DMC Time Windows 3 Intermittent Crackling


Hey Audiogon people,

I'm seeking advice on what to do with my DMC Time Windows 3 speakers. One of them will periodically crackle very severely near the top of the speaker, so presumably from the midrange baffle. This only happens about 10-20% of the time, but obviously makes music completely unlistenable. I've confirmed that the issue resides in the speaker itself, no other component and I'm not sure how to deal with it. Does anyone have any advice on where to go as far as servicing these speakers? I've looked online for a manual without any luck, but I'd like to take a crack at solving the problem if I can as I'm fairly short on cash right now and replacing them would be quite a burden.

Any advice appreciated!
guiriguiri

These are now getting very old, and the bass drivers are at the top. Because of their age now the bass cone suspension could very well be starting to sag and cause the voice coil scratch in the gap (it’s called polling).

They have 4 screws undo them and turn each bass driver 180 degrees and remount them, hopefully this will cure your problem.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v223/mhardy6647/timewindow.jpg

Cheers George

Thanks! I will definitely try that.

Any idea about taking the sock off? I found one post explaining that you could pop off the top, unscrew the bottom and then remove the sock on Time Windows 1, but not sure if that applies here.

Can’t remember back that far, but yes there was a trick to it, vaguley remember as a youngster, with your palm under the top cover and whacking it off, but don’t hold me to that. Maybe someone else here is old enough to remember.

But the sagging of bass drivers is common with old drivers, Kef B139, B1814, B300 etc etc.  


Cheers George

Well, that was quite the adventure. Accidentally broke a wire loose from the circuit board taking them apart (putting them back together really) and just had my first ever session of circuit board soldering. A success, fortunately. 

Now another question for anyone who might know: without the sock on, the speaker actually looks quite different from the one posted above and from all images I can find online. 

Please forgive my utter lack of appropriate terminology but mine don't have the same tweeter speakers (I assume that's what I see in the photos) right below the main drivers. Also, mine have 2 airholes (no idea what they're called) on the same side about a 1/3 of the way up as opposed to their being on both sides and lower down in the ones pictured online. 

Here's a picture of mine: http://s18.postimg.org/m3kh3wfo9/DMC_Time_Windows_3.jpg

I don't have any specific question. Just a little perplexed. Anyone have any thoughts?