What's wrong with my speaker?

I know this is about 7 months old, but I'm having the same issue with an older baby grand, prior to the symphony edition. I know the problem, the rubber surround has come apart from the rubber cone. I just tried to re-glue using pliobond. Not sure if it will work or not. I have put the speakers away while grand kids are visiting and won't bring them back out until the end of the month. I would really like to replace the driver if anybody has figured out how to get one. If the pliobond doesn't hold, I may try the liquid nails.

Liquid nails

Hey oldhvymec,

I do the same thing to my subwoofers. Once a year when I change the filters in the furnace I rotate the drivers 180 degrees. When I built the enclosures I set in stainless T nuts for the driver bolts which are also stainless. I sprayed the heads satin black so they would match. They are also Torx bolts which I love. They do not cam out or strip. I doubt any of this would affect these small, light drivers. It is TOAST. Can it. Hopefully the company will send you a new one fast. This is always where the rubber hits the road, service. Let us know how they do.

Pressing on the driver can change the alignment while you press, and it can limit the travel.  You might actually try an ageing woofer trick. Put the speaker in upside down.  I have seen (i.e. heard) this realign a sagging suspension enough to cure the problem.

Either the voice coil is rubbing, or the speaker is traveling out of its intended  range of motion, or both  I once bught a set of B&W DM 14's which had tweeters substituted from a cheaper speaker.  They looked identical until I removed them. The popping and crackle at high volumes was because the cheaper speaker had a smaller voice coil and magnet, from a cheap B&W that cost a quarter of the DM14 price. You might be able to order a new driver, and on domes, replace only it, but you will not be able to straighten a bent (overheated) voice coil, unless you value your time at about a nickel an hour, or have a lot of experience, which practically no one does, because people value their time.

Blue Bird Music is the domestic distributer for Vienna Acoustics. Call them for advice and a repair option. That sounds like a repair not a replace.

http://www.bluebirdmusic.com/

Wonder if you could take it to a dealer and they could replace the driver or perhaps offer a solution.  Hope this problem does not happen to me.  This may be a difficult thing to repair during the Trump virus.  

Thanks for everyone’s input and advice. I rotated the driver, and it only improved the crackling only marginally if at all. It was worth a try, though.


@bigkidz does Miller Sound sell used Vienna Acoustics parts or is Bill Legall good at fixing these types of issues? I checked Miller Sound's website, and Vienna Acoustics is not on their list of brands that they service. Thanks for the input.

depending on the cost of a new driver contact Bill Legall at Miller Sound in PA for his advice.

There is an app for the phone that will measure decibels

almost certainly a broken voice coil assembly.  Replace.
Vienna drivers are costly!  But the speakers are great. I have Mahlers ....

I brought the nova 300 home for my beethovens and returned it. A used H160 would sound great and probably not cost too much used you lose the wireless streaming tho’.

I just looked at the pic. Could you reglue it?

I had a pair of Polk Audio towers years ago. I noticed the same thing and it was “fixed” basically the same way. In my case, the surround had essentially delaminated from the basket. New driver time for me. Try the rotation trick, but that driver is most likely toast.

You could try rotating the driver 90 degrees so that the problem area is at 12:00, and MAYBE gravity will help. If that doesn’t work, you could also try it with the problem area at 6:00. This is a long shot.

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I been rotating drivers for over 35 years but 180. A guy told me to do it every couple of years, and do a batting inspection on the drivers. His drivers were larger than most, but with care and rotation, 40+ year old drivers used all the time, are still sounding wonderful..

Check and make sure something behind them hasn’t come loose, like the batting membrane, or the securements coming loose.. Even floppin wires vibrate on the enclosure, drivers... LOOK..first

Happy hunting, hope it’s something simple like, SOMETHING simple.

Regards

@audiokinesis You're probably right about the overheating hypothesis. I think I may have damaged it via clipping. These are 4 ohm speakers, and I had been driving them with a Marantz PM7000. Marantz says to not drive speakers with impedances less than 8 ohms with the PM7000. I recently upgraded to a Peachtree Nova 300 which seems to be driving them better, although I think I like the sound quality of the class AB amplifier better than the class D which is the Nova.

You could try rotating the driver 90 degrees so that the problem area is at 12:00, and MAYBE gravity will help. If that doesn’t work, you could also try it with the problem area at 6:00. This is a long shot.

More than likely the voice coil is no longer perfectly round because heat has softened the glue, and then when it cooled down again, it had deformed a little. The deformed section is probably at the end closest to the dust cap, and on long excursions it rubs against the walls of the magnetic gap.

" I suppose a replacement purchase is in my future. " 

Probably so.

Duke

@steve59 I'm not exactly sure how loud. I don't have a decibel meter on hand. It's not enough to hurt the ears, but I tend to like my music a bit on the loud side. I do know that I do not experience the same thing on the other speaker, so it appears that the midrange composite on that one is definitely able to take the stress. I suppose a replacement purchase is in my future.

I measured the, ahem 7” woofers in my beethovens and I think actual cone size is 5.5”. I love them and will probably always have them but they aint head bangin speakers 

How loud? The beethovens with those smaller drivers in a small box will sound stressed above 96db

@kenjit No not at all. I was only hoping that it was a stabilization issue and not a problem with the driver itself. I've heard tell of people adding foam etc. It's most likely not a wiring issue. I've checked all directly connected to the driver itself. All seem solid. It appears that you're implying that the driver is completely damaged. If that is the case, I'll write to Vienna Acoustics requesting the purchase of a replacement.

If you are thinking of saving a bit of money by trying to repair it instead of replacing the driver you are mistaken.