil assembly off the basket and on the inner surface of the kevlar cone, yes kevlar, was a strip of tar like substance. I scraped it off and voila, sounds great and doesn't crack and distort anymore.

Whether I just prolonged it's life or truly fixed the problem has yet to be seen, but at least it works.

Now the only thing left is the annoying hum when I turn up my tone on my bass... Shielding and a re-wire should fix that, methinks...
 
#7
Hey all - I have the same problem as mariner had here. Except I know it is my speaker that is making a distorting noise. I pushed in the cone a little bit and there was resistance, and when I also did this... the buzzing stopped when I played and it sounded normal. But i had to push it in to a certain point. I can't keep holding the cone in of course when I play and its driving me mad! I have removed the screws and in spected the cone and insides for rips or tears and anything else that looked abnormal and didn't seem to see anything. But honestly, i don't even know what to look for.

I admit I am somewhat of a novice when it comes to looking for the specific problem... tweeters, cones, magnets, etc but I don't want to bring it in to a shop for a lookie see without being sure the speaker very well might be blown. So, does this sound like a blown speaker, tweeter, etc? Thanks!! :bassist:
 
#9
Jamus,

I PM'd you on this. Just be very careful and thoruogh in what you do. Don't be a beast with it. Remove any gunk you find in the cone with a straight blade. I wouldn't recommend any chemicals in there because I'm not sure what the reaction would be.

BTW, what kind of amp?
 

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