Pushed in tweeter! What to do?

[morris_minor]

It had to happen at some point - I've had decent speakers for the past 30 years and not had a cone damaged. Now I have a tweeter pushed in :eek:

This appears to be purely cosmetic damage since I can't hear any difference between damaged and non-damaged speakers, but I would like it restored to its domed roundness.

Fixes I've come across include sucking it out with a hoover and putting sticky tape on it and pulling it out.

Obviously I'm reluctant to touch it as it works fine - but does anyone have any views on this? (There are no grills for the speaker, or else I'd just hide it :stalks:).

Thanks,
Bob

[Reid Malenfant]

Metal or soft dome?

[morris_minor]

Metal or soft dome?

Soft . .

[Reid Malenfant]

I'd get hold of a small bit of tubing which is just about the same diameter as the tweeter dome & very carefully place it against it & carefully such it back into shape :eyebrows:

Don't use a hoover, you might end up with the dome in the hoover bag :doh:

[morris_minor]

Yes, I was thinking hoovering might be a bit drastic. I'll see what kind of tubing I can find/get hold off.

Thanks. :rolleyes:

[Reid Malenfant]

Actually thinking about it the tube only needs to be big enough to go round the bit that is caved in, though if it's the whole dome then go by the above :)

[twelvebears]

Have managed to restore many a prodded soft-dome tweeter in my days at Sevenoaks HiFi as a teenager part-timer (gotta love unsupervised ankle-biters) and always managed to get them to pop back by very gently massaging around the edge of the caved in area, working round and round.

[morris_minor]

Yes, I was thinking hoovering might be a bit drastic.


Having said this - Sound On Sound magazine guru Hugh Robjohns writes that a used carefully a hoover can work.

Two thirds the way down this page: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec03/articles/qanda.htm

[morris_minor]

Have managed to restore many a prodded soft-dome tweeter in my days at Sevenoaks HiFi as a teenager part-timer (gotta love unsupervised ankle-biters) and always managed to get them to pop back by very gently massaging around the edge of the caved in area, working round and round.

Might try this one - thanks!

[morris_minor]

BTW the tweeter is a 1" Morel soft dome.

I've read elsewhere that sucking out using a loo roll tube can work :bog:

[amdismal]

remember- suck, don't blow :^

[Reid Malenfant]

BTW the tweeter is a 1" Morel soft dome.

I've read elsewhere that sucking out using a loo roll tube can work :bog:
That should be bigger that the dome. Tweeters tend to have pretty stiff suspensions, so as you will be effectively connected to the faceplate rather than the dome that should be safe enough. Just draw air in slowly & I reckon that will do the trick :D

[morris_minor]

That should be bigger that the dome. Tweeters tend to have pretty stiff suspensions, so as you will be effectively connected to the faceplate rather than the dome that should be safe enough. Just draw air in slowly & I reckon that will do the trick :D

I'll get some sucking practice in :lol:

Guinness through a hosepipe should do it :eyebrows:

[icehockeyboy]

Many vacuum cleaners have variable suction, start at min and increase if necessary.

I have known double sided sticky tape to work also, but obviously you need to be careful at the amount of pressure applied, as too much and you push it in further!

[morris_minor]

Many vacuum cleaners have variable suction, start at min and increase if necessary.

I have known double sided sticky tape to work also, but obviously you need to be careful at the amount of pressure applied, as too much and you push it in further!

Thanks ! I have a number of options, but they'll have to wait as I need to go out now :(

[MartinT]

You can do it with your lips. Just seal around the faceplate and suck gently :)

I know, I know, but it really works and takes seconds. You can tell I had a young son at one point...

[Marco]

Hi Bob,

Sorry to hear about your predicament... I presume that it was a kid, but how did the tweeter dome get pushed in? You didn't say :)

Marco.

[spendorman]

On some tweeters, the whole faceplate/ dome can be removed (carefully) without further damage, and the dome pushed back into shape from behind.

Have done this on several tweeters including Celestion soft domes and KEF T27, though with the latter one has to release the wires.

[alan47]

The last time it happened to me i used some duck tape wrapped round a cotton bud and teased it out.it's good and tacky so you only need a small contack area.
Good luck.

[MartinT]

Funny how no-one wants to try my method :rfl:

[spendorman]

Funny how no-one wants to try my method :rfl:

Perhaps it's the taste of the ferro-fluid! lol!

[worthingpagan]

if the dome is soft, you can use a fine needle and push it in gently at almost right angle and it will pop out again with no visible sign of damage. it's only a dust cover so long as you don't push the needle/safety pin in too far it will be fine

[Batty]

Mine were pushed in, but they were metal domes so I replaced the pair.

[goraman]

You can do it with your lips. Just seal around the faceplate and suck gently :)

I know, I know, but it really works and takes seconds. You can tell I had a young son at one point...

I once knew a Hooker from Minneapolis who could remove rivets in much the same way...

I'm not sure if she would do your tweet,but shell fix your woofer up straight away!

[Marco]

I once knew a Hooker from Minneapolis who could remove rivets in much the same way...


Sounds like my kinda gal! Does she fire ping-pong balls out from her front-end, too? :eyebrows:

Marco.

