Hello everyone
My father gave me a pair of B&W P-4s a few years ago. They have been great to me until recently the tweeter stopped working in one of the speakers. I am somewhat tech-savvy (I mainly work on cars) so I opened up the back and used a multi meter to narrow the problem to a faulty capacitor. I was reading a previous thread about replacing the capacitors and I really don't know what to do here. Order a replacement or upgrade to increase my sound quality?
The capacitor reads:
BENNIC
Bi-Polar
10 MFD
70 WV
I appreciate any help. Thank you.
My father gave me a pair of B&W P-4s a few years ago. They have been great to me until recently the tweeter stopped working in one of the speakers. I am somewhat tech-savvy (I mainly work on cars) so I opened up the back and used a multi meter to narrow the problem to a faulty capacitor. I was reading a previous thread about replacing the capacitors and I really don't know what to do here. Order a replacement or upgrade to increase my sound quality?
The capacitor reads:
BENNIC
Bi-Polar
10 MFD
70 WV
I appreciate any help. Thank you.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I thought I had it narrowed down to a capacitor based on continuity but I noticed that the other capacitor doesn't have continuity either and that speaker works...
There is NOT continuity between the terminals and the wire that goes to the speaker though. The red one to be specific. So it is something in this board. Any ideas here?
I don't think the issue lies in the tweeter. I don't have continuity between the terminals and the speaker wire for the bad tweeter but I DO have continuity for the rest of them. See this pic. The problem has to lie somewhere on the board.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
The capacitor is likely to be in series with the positive tweeter wire,Normally you won't have continuity there because capacitors do not have continuity between the leads (at DC anyway).
The caps are probably okay,but it couldn't hurt to replace them with some film caps or something,as Dave mentioned.
Test the tweeter voice coil with your DMM,and make sure it isn't an open circuit,if it is,it's toasted.
The caps are probably okay,but it couldn't hurt to replace them with some film caps or something,as Dave mentioned.
Test the tweeter voice coil with your DMM,and make sure it isn't an open circuit,if it is,it's toasted.
Did the test. Looks like I have a bad tweeter
So how should I go about finding one and replacing it? I haven't torn into a $300 speaker before and I'm a little nervous about this.
Its a B&W speaker so B&W service department will be able to help you. As you're in USA, try their North Reading MA service centre first, they might be able to help. If not, you'll need to get it shipped from UK. From what I recall, P4's use a neodymium magnet design, fairly compact and lightweight. So it shouldn't be too costly to ship.
it seems the tweeter is possibly glued in place. is there any suggestions on how to get it out without damaging the wood?
I got it out. It is definitely the culprit and it is 1.5" in diameter and .5" deep.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Replacing the voice coil assembly aka diaphragm (and possibly topping up any ferro fluid) will fix a blown tweeter.
Perhaps if you ask here and also in the marketplace section of the forums someone can point you toward a pair, now that you have a part number. (A bonafide audiophile does everything in matched pairs.)
Perhaps if you ask here and also in the marketplace section of the forums someone can point you toward a pair, now that you have a part number. (A bonafide audiophile does everything in matched pairs.)
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