What's that buzz, tell me what's a happening...


Playing Radio Head's "Pyramid Song" (a little loud but not even 10 watts) where Thom Yorke's eerie hum begins and one of my speakers starts to make a vibrating sound like a cheap old phonograph! I figure its inside the box, maybe behind the woofer. Almost sounds like a screw is loose and matching frequencies are causing it to vibrate and sing. This has never happened before!

"S**t" says I, and I start putting pressure on every screw head, binding post, sides of the cabinet etc to no avail. "S**t" says I again. I want to rip apart the woofer, get in there and hot glue everything. Probably not a good idea.

Ya think I can take the screws off the woofer or the binding post plastic housing thingee (or both) to take a peek? Is this a typical DIY thing to do? We're talking Totem Sttafs. What do you think could be loose in there? Or is it something more ominous...:-(
djh

Showing 1 response by reubent

Since you say the problem is in only in one speaker, I would first swap the speaker cable connection R->L, L->R, and see if the problem moves to the other speaker.

This will tell you a couple of things. First, it will confirm if the problem is just in the one suspected speaker. If you don't get the buzz with the cables swapped, you know the issue is/was in that suspected speaker. If the buzz does move to the other speaker, then the problem could be an issue with the design of that particular speaker model, or it could possibly be something in the chain before the signal reaches the speaker.

After the experiment, don't forget to swap the cables back to the original position and reconfirm that you still have the issue before you start "digging into" the speaker.

Anyway, it's free and it's easy to make the swap to insure the issue is really in that one speaker.

Enjoy,

TIC