[brian2957]

tennis balls maybe:eek:

[jandl100]

I've used sellotape - gently dabbed - on metal dome tweeters to good effect. Probably the same with soft domes.


.... it's only a dust cover so long as you don't push the needle/safety pin in too far it will be fine

:scratch:

Err, I think you'll find that it is the sound-producing diaphragm.

[morris_minor]

:yay: Got it popped out! Not a crease in sight. Normal service is resumed :cool:

Thanks to all for the suggestions. And the winner was:


Have managed to restore many a prodded soft-dome tweeter in my days at Sevenoaks HiFi as a teenager part-timer (gotta love unsupervised ankle-biters) and always managed to get them to pop back by very gently massaging around the edge of the caved in area, working round and round.

Steve (twelvebears) your time at Sevenoaks was not wasted!:rock::respect:

Martin - sorry, as much as I love my newly acquired Harbeth DPM1 monitors, snogging 'em would have been my last resort. After all I don't know who'd have been there before me, and they might not have taken any "precautions" :D

And Marco - it was pushed in when it was moved up from the floor. I'm pretty weak (got a muscle condition :( ) so I'd asked my strapping 11-yr old son to help shift stuff. Pure accident.

But now I've got the DPMs firing on all cylinders I'm so happy with them. They're a bit like my HD650 'phones but with attitude :smoking:

Currently they're being fed straight from the DAC hanging off my Squeezebox receiver - so a really minimalist system. I'm re-doing my office at home, and getting a Pro-ject pre box SE to take inputs from the computers and turntable as well. The speakers will be wall mounted - a bit too high, really, but I won't be doing any "studio" monitoring. And I'm replacing my Sonifex DAC with a Metrum Octave. My living room system, though having a Transporter and a turntable going into a Sugden Headmaster for 'phone listening, has really turned into an AV setup, so it's good to get a proper stereo system going. I'll post pics when it's all done . . . .

Cheers,
Bob

[worthingpagan]

:scratch:

Err, I think you'll find that it is the sound-producing diaphragm.



:scratch: But i've cut that part out completely with a stanley blade in the past and the tweeter still worked fine :eek:

[YNWaN]

The dome of a tweeter definitely is the bit that actually displaces the air to make the sound - it is definitely not a dust cover.

[worthingpagan]

The dome of a tweeter definitely is the bit that actually displaces the air to make the sound - it is definitely not a dust cover.


Agreed, it displaces the sound, it doesn't produce it, which is why the tweeter itself still produces sound when the "dome" is removed, sil vous plait? ;)

[YNWaN]

Agreed, it displaces the sound,

But that isn't what I wrote, I wrote that "it displaces the air"; "displaces the sound" doesn't mean anything, sound is the result of the displacement of air.


it doesn't produce it,

But, in essence, it does - though the voice-coil and magnet are required to cause it to physically move. The varying music signal passes through the wound voice-coil, this causes the voice-coil to move backward and forward within the fixed magnetic field created by the magnet and pole-piece. The dome is attached to the voice-coil and as it moves backward and forward it acts upon the air in the room, producing a wave that arrives at your ear and is perceived as sound as that fluctuating air pressure acts upon your ear-drum.

How do you imagine the sound waves are actually propagated?

The voice-coil moving on its own may produce some output, but it will be far from the response that the manufacturer intended. Once you have cut the dome out of a tweeter you have effectively rendered it scrap. Cut the cone out of the matching woofer and see how that works for you (however, the dome in the centre of most woofers is more of a dust-cap).

[worthingpagan]

How do you imagine the sound waves are actually propagated?

The voice-coil moving on its own may produce some output, but it will be far from the response that the manufacturer intended. One you have cut the dome out of a tweeter you have effectively rendered it scrap. Cut the cone out of the matching woofer and see how that works for you.


Unfortunately I can't afford to hack my speakers at the moment :lol: I do follow your point about the woofers, but with tweeters surely the higher frequencies aren't in need of so much reverberation to make their sound? But i'm not going to argue the point about something i know little about other than from some ancient youthful past experience ;)

[goraman]

Sounds like my kinda gal! Does she fire ping-pong balls out from her front-end, too? :eyebrows:

Marco.
And quarters from the rear! :eyebrows:

[Reid Malenfant]

:scratch: But i've cut that part out completely with a stanley blade in the past and the tweeter still worked fine :eek:
I think you are talking about a cone tweeter with a centre dust dome ;) Yes I agree that if you removed the dust dome it'd still work & probably not sound too much different.

Do the same thing to a dome tweeter & it'd be to put it politely f*cked :doh:

[The Grand Wazoo]

:yay: Got it popped out! Not a crease in sight. Normal service is resumed :cool:


Well done Bob - glad you got it sorted out in the end.

I was worried it might turn into a situation like this:

1IL22sLF25s

[worthingpagan]

Well done Bob - glad you got it sorted out in the end.

I was worried it might turn into a situation like this:

1IL22sLF25s



LMAO :lol: :lol: Father Ted Is hilarious but i'd completely forgotten about this clip, nice one Chris, made my evening that has :lol:

[morris_minor]

Well done Bob - glad you got it sorted out in the end.

Thanks! Great clip :lol: