I was a long time Thiel owner and stuff happens. There are usually no ill effects if the only damage done was that the dome was pushed in, once you pop it out with a piece of tape. I know that when one reads here how you can perceive while listening to music material the effects of anything at the electron level, (cables, passive components, vibration damping material et al) it is hard to believe that a driver showing some visual signs of tampering can sound "pure", "natural" and "delightful". It usually will continue to sound as it did before. If you can't hear a difference, thank your lucky star. Now if fall prey to neurotic anxiety as true-blue, high-ender, subjective audiophile are wont to do, you will never be happy unless you change speakers, because even if you change the tweeter you will still fear a mismatch with the other one. If you change both, you will still fear a mismatch with the other drivers, or the fact that maybe the new units are not up to the standards of the old ones, or that the drivers will not have burned-in for the same length of time, the list goes on... So you chose: sanity vs. insanity. From the mid-fi trenches. Good day. |
You will find that in time with playing it will probably go back to its original shape. If it still bothers you we purchased a toilet plunger that we use for that purpose alone. Go purchase a plunger and it will pop it out.
Good luck. |
If your tweeter has a detachable faceplate and voice coil/dome,meaning that if you can get to the inside of the dome itself try this to remove the crease.I've had the same happen and used a very smooth rounded wooden dowel to gently rub the inside of the dome.The rounded shape insures that you won't deform the metal and actually helps to restore the original radius.Best of all the crease will vanish! |
You may think this perverse. Shut off all power then surround your lips around the abused tweeter and gently suck, the dome will pop right out. No sticky residue left behind and you can control the amount of sucktion. Too much sucktion and you risk detaching the voice coil. |
Unsound: Talk about your blown tweeters! |
That last comment is two funny! You folks are crazy and fun to read. My experience has shown the crease will smoooooth out over time. |
It happened to my speakers once. I used a regular vacuum tube cleaner and it did it!
Just be gentle, using a soft cotton in between tweeter and the vacuum.
Good luck. |
I hope nobody puts their mouth on the tweeter after Sanctuary uses the toilet plunger on it.
This could lead to one having a bad taste in their mouth over Theil. |
It happened to me before, but it was soft dome in a pair of Dynaudio. Tape or vacuum both worked great, but I always wondered about the sound afterward even though I could not hear the differences. Dynaudio Esotar T-330 claimed to have multiple coating on the dome to create the dispersion, so a sticky tape will for sure remove some coating, not?
Best thing to do is to replace the drivers. All audiophiles are annals, it will always bother you even if you can't find a trace of wrinkle. |
Unsound attended the Linda Lovelace school of HiFi repair, now if I could just get my wife to straighten out the bend to the left in the ol' Shunyata Anaconda vX that way? |
After this debacle I don't think anyone will question my love of music. Mind you I do have my limits, tweeters maybe, but, woofers are out of the question. Besides, sometimes you need to give oral to recieve aural. |
Unsound, you mean you had an eargasm? |
I knew my original post would prompt some cute replies, but, I truly underestimated just how clever you all are. I have really enjoyed some lol belly laughs from you. |
(Hmmm...now as a rating, does "Coating off a dome tweeter" signify better or worse ability than the timeless "Chrome off a trailer-hitch" standby?! :-) Seriously, with the Thiel's aluminum dome tweet, in my experience, you cannot remove all visible trace of an impact as with a fabric dome (sonically though, you may not hear anything amiss, but OTOH this could have damaged more than just the dome). If the driver assembly on this coax unit is anything like the conventional dome assembly on my 2.2's tweeters, Thiel might be able to supply you with a replacement dome/cone/coil part which you can retrofit into the existing motor/faceplate (you have to be careful fitting the coil into the gap though). If this thought bothers you as much as the injured tweeter does, then just order a whole new mid/tweeter unit (either way, you'll have to unsolder and resolder the wire connections at the driver leading to the crossover - Thiel will provide some of their original type of solder). Whatever you replace, there will be some break-in time before the new unit sounds the same as the one in the other speaker, but this will not be a terrible process to endure. BTW, you *were* leaving the semi-protective grilles on, were you not? (Thiels are one of the few audiophile speakers sensibly designed to perform best with their grilles left in place, and they do.) |
Zakesman,
I believe "Suck starting a Harley" is a higher rating than either "Coating off dome tweeter" or "Chrome off tailer-hitch."
There is also the "Golf ball through thirty feet of garden hose, " but that begins to border on scary.
It's nice that we turn occasionally to these important things in life, away from the mundane topic of sound hardware. |
Should we use a dental dam if we wish to be safe? |
Trelja, absolutley if your not the original and only owner. |
Ripping the speaker apart and poking "it" from the backside would probably get the wrinkle out as well, but you may hear some high pitch noise from it. For this I recommend a port chuffer! |
Reminds me of a cartoon that one of my music teachers posted on his bulletin board many years ago. Showed a kid with a sousaphone around his neck. The sousaphone is saying to the kid, "Suck, you fool! Blow is a figure of speech!"
will |
Apparently Scottshannon has viewed "Deliverence" a couple of times too many... :-) |
I have three boys and well I think my tweeters are well broken in from all the pushing on them. I use the wand of the vacume to suck the tweter back out, works very well every time.
jeff |
