[Jingo Lingo]

I recently bought some old Wharfedale Linton 3 bookshelf speakers off ebay. Problem is the midrange driver on of one speakers doesn't work. Just wondering if anyone would know what the problem could be and how I could fix it? Here's some pics: Edit: I now realise that it does work but it is just much quieter than the other midrange driver. I think they used to have a knob on the back that controlled midrange level, but that is no longer there. Any suggestions?

 

[voxr3m]

Did you actually see a place that a knob would've been?

The most common problem with large speakers being shipped are crossover components breaking loose. It's quite possible that a heavy inductor (or inductors) was glued on its side to make it off axis from other inductors. The glue might be old and the speaker may have been shipped upsidedown/bumped along the way.

Can you open the speaker up to get inside?

 

[voxr3m]

Oh now I see the pictures.They weren't showing up before. If you can check for continuity across parts of the crossover then that might be a start.

If you can swap drivers from the other speaker, see if the problem follows the driver. Then you can isolate the problem to either the driver itself or the crossover. You better hope it's the crossoever.

 

[Jingo Lingo]

If you look at the second pic you can see two white wires connected to a lump of white glue; that's where I think the knob would have been, on the out side of the speakers of course. On the back of the speakers there's a little round hollowed out section where a knob could have been placed. But its absent on both speakers so I'm not sure that's the problem.

 

[voxr3m]

Try swapping drivers first. Then move on from there.

 

[Jingo Lingo]

Just swapped the drivers over and that's what seems to be the problem. Both drivers work fine it's just that one is louder than the other, it's especially noticeable with vocals

Any way I could fix the driver to make it louder? Or would it be possible to replace both of the drivers with some new ones?

 

[voxr3m]

There's not much you can do easily to fix the problem. This could be a problem that's been present since the speaker was manufactured. Is the volume in the bad driver just low or is it distorting as well?

Try emailing wharfedale and seeing if you can get a replacement or at least specs on the current driver. Then you can see about getting a replacement with the same dimensions and similar sensitivity/impedance. It's not going to be entirely correct, but at least you can try to get the loudness to where it should be.