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Girl diagnoses & solves mechanical problem

This may not be news for most of you, but it is a major news flash for me and I just had to brag at my "prowess." I EVEN USED A TORX SCREWDRIVER! I just received my Coincident Triumph Signatures yesterday and was setting them up in my small HT system. I was playing FM radio through them and they sounded OK. I went to work. Last night, I put on a couple of CDs and there was no sparkle or splash, no snap of the electric guitar notes, etc. I put my ear right up next to the tweeters and could swear there was no sound coming out of them. But this was the case w/both speakers! So I couldn't believe I was hearing right, because how could both tweeters have been blown before delivery (I bought from a reputable dealer whom I have dealt with before) or damaged during shipping? I decided to sleep on it (the problem, not the speakers). This morning, before work, I brought my ProAc Response 1SC's up from downstairs, and the guitar notes etc. all sounded right. Something was definitely wrong! I noticed some foam in the port holes in the back of the Coincidents. I tried to pull it out but it was more than just a plug and wouldn't come free. So I went downstairs to my toolbox, got out the torx wrench set my handyman brother had bought me years ago, and got the tweeter fittings unscrewed. I removed them gently (the magnets fell out into my hand) and saw immediately that the tweeters weren't even plugged in!! I reattached the lead wires to the tweeters, in both speakers, and rescrewed in the tweeter housings, and the speakers came to life (DUH!) I am sure this is not newsworthy for most of you, but if there are any other females reading this, you know how impressed I am w/myself. I can well imagine my very nonaudiophile friends and relatives, male and female, happily using these speakers for years w/no tweeters and not even noticing. Or me, several years ago, returning the speakers as damaged. i am so puffed up w/pride in myself that I am even thinking of attempting one of the DIY SET amp kits that are available. I have been eager to try out an SET and maybe I am up to soldering? Of course, I don't want to go overboard. . .
sc53

Showing 6 responses by sc53

sc53 OP
718 posts
 
Hey Suzy, it was a TORX screwdriver.
sc53 OP
718 posts
 
Thank you, guys, I'm taking my bows for my "skill." I talked to my dealer, and the story is this: the guy who ships gear for him decided the Coincidents, which are grill-less, could suffer tweeter damage in shipping, so he got halfway through his idea of removing the tweeters and wrapping them separately in bubble-wrap, when he was interrupted. Unfortunately, he forgot all about his project when he later returned to it. So he screwed the tweeters back in, forgetting that he had previously unplugged them. Then he just wrapped the speakers and shipped them and never said a word to anybody! Dealer was mortified, but Israel needn't be. No doubt he heard what he was supposed to hear! Anyway, they sure do sound a LOT better w/the tweeters. I remember reading a thread about one-driver speakers recently. I trust they have more highs than my modified model?
And thank you, thank you, for your applause. Plus your soldering stories are hilarious! I personally never went to a school that offered it for credit (I attended an all-women's college in Virginia; we didn't solder.)
Sugarbrie--despite my newfound confidence, I don't think I'm ready to take on auto mechanics yet. We didn't have that at my college either.
--Sarah
sc53 OP
718 posts
 
Mr Prince--yes, there were (thankfully) +'s and -'s on the tweeter magnet, and the little lead wires were red and black! Couldn't have been simpler. The women's college was Sweet Briar! it is near but certainly not IN the town pronounced locally as "Byooney Vister." I purchased my first stereo rig in '73 while a sophomore there. Pioneer receiver, Garrard turntable, AR bookshelf speakers. My rig was BIG TIME for those days, and that setting. My room was used for all the parties, we even put my speakers facing out the window to blare out into the quad on lovely late afternoons (I remember in particular broadcasting Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side one afternoon, blew some people's minds).
sc53 OP
718 posts
 
Hey, this thread is getting more and more interesting! Mezmo, you were insane in your college days. Throwing a couch out a 5th floor window! What city were you in? It must have been long before they started cracking down on college shenanigans. By the way, when I lived in NYC, I once heaved a broken small yellow plastic desk lamp out my 17th floor window. It had a saucer shaped top. A tree on the ground floor speared it on the way down, and it rested outside the window of a friend on the 3rd floor for about 5 years. She told me years later that she just woke up one morning and saw a yellow sun disc outside her window and took it as a good omen.
sc53 OP
718 posts
 
Wow, I'm glad this thread flushed some fellow females out of the woodwork! Hello, ladies, glad to meet you. No one would ever accuse me of being the "helpless female," believe me. The thrill of actually being able to figure out what was wrong and have and use the tools to fix it was what made me launch this thread, really for pats on the back! Which I received, and am well satisfied. I was very pleased w/myself a few years ago when I figured out how to connect the cable box, VCR, DVD player, LD player and TV all together w/a processor and amp myself. You know, you don't have to be female to find these things confusing. I am far more mechanical and logical than my best male friend, Raphael (who won't even drive if it's raining outside). But less so than my female friend Linda, who does tiling, roofing, boat-building, and landscaping projects totally on her own because she "doesn't want to spend the money." Suzy and Angela, I'm glad of some female company on this site, hope to hear from you again. And guys, I loved all your stories of college antics and soldering non-expertise. This hobby is great!
sc53 OP
718 posts
 
All right, if Suzy found this thread "disturbing" before, what on earth is she thinking now!!?
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