Hi,
I finally put together my speaker. After all the hard work and burn marks (from the solder) and scratch marks from the cabinet I finished.
Unfortunately when I turned it on I can hear rattling from my woofer. I tightened the screws and its still there. I even took it out again and put it on the floor and played music. The rattling is still there. It is definetely the woofer and not the box. Ive worked so hard and its ruined by some annoying rattling
I'm not an expert on speakers, infact this is my first proper DIY. Does anyone know what could be causing the rattling?
Thanks in advance.
I finally put together my speaker. After all the hard work and burn marks (from the solder) and scratch marks from the cabinet I finished.
Unfortunately when I turned it on I can hear rattling from my woofer. I tightened the screws and its still there. I even took it out again and put it on the floor and played music. The rattling is still there. It is definetely the woofer and not the box. Ive worked so hard and its ruined by some annoying rattling
I'm not an expert on speakers, infact this is my first proper DIY. Does anyone know what could be causing the rattling?
Thanks in advance.
Driver troubleshooting
Can you describe the type of sound it is making?
How loud is the music you are playing?
The bass content, if it is too high will 'bang' the cone at its limits badly if it is out of the enclosure. If it makes a "scraping" sound at low volumes the coil inside is misaligned and therre is not much you can do for it. With the music 'off' manually gently push the cone to see if it makes the suspect scraping sound. This 'procedure will bring up the "scrape" sound easily. Check for any visible detached components of the speaker itself. Sometimes the braided leads going from the terminal to the cone itself can be rattling by themselves (touching other areas its' not suppose to)
Run music thru it, pick it up, watch the braided leads move try to localize the suspect sound.
Can you describe the type of sound it is making?
How loud is the music you are playing?
The bass content, if it is too high will 'bang' the cone at its limits badly if it is out of the enclosure. If it makes a "scraping" sound at low volumes the coil inside is misaligned and therre is not much you can do for it. With the music 'off' manually gently push the cone to see if it makes the suspect scraping sound. This 'procedure will bring up the "scrape" sound easily. Check for any visible detached components of the speaker itself. Sometimes the braided leads going from the terminal to the cone itself can be rattling by themselves (touching other areas its' not suppose to)
Run music thru it, pick it up, watch the braided leads move try to localize the suspect sound.
Thanks richard for the quick response.
The rattling sound it makes is the same as the sound you hear when a strip paper vibrates really fast. Does that make sense? It's the only description I can think of.
I am not playing my music very loud. It happens when I play it quietly or when I play it loudly. It just becomes more obvious when I play louder. It happens on piano traacks, rock, electronic etc.
I cant see anything on the outside (eg the leads) rattling against something when I play.
When i push the speaker with my fingers I do indeed hear a scrape sound So that means its a misaligned driver? The scraping sound doesnt sound the same as the rattling/vibration sound though, but maybe cos I cant move it as fast as when it plays music.
If the scraping is the issue does that mean its defective and Sea's will take it back?
Thanks again.
The rattling sound it makes is the same as the sound you hear when a strip paper vibrates really fast. Does that make sense? It's the only description I can think of.
I am not playing my music very loud. It happens when I play it quietly or when I play it loudly. It just becomes more obvious when I play louder. It happens on piano traacks, rock, electronic etc.
I cant see anything on the outside (eg the leads) rattling against something when I play.
When i push the speaker with my fingers I do indeed hear a scrape sound
So that means its a misaligned driver? The scraping sound doesnt sound the same as the rattling/vibration sound though, but maybe cos I cant move it as fast as when it plays music.If the scraping is the issue does that mean its defective and Sea's will take it back?
Thanks again.
Afraid I havent. I just bought 1 because its my first time and its quite expensive so I wanted to make sure I got 1 speaker right before I made the 2nd.
Thank you very much for your help, I'll see if I can get it taken back and replaced.
Shame, ive only had it 2 weeks, and ive only been using it 1 day Just my luck....
Thank you very much for your help, I'll see if I can get it taken back and replaced.
Shame, ive only had it 2 weeks, and ive only been using it 1 day
Just my luck....I wouldn't rely on testing by pushing cone. you hear rubbing coil because you can't push it linearly. especially in high quality motor like seas, where coil is very close to the pole.
It may have partly detached cone from surround or detached spider.
impedance measurements will show the problem with driver also.
It may have partly detached cone from surround or detached spider.
impedance measurements will show the problem with driver also.
True..What I was hoping for was 'psy' would indeed push it in gently and straight...Its' kinda a trade-off, tight tolerences on coil to pole , better performance vs. possible failures (Out of Spec).
Perhaps on "musical/Guitar" drivers they open up these tolerences........I got the impression our guy doesn't have any test gear to spec out the driver.
______________________________________Rick.........
Perhaps on "musical/Guitar" drivers they open up these tolerences........I got the impression our guy doesn't have any test gear to spec out the driver.
______________________________________Rick.........
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.
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.
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.
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 said:
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 said: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
I have a rattly woofer too - except its both speakers - left and right.
Worse yet, they started rattling after I ran em on my onkyo TX SR 606 that I was doing light cleaning to after just getting it.
They didn't rattle before, I ran the speakers on my TAS5630 based kit amp for days.
They rattle afterwards regardless of the amp they are run on.
Can a receiver damage a speaker permanently ... yes it can, via a bunch of DC, but that I thought will just kill it ...
Cool.
Srinath.
Worse yet, they started rattling after I ran em on my onkyo TX SR 606 that I was doing light cleaning to after just getting it.
They didn't rattle before, I ran the speakers on my TAS5630 based kit amp for days.
They rattle afterwards regardless of the amp they are run on.
Can a receiver damage a speaker permanently ... yes it can, via a bunch of DC, but that I thought will just kill it ...
Cool.
Srinath.
If what was scraping was a piece of dripping glue, it probably has been ground to fine dust and won't be a problem in the future.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
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