Old tweeter or old age

[mikec205]

I have a pair of Paradigm 9se speakers that are about 15 years old. They sound somewhat muffled unless I turn the treble up nearly all the way. Is it just me or is it possible for the tweeters to lose their sound quality?

[adason]

hi mikec205, it can be anything

first, when you put your ear very close to the tweeters, I suppose you can hear the sound....just to make sure that tweeters are not actually burned and what you hear is hights comming from the midrange when you boost it

it would be great to sort this first, even to measure resistance of tweeters if you have access inside

than once sure if tweeters are ok, brink another speakers, from a friend, and compare, if those are muffled, it might be an amplifier too, you never mentioned what electronics you use

it can be anything, even your hearing....just kidding

generally, tweeters should not go bad with age, I have some vintage tweeters that are older then yours and still sound great, but they can go bad by abuse, overheating, bad storage/moisture deformations....

[adason]

just in case you want to test your hearing, I use this cd
http://www.digital-recordings.com/audiocd/audio.html

[breez]

If everyday sounds and voices sound muffled through the speakers compared to real sounds, I'd say the fault is in the speakers. You could still have HF hearing loss, but that will affect how you hear all sounds.

[sreten]

Originally posted by mikec205

I have a pair of Paradigm 9se speakers that are about 15 years old.
They sound somewhat muffled unless I turn the treble up nearly all the way.
Is it just me or is it possible for the tweeters to lose their sound quality?

Hi,

Your hearing could be going, but every pair of speakers I have
come across with this problem have unfortunately turned out
to have blown tweeters (drunken party or something similar).

Treble turned nearly all the way up on most amplifiers (some
do have very limited ranges) should sound pretty dreadful.

It is possible something in the crossover has gone but this
is much rarer. Check your tweeters first, then the crossover.

/sreten.