[Victorious25]

Hey all,
 
A short preface: I realize this may not be the optimum forum to get advice on this area, but I'm hoping at the very least to get some direction of where I can go for answers.
 
So I have fairly limited knowledge of speakers, it's something I've been interested in getting in to, but headphones have been my focus and speakers have just been a novelty interest for me.
 
That being said, most of my friends rely on me for technical support in a lot of areas, from audio to computer to technology in general. A very good friend of mine asked me to take a look at his speaker as it's not working right anymore. I discovered that he actually has B&W 601 S3s. Now, they didn't just stop working out of the blue: I just graduated from college and my friend is still an undergrad, and we live in a fairly party heavy area. His house was for a long time a "party house" and during one particular party the dancing got to a point where the vibrations shook the left speaker from the shelf it was on... a shelf that is about 7 feet high. I was not there for this particular party, and so don't know major details of the fall, but it couldn't have been good.
 
So on these speakers there are two sets of hook-ups on the back, one set marked HF and one LF. (I assumed that they meant High Frequency and Low Frequency respectively.) Both speakers had been hooked up through the HF set, but after the fall the left speaker sounded very weak. I learned that (I think, I'm not 100% sure of terms here) only the tweeter was functioning, and the mid driver was not getting any power. However, when I hook the broken speaker up through the LF hook-ups both mid driver and tweeter function, but are giving almost all bass (Which made sense to me given my Low Frequency assumption from before.)
 
My question is basically what may have been damaged and how might I repair the speaker so it can once again be used in the HF setting? I took both the damaged and functional speakers apart to kind of do a side by side comparison and see if anything visibly had been damaged, but I was unable to see anything obviously different.
 
Thanks,
Victor

 

[snoopy007]

so are you basically saying the following.
 
if connected to HF ---> tweeter is working
 
if connected to LF ----> the mid/bass unit is working.
 
 
I am assuming your friend is only running one cable to each speaker and NOT biwiring. 
 
IF that is the case, are the jumper/piece of metal that connects  HF+  to LF+ and the jumper/piece of metal that connects  HF- to LF- are still in place? Maybe one of them is missing.
 
http://bwmedia.keycast.com/download/Libraries/3/683684Manual_l8_w0_h0.pdf 
 
see figure 3a and you will know what I mean. in fig 3b. the jumpers has to be taken out if you intend to biwire.

 

[Victorious25]

Thanks for the reply!
 
Well, I THINK it's like this currently:
 
If connected to HF ---> Tweeter is working
If connected to LF ---> Mid/Bass and Tweeter are working
 
And bi-wiring is not being done, should it be?
 
Unfortunately I don't have the unit available to me at this second to verify things.
 
OH and I looked at the diagram. Those pieces are missing, I think. I think I saw them lying around at his house, actually.
 
Thanks a million I think that answers my question.
 
Actually, in the event that they are missing would bi-wiring solve the problem?
 
Thanks again,
Victor

 

[snoopy007]

bi-wire would work.
 
But the simplest solution is just  to make jumpers with speaker cables. Personally, I replaced the metal jumper on my speakers with jumpers made from my  speaker cables.

 

[Victorious25]

Okay, thanks a ton for the help.
I can't test it until later on tonight, but I'm 99% certain this will be the fix as I definitely remember seeing the metal jumpers lying around somewhere at their house and wondering what they were, so they're definitely not in place. I'll probably take your advice and make new ones out of speaker wire.
 
Victor