Man, that's weak as f! how can they be making drivers for so long, and still using such crappy glues? Did you get any pics?
Seriously, they're in Denmark. They could hardly be blamed for not understanding climate in regions like northern Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, and other tropical places etc.
I'm sure you don't have this problem if you live in anywhere in Copenhagen, London, Perth, London, Vancouver...but north WA, QLD or NT, or Melbourne, Florida USA that's a different matter.
My Weber Q iron hot plate rusted and grew mold after my move of 20 degrees latitude from Perth to Darwin...
I'm sure you don't have this problem if you live in anywhere in Copenhagen, London, Perth, London, Vancouver...but north WA, QLD or NT, or Melbourne, Florida USA that's a different matter.
My Weber Q iron hot plate rusted and grew mold after my move of 20 degrees latitude from Perth to Darwin...
Hi.
I had the same problem with my Zaph ZRTs
I stripped the cones off my revelators (the rubber comes off the basket pretty easily, the mid cone support is a latex glue - trim gently with a scapel and prise off) and cut the VC feeds and pulled them back and unwound them from the VC to provide workable length off copper.
I penetrated the mid cone support (looks like a yellow fibreglass weave) with a sharp needle scribe and threaded the new copper feeds through ready to be targeted towards the speaker terminals.
Then I soldered them to overlength solder wick (as surrogates for sexy silver tinsel wire) after gently priming them for soldering with tiny tabs of wet and dry. I didn't overdo it.
I wound the VC leads around the solder wick and trimmed the excess (wick and VC= voice coil) and then applied LIBERAL COATING OF GOOD SOLDER FLUX before stabilising the wick with solder jaw tower.
I anchored the VC leads above and below the mid cone support with a gently applied deposit from a glue gun.
Then I glued everything (the rubber trim and mid cone support) with Dynagrip Weather Strip & Trim Adhesive (I'm in Australia and I tested this against Kwip Grip standard contact adhesive and there's more rubber and work time in the Dynagrip product) as I injected a 50Hz tone into the driver from my phone to confirm centricity.
Scanspeak suck.
The powdery fault in the solder failure betrays fkd workmanship.
I have 2 dead revelators on the mantle piece.
Now I'm looking to build a 3 way that can fk my heaf but I need to inspect the drivers first hand first. Cheers from Oz.
I had the same problem with my Zaph ZRTs
I stripped the cones off my revelators (the rubber comes off the basket pretty easily, the mid cone support is a latex glue - trim gently with a scapel and prise off) and cut the VC feeds and pulled them back and unwound them from the VC to provide workable length off copper.
I penetrated the mid cone support (looks like a yellow fibreglass weave) with a sharp needle scribe and threaded the new copper feeds through ready to be targeted towards the speaker terminals.
Then I soldered them to overlength solder wick (as surrogates for sexy silver tinsel wire) after gently priming them for soldering with tiny tabs of wet and dry. I didn't overdo it.
I wound the VC leads around the solder wick and trimmed the excess (wick and VC= voice coil) and then applied LIBERAL COATING OF GOOD SOLDER FLUX before stabilising the wick with solder jaw tower.
I anchored the VC leads above and below the mid cone support with a gently applied deposit from a glue gun.
Then I glued everything (the rubber trim and mid cone support) with Dynagrip Weather Strip & Trim Adhesive (I'm in Australia and I tested this against Kwip Grip standard contact adhesive and there's more rubber and work time in the Dynagrip product) as I injected a 50Hz tone into the driver from my phone to confirm centricity.
Scanspeak suck.
The powdery fault in the solder failure betrays fkd workmanship.
I have 2 dead revelators on the mantle piece.
Now I'm looking to build a 3 way that can fk my heaf but I need to inspect the drivers first hand first. Cheers from Oz.
There are some potential reasons for the issue mentioned with Scanspeak and other brand drivers.
Some of the SS drivers with cu/alu clad (copper plated aluminum) VC windings had the tendency to fail at the lead wire junction due to the aluminum wire core not bonding with the solder joint. While the benefits of cu/alu clad wire is weight savings, working with this wire is tricky when it comes to forming a reliable bond with other metals, including pure copper. The problem gets worse when alot of current needs to flow. This wire also tends to create a galvanic reaction with the chemical breakdown products of some adhesives along with surrounding atmospheric moisture. Some contact adhesives become acidic when they break down over time. This doesn't help when its applied directly to hold down VC wire junctions. Some Japanese manufactured circuit boards had corrosion problems in areas covered with deteriorated contact adhesives, so its a well known problem by now.
Scanspeak has had VC connection issues for a long time and some of the Vifa stuff was also affected, mostly the drivers with cu/alu clad VC wire. Almost all of the tweeters use this wire, but they usually dont deal with the high power levels, heat cycling and mechanical loads LF drivers have to cope with. Morel and Dynaudio both use alu or cu/alu clad wire in almost all of their drivers, but they don't have alot of problems with open circuit VCs, possibly due to using larger diameter VCs than other companies and not using cheaper contact adhesives in known problems areas in favor of UV cured epoxy. Its alot more durable and handles heat way better.
The best way to fix a failed driver with an open VC connection (if you can get to the junction) is to use paste solder designed for bonding aluminum along with the appropriate flux and a hot air soldering iron. You can't let any atmospheric air get into the solder connection, otherwise the aluminum will instantly form an oxide layer and reject a molecular bond with the solder. The copper coating on the wire isn't sufficient in depth to carry the connection - even if the connection looks to be successful with conventional sn/pb rosin core solder, it will flake off when put under normal levels of vibrational strain and electrical load. You can only use designated aluminum solder to reliably bond cu/alu clad wire with itself or copper. Same holds true for aluminum VC wire. Eminence had big problems with this in their smaller VC diameter drivers with alu VC windings. They usually only mechanically crimp their connections when using alu or cu/alu clad wire, which works OK as long as you keep air away from the connection joint and don't overheat it.
