Cost of replacing a blown speaker diaphragm?

[Joe Bloggs]

I went to a friend's house yesterday along with a whole bunch of friends. Among other things, we played with her HiFi. (Well sorta) It's apparently an upper-class Denon mini-HiFi with the recent addition of a $150 subwoofer (I know what you guys are thinking, but we're not rich, ok? She didn't even have room in her room to place the speakers at head level

they're on TOP of a bookshelf

)

Anyway, I sort of cranked the system and Darwin REALLY cranked it hard (well, comparatively; it really didn't sound like even he had made it go LOUD) and at the end of the day she finds that one of the woofers (not the sub) has blown its diaphragm.

I wonder how much it would cost to replace it, and is it likely that anything else could have been damaged?

I don't suppose they'd charge too much, but in case they call it a total loss I am thinking of buying her some speakers in the $100 to $200 range for replacement--ought to find something better than the Denon speakers in that range, no?

I even offered to lend her my HD580

But she declined

 

[Budgie]

I would get on Denon's web site and find a service center, e-mail them with the model number of the system and ask for the price and avaliability of a replacement woofer. I am going to guess less then 50 bucks for a new woofer. Alot cheaper then buying her a new set of speakers. Otherwise, you could buy her new speakers and it you could definatly get better speakers for 200 bucks.

The Dana Audio model 1 is probably the best speaker out there under 200 bucks a pair, that have been reviewed in the audio magazines. Buy them factory direct from the Dana Audio web site.http://www.danaaudio.com/

The other place I know you can get great speakers for less then 200 bucks a pair is at http://www.speakerpage.com/
They mainly sell kits, but if you give them a call, they will usually have finished speakers for sale too.

 

[AssafL]

Are you sure it is the woofer that is blown? It is very unlikely that a woofer is blown without having distorted horribly (when overdriven the woofer diaphraghm noisily hits the edges). Also, in Mid-fi's, the woofer is also the mid-range (and sometimes tweeter), which will cause the distortion to be even more unbearable.

It is, however, likely that the tweeter is shot (especially if you played electric guitars at a loud enough volume), due to clipping.

The cost of rewinding a driver coil is not usually justified for lower end components. Just creating a coil positioning rig to center the voice coil will cost more than a replacement woofer...

 

[Ctn]

From what I hear, the tweeter is the first to go when clipping occurs because of its finer voice coil.

If the tweeter still works, chances are that it wasnt clipping enuff to damage the drivers yet.

Prob over excursion.

Time for new speakers

I think this would be more cost effective.

Try a DIY kit with vifa drivers. They are cheap, sounds good and you can replace the drivers easily if the same occurs

Use P17WJ woofers and D25AG tweeters.

The woofers should be under $50 each and $35 each for the tweeters.

The MDF should be really cheap and you can get a 2-way crossover for pretty cheap as well.

Go for a sealed cabinet

 

[Joe Bloggs]

So, from what I gather, it costs more to just replace the diaphragm and re-calibrate the voice coil than replacing the whole woofer?

Yeah, we're all puzzled how it could have blown... and how we could not have heard it... well, she did have bass and treble turned to max by default...

I suppose that could have really stressed the 'woofers' in the long term, before she bought the sub with crossover...

She visually inspected the drivers and told me one of the woofers is blown, so I don't think there's much room for doubt there.

I would really recommend her to get headphones, or at least put the speakers in her living room. The positioning in her room is really quite bad

 

[Budgie]

Woofers can and do blow first, if the amp is not massivly driven into clipping. You would also find that it is all but impossible to recone a small, cheap woofer, labor prices will blow the price out of the water, if you can even find the right voice coil and cone. The cheapest repair would be to go down to rat shack and buy the most similer woofer you can find and replace both of them, so they match. (HI-FI herasy you say!) Sure the woofer may not be ideal for the box and crossover, but I doubt she would notice. You would be suprised how succesful such a repair can be an a system that barely makes it to mid fi sound quality.

It is more likely that the woofer did not blow (overheat and fail) but that it suffered from a mechanical failure- the voice coil wire broke due to mechanical stress.

 

[Sovkiller]

YGPM I explain in details what to do....