"blown speakers"


When a speaker "blows" what actually happens. I suppose its different between a tweeter and woofer, but is there some mechanical damage or is it electrical. does something break? Besides a woofer cone ripping, what happens to a tweeter if it is still working, but raspy or staticy? I have heard "blown" speakers before, or ones that didnt work at all, but I really dont know what it is that breaks and whether it is fixable or just replace.
manitunc
Hi all ! Sounds like a rubbing voice coil .If you are handy remove the dustcap and manually move the cone in and out . You should see and hear where / what the problem is . Could be off-center ( sometimes fixed by pulling the driver and re-installing upside down ) or debris in the voice coil gap .
If you can move the driver over to the other speaker; pay attention to which wire goes to the proper terminal of the driver to see if the problem moves;if it moves then you have identified the driver as being bad.
If these are a expensive or special driver and is damaged I would talk with Bill Legall of Millersound to get his opinion;he is highly respected in the business and his work is of the highest caliber.

Millersound
1422 Taylor Road
Lansdale, PA 19446-1531
(215) 412-7700
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Tough question, alot of partial answers here. There are different ways a speaker can be blown. It is possible for a speaker to run out of excursion limits (travel), when this happens, you normally would hear a popping sound before it is too severly damaged. That popping is the voice coil former bottoming out against the magnet, then the voice coil is damaged from slapping against the magnet or the cone rips from too much travel as you stated in your question. The most typical problem has been somewhat addressed above by others. Amplifiers are driven to clipping, the voice coils heat up and either come apart or get so hot that they may partially melt and seize the cone. If a cone seizes its obvious, it is frozen (won't move). If the coil has partially come off the former, that is where you will hear a rubbing or garbled sound. As Elizabeth stated, you can put your fingers on both sides of the center of the cone and push evenly, if the coil has shifted, you will hear or feel a rub. If the tweeter is blown, most designs have replaceable diaphrams, its kinda like a recone on a mid or woofer. Reputable woofers and mids have recone kits available. It is very important to get the correct kit, the weight of the cone and stiffness of the surround and other things must all match for the performance to be the same of the original driver. Lastly, it is possible for a component to be bad in the crossover, typically a burnt resistor or a electrolytic cap can burst. So when you say, "what actually happens" it is a very broad question. I have given you a very broad answer, but one that I hope makes sense. Good Luck, Tim