Sorry for the long winded post. Hopefully there was useful info for someone.
Some of the SS drivers with cu/alu clad (copper plated aluminum) VC windings had the tendency to fail at the lead wire junction due to the aluminum wire core not bonding with the solder joint. While the benefits of cu/alu clad wire is weight savings, working with this wire is tricky when it comes to forming a reliable bond with other metals, including pure copper. The problem gets worse when alot of current needs to flow. This wire also tends to create a galvanic reaction with the chemical breakdown products of some adhesives along with surrounding atmospheric moisture. Some contact adhesives become acidic when they break down over time. This doesn't help when its applied directly to hold down VC wire junctions. Some Japanese manufactured circuit boards had corrosion problems in areas covered with deteriorated contact adhesives, so its a well known problem by now.
Scanspeak has had VC connection issues for a long time and some of the Vifa stuff was also affected, mostly the drivers with cu/alu clad VC wire. Almost all of the tweeters use this wire, but they usually dont deal with the high power levels, heat cycling and mechanical loads LF drivers have to cope with. Morel and Dynaudio both use alu or cu/alu clad wire in almost all of their drivers, but they don't have alot of problems with open circuit VCs, possibly due to using larger diameter VCs than other companies and not using cheaper contact adhesives in known problems areas in favor of UV cured epoxy. Its alot more durable and handles heat way better.
The best way to fix a failed driver with an open VC connection (if you can get to the junction) is to use paste solder designed for bonding aluminum along with the appropriate flux and a hot air soldering iron. You can't let any atmospheric air get into the solder connection, otherwise the aluminum will instantly form an oxide layer and reject a molecular bond with the solder. The copper coating on the wire isn't sufficient in depth to carry the connection - even if the connection looks to be successful with conventional sn/pb rosin core solder, it will flake off when put under normal levels of vibrational strain and electrical load. You can only use designated aluminum solder to reliably bond cu/alu clad wire with itself or copper. Same holds true for aluminum VC wire. Eminence had big problems with this in their smaller VC diameter drivers with alu VC windings. They usually only mechanically crimp their connections when using alu or cu/alu clad wire, which works OK as long as you keep air away from the connection joint and don't overheat it.
Sorry for the long winded post. Hopefully there was useful info for someone.
The newer lead free solder doesn't help either. Its more brittle than lead based solder and requires use of a special flux that isnt as forgiving or stable. Even the pure copper VC wire drivers have issues with internal connections thanks to the newer solder. Add the chemically unstable adhesive to it, then you get more driver failures than when using standard sn/pb solder.
Another point that may be relevant is that many adhesives, paints, etc. have been changed to comply with stricter environmental or health regulations. The rules also continue get more restrictive, so random formulations change all the time. Accelerated testing doesn't tell you everything, and real-world testing takes so long that you get a new formulation about the time you finish the test of the last new formulation. All of this can lead to random failures like these happening in different industries over and over, even from respected manufacturers.
In the US in the early 2000's, Honda had many, many cars where all the clearcoat was peeling off the top, hood, and trunk. GM did the same thing in the 80's. Nearly every car you see that's over 5 years old now has hardcoat peeling off the polycarbonate headlights.
Then there are also the cost-saving measures that blow up a large swath of the electrolytic capacitors in the world or the dip tubes in water heaters. It's all such great fun.
In the US in the early 2000's, Honda had many, many cars where all the clearcoat was peeling off the top, hood, and trunk. GM did the same thing in the 80's. Nearly every car you see that's over 5 years old now has hardcoat peeling off the polycarbonate headlights.
Then there are also the cost-saving measures that blow up a large swath of the electrolytic capacitors in the world or the dip tubes in water heaters. It's all such great fun.
mine is 6month and goes well ,but by ex tech speakers industry ,new braided too for 40€
mine after 16years min and only ones and after some year of storage buy revelator sound so good ....
Yes, it also includes the other driver product lines made with similar materials and processes. Ive had several various drivers from all over the range have VC connection issues. Much of it can be linked to the adhesive but also to mechanical stress from not enough stabilization. Tweeters are however not so much affected being a lower mechanical stress item with less overall diaphragm movement compared to the cone drivers.
I've had several Vifa drivers with the issue. They consisted of M26WR09-08, M22WR09-06, P17WJ00-08 and several M10MD39-08. Also had a few Peerless TC9s do the same. They all had bad connections under the dust cap where the VC wire terminated to the braided lead. I was able to fix most of them but its still not acceptable IMO from a company that has alot of speaker manufacturing experience.
Vifa bought Scan Speak in 1989 .
The M26's I have (15pcs) are either Vifa or Scan Speak branded ... but looks the same and some share the "feature" of open VC (wire deteriorated)
Mine were 18W/8531 series, Zaph ZRT same as OP. After I repaired them they work fine. Spent a lot of time researching repair techniques.
A bit disappointing when you dissect the failure. The solder where the VC leads were wrapped + soldered around the tinsel had reacted with the glue and gone powdery. The open circuit was at this point on both drivers.
A bit disappointing when you dissect the failure. The solder where the VC leads were wrapped + soldered around the tinsel had reacted with the glue and gone powdery. The open circuit was at this point on both drivers.
In the lightning protection industry, we are not allowed to bolt copper and aluminium together due to severe corrosion problems. You have to use a bimetallic joint, which is a copper block welded to an aluminimum block and bolt cables or tape like with like.