Audiophiles - help needed.

[Matt H]

I have a really old Hitachi reciever and speakers that previously had a really nice sound. I had a party the other night and some muppet kept turning it up to max volume with his iphone plugged in and now one of the speakers is fucked. I can't see any external damage on the speaker cone but it's distorting horribly with any kind of bass-heavy music. Is there any hope of repairing it myself or is it a writeoff?

 

[The_NUT]

Hey mate what sort of a set up is it? Sounds like you may have blown crossover in the amp.

 

[Matt H]

EDIT: never mind that, I don't know what I'm talking about haha.

How do I test for that?

 

[Dales Cannon]

Probably blown voice coil in the speaker. iThings are notorious for lousy waveforms that kill speakers. #2 son killed two voice coils in my Linn Kanns so now he doesn't get to play with them anymore. Doubt you can repair it yourself. You will need a replacement voice coil that matches the existing speaker. Better to google speaker repairs and ask whether it is repairable. Probably cheaper to get new (2nd hand maybe) speakers.

Since you are in Brisbane get the speaker brand and model number and email Steve at Qld Speaker Repairs. He may even have some cheap and or decent used speakers to replace them. To test for an amp problem swap the speakers over. The bad speaker will be the same channel if it is amp, other channel if it is speaker (that is same speaker as before.

 

[Matt H]

Cheers for the help Dales Cannon, much appreciated. It's definitely a speaker problem, swapping them over was the first thing I tried.

I'll send an email to that bloke and see what happens.

 

[mr_casual]

i had an old rotel amp, and one channel kept fading after the amp being used moderately for around 15 minutes, im assuming the heat got to it, and now, she gone completely.

also have a new sony reciever, 6 channels, partied that one too, and now it displays "PROTECT" and doesnt work, gay as aids.

if i where you id take the speaker appart(driver off) and have a look around in there, i had a crossover fall apart on me that was inside my dual12" sub, but hey, there was a fair old bit of vibration going on in there no doubt. good luck!

 

[fairy1]

I have a really old Hitachi reciever and speakers that previously had a really nice sound. I had a party the other night and some muppet kept turning it up to max volume with his iphone plugged in and now one of the speakers is fucked. I can't see any external damage on the speaker cone but it's distorting horribly with any kind of bass-heavy music. Is there any hope of repairing it myself or is it a writeoff?

As suggested rip the speaker out and giv it a good looking over, there is a small chance the spider(the ribbed fabric thing) has come unglued. Get your fingers under both side of the cone and push it outwards, if the fabric stays still and the cone moves it will have broken the bond at the centre(voice coil), if the fabric lifts around the outside when you push the cone out you'll see that easily and can glue it back down.

Most likely it will be voice coil damage as others have stated.

also have a new sony reciever, 6 channels, partied that one too, and now it displays "PROTECT" and doesnt work, gay as aids.

This may be a little dooverlacker in the transformer called a thermistor, it burns out to stop major damage, they cost about 50c. However it is a Sony so there's a good chance it was shit from day one, sorry I really hate Sony stuff.

EDIT- You don't really want audiophile either, they are just a bunch of tossers without qualifications who seek a fancy title, a normal eleco will be much more helpful.