Help with TC-50's

[tubeguy]

I recently noticed one of my TC-50 speakers was distorting at moderate volume.
The distortion appears to come from both the woofer and tweeter. The tweeter
(compared to the other channel) is dull and lacks any clarity. The woofer just
plain distorts when compared to the other channel.

I opened up the speaker and took a quick look at the cross-over. No signs
of an leaky electrolytic's. The woofer cone around the surround looks good.
The cone moves quietly and freely in and out. No visible damage.

Since I have not abused the speakers in any way, is it possible / likely that
this is a cross-over issue ? (bad cap)

How can I determine if this is the cross-over or the drivers ?

They are being driven by a 25 watt tube amp. The amp has been very
reliable. I hoping someone here has experienced a similar problem.

Any help or pointers would be much appreciated !

[speakerdoctor]

Have you done the requisite switching the speakers to be sure the problem is not one channel of the electronics?

[tubeguy]

Originally Posted by speakerdoctor

Have you done the requisite switching the speakers to be sure the problem is not one channel of the electronics?

Yes ( forgot to mention this )

I did switch l/r channels and the distortion stayed on with the same speaker
and so the amp/preamp can safely be ruled out.

[sreten]

Hi,

If its a speaker issue you can try swapping x/o's between the speakers
to see if its a x/o issue. If it is, all well and good, replace any dubious
components in both channels, as the working ones won't be far off
going compared to the ones that have gone if that is the case.

Sadly I suspect you have damaged drivers.

rgds, sreten.

[tubeguy]

Originally Posted by tubeguy

Yes ( forgot to mention this )

I did switch l/r channels and the distortion stayed on with the same speaker
and so the amp/preamp can safely be ruled out.

RESOLVED...

I realized immediately after posting this that I had swapped the preamp
inputs to the amp, not the speaker connects to the amp.

When I switched speaker connects it was obvious one channel of the
amp had a problem. A quick check of the output tubes in the R channel
and I could see one tube was running very cold. These tubes have about
40 hrs on them ( NOS Phillips EL34 ) and one of them went bad.

So, in the end it was a bad output tube and not the SPICA's at all.

[speakerdoctor]

Originally Posted by tubeguy

RESOLVED...

I realized immediately after posting this that I had swapped the preamp
inputs to the amp, not the speaker connects to the amp.

When I switched speaker connects it was obvious one channel of the
amp had a problem. A quick check of the output tubes in the R channel
and I could see one tube was running very cold. These tubes have about
40 hrs on them ( NOS Phillips EL34 ) and one of them went bad.

So, in the end it was a bad output tube and not the SPICA's at all.

Good going an chalk one up to the speakerdoctor.

Enjoy those TC-50's! Do you run a sub with them?

[tubeguy]

Originally Posted by speakerdoctor

Good going an chalk one up to the speakerdoctor.

Enjoy those TC-50's! Do you run a sub with them?

Yes I do... I'm using a Paradigm PDR-10 . I'm just happy it wasn't
the tc-50's given the difficulty in finding any replacement woofer.