Advice needed please - Dead Neat Critique II

[rossman]

I have been asked to try and repair a Neat speaker, the other one of the pair is working fine. Besides I would like to get to hear what these speakers sound like.

Neither drive unit is working, either with or without the biwire links in place. I would have thought that even if there was a problem with the crossover that at least on of the units would have some output, is this right?

Any suggestions about where to start? Could I swap the crossovers between speakers to see if the one that is working is ok in the non working speaker or am I possibly putting something at risk?

Also does anyone know how to get the mid/bass foam surround off without damaging it, it doesn't look simple.

Thanks in Advance

[Reffc]

Start by taking out the biwire links and testing each drive unit's DC resistance. If you get open loop or exceptionally high DCR, the units voice coils are likely fried. It could be bad/failed connections but the only way to tell is to remove each drive unit to check wiring and also crossover connections to binding posts and drivers. IME, crossover components rarely completely fail unless driven with very high voltage or current. Chances are the speakers may have been run into clipping once too often or simply over driven which tends to be the most common form of failure, but some quick checks (as above) are needed to find out.

[rossman]

Thank you Paul, I'll give that a try and report back.

[rossman]

So I tried measuring resistance, neither tweeter changes from the 1 figure from the terminals at any setting. On both speakers after the crossover I am getting about 1R for the tweeter. The mid/bass is measuring about 6R on the "good" speaker and about 1R on the other.

Is this an indication that both tweeters are damaged? I did think that the "good" speaker did sound rather "plummy" when I was testing them out but thought that they might have needed a bit of time to run back in as they have been unused for ages.

[Firebottle]

6R sounds right for the good woofer, the 1R tweeters and woofer are fried :(

[rossman]

I thought as much.

My mate does a bit of DJing so I'm not surprised that they've been hammered. I'll have to give him the bad news.

I have also contacted Bob at Neat and it's looking about £150 for the replacement drivers.