Why is my woofer rattling?

[psyphre]

Hi, Ive got something strange to tell you guys.
I took it out of the box and left it on my desk during the day. Since ive been at my desk most of the day on the computer from time to time i would push the cone down. I dont know why... maybe I kept hoping the next time i pushed it would no longer scrape. What mister twister says makes sense, but i laid it flat on the desk to help reduce the likelyhood of me pushing at an angle.

Anyway about an hour ago for some reason i just decided to keep pushing it in and out in and out in and out for 10 minutes. Guess what? It dissapeared! It suddenly went silent.
So i hooked it back up and voila! It works!

Now im trying not to get over excited, sometimes im sure i hear 1/2 a second of rattle occasionally. Although I believe this is me being paranoid rather than the sound actually being there. I will keep listening to it for a few days to see if it returns.

What do you think the cause was then? I doubt my persistent pushing re-aligned it.

[Cal Weldon]

Poor packaging. I had that happen once. I was ready to post the story but decided to delete it this morning because I didn't want to give you false hope. Sometimes the cone is being pushed enough to throw off the coil alignment but will settle down if you leave it for a while.

I had taken mine to CSS here in Canada asking for an explanation and by the time I drove out there, the cone had realigned and I've not had any troubles since. Now I'm kinda sorry I didn't give you that ray of hope or you might have sent it back only to have them say it's OK.

[psyphre]

Thats an interesting explanation Cal. I've had these out of the packaging for 2 weeks, but only just managed to connect it up yesterday. How long did yours take to settle down?

[Cal Weldon]

It only took about 1 day. The previous day it was scraping and by the time I made it up to CSS, no scraping. I felt a little embarrassed but hey what can you do? A half hour drive is better than a warranty claim.

[SpeakerScott]

Originally posted by psyphre

What do you think the cause was then? I doubt my persistent pushing re-aligned it.

I doubt it. I think the far more likely answer is that a piece of debris, sawdust, packing material, dirt, wire...something got into the driver around the phase plug or below the spider which is vented on that woofer. Exercising it with the woofer facing up allowed the debris to fall to the bottom of the gap...where, unless it is shook back into the gap it will stay.

Scott

[psyphre]

That makes sense. Im glad its fine now, saves me the hassle of returning!
But now im always worried it may get shook back everytime I use my speakers

Thanks everyone for the help.

[SpeakerScott]

Originally posted by psyphre
That makes sense. Im glad its fine now, saves me the hassle of returning!
But now im always worried it may get shook back everytime I use my speakers

Thanks everyone for the help.

Do you have a compressor? If you do, I would suggest putting low pressure forced air into the gap, you *might* be able to blow it out. It might be worth a try... make sure you have an oil and water filter inline to reduce the risk of contaminating the voice coil assembly with sticky stuff...

Scott