Need help - Driver not working

SwaroopKS

Active Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2015
Messages
372
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Location
Chennai
Hi All,

I have just returned to chennai after 25days post my vacation and working from hyd due to floods.

Fortunately my apartment is in 2nd floor and it is not flooded, also everything was closed and electronic equipment was tuned off from mains.

While i was checking everything, i found that one of the mid-woofer driver in my AP speakers is not working, there was no sound from it. to check if the fault was with circuit or driver, i have interchanged the drivers between two speakers and it turned out to be driver.:sad:

I see no visible damage to driver or voice coil. it was working perfectly fine before i left (to my knowledge as i played music even night before i left). Is there anything i can do to fix it or a place i can take it to get it repaired?

The driver is scanspeak classic 18w 8545k00

http://www.scan-speak.dk/datasheet/pdf/18w-8545k00.pdf

Please help.

Thanks
Satya
 
If you have a multimeter you can check for continuity of the coil. Sometimes it is not the coil but the the connecting flexible wire that is the culprit. With a multimeter you can check from one end of the connecting wire to find the actual point of break.
 
Thank you. I do not have a multimeter with me. Are there any places in chennai that work with speakers/repair them? I prefer to take driver to them for testing rather than general electrician.
 
Thank you. I do not have a multimeter with me. Are there any places in chennai that work with speakers/repair them? I prefer to take driver to them for testing rather than general electrician.


I do not know about your town but in Kolkata we have many speaker repair specialists in the elecronics market area. I guess you will have to ask around in the vicinity of your electronics market.
 
A friend in Chennai has a smaller Scan Speak driver. One day that also suddenly stopped working, just like yours. We opened it and had a look and found that the wire from the cone to the outside had snapped. It looked easy to fix by just bridging it with a short copper wire but we faced a problem. It turns out the wire is copper coated aluminum wire and isn't so easy to handle. It kept cracking up as we tried to solder it. So I gave up.
Much later he found someone in Chennai who fixed it for him. It's working today ! The guy needs to be given credit. It would have been a rather delicate operation. He did a great job. The owner isn't in town and will be back only by Christmas. I'll see if I can find out who fixed it.

From reliability point of view I don't like coils with copper coated aluminum wires ! They could be tough to deal with when you have a problem. ;)
 
Well you have to very careful when dealing with the local folks as they might not be knowledgeable in highend drivers like the ONE in question,But in general Mount Road Radio market has plenty of guys who repair and recone drivers.

But if you need specialist,He's no speaker repair guy but he's the expert on driver and such,He makes his own drivers.He used to be active members eon's ago but not anymore.can give you his contact details but he's in Bangalore.
 
@techiecal/Fantastic: Thank you so much for giving me a bit of hope that it could be minor issue with connecting wire that can be fixed. I thought there would be no option but to replace the driver which is not only expensive but also means I have to wait for delivery n can't enjoy music all that time.
 
@Fantastic/Soundcraft: please share the details of those contact person. I want to get it fixed this Saturday hopefully.
 
Don't rush into it ! Same thing happened to my friends driver. But he looked around carefully till he found someone who could fix it. He's back only on 23rd I think. Patience pays !
You have a 'mono music' listeners cult in Japan ! Join them and listen to mono for a few days. It isn't as bad as you might imagine and often sounds quite OK if you didn't focus on the fact that the sound was coming from just one speaker ! ;)
By the way this friends tweeter , also Scan Speak ( D2905/90000) died recently. We opened it but can't see any cracked wires or joints ( or burnt wire) but it is open circuit. This also uses copper coated aluminum wire. Working one night, dead next morning !
After searching the web for replacement diaphragms etc. we decided that we should just replace it with a new tweeter ( current model!) . So he will now be getting two new Scan Speak tweeters ( at the price of one D2905!). Repairing is fiddly as he also has to get ferro fluid and we do not know if the viscosity will be what is required. Besides cleaning the air gap will be an issue also. It's a VERY tight fitting air gap . Alignment could be an issue ! The existing ferro fluid appears to have become tacky !

Take your time on deciding how to get it fixed. I'm sure there can't be any great hurry on your part . It's all in the mind ! Slow and steady wins the race.....? :)
 
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@Fantastic: thank you for that wonderful post. reading it felt like being in a diy project!

Being away for 3 weeks, i was just excited to get back and enjoy my music but this issue was a bummer and felt low. Will take your advise and join the mono club for few days :)

I am not in hurry to get it fixed but some restlessness to know what exact issue is (if connector wire or voice coil or something else). Once the issue is known i felt i can wait for someone with experience to fix it. But as you mentioned, decided to take it slow now.

Is the 50% off for replacement driver in scanspeak still on? if so, do they allow order for same model driver or we can select a different one as well?
 
Is the 50% off for replacement driver in scan speak still on? if so, do they allow order for same model driver or we can select a different one as well?

Sorry that my statement was misunderstood. Actually the D2509 was US$130/- each. The new driver D2608 (I think) was US$ 148 for TWO ! $74 each. No special discount. Check out Madisound.com or partsexpress.com for pricing. Your driver is US$180. I think you can consider replacement only after thoroughly checking your driver.
Don't you know anyone with a multimeter who can easily see if the coil is OK or not ? Simplest method is to check it with a 1.5 volt battery. Place one battery terminal on one speaker terminal and with a small piece of wire connect the other battery terminal to the other speaker terminal. The cone should move in or out a bit. If it does this then the speaker is OK !
 
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Sorry that my statement was misunderstood. Actually the D2509 was US$130/- each. The new driver D2608 (I think) was US$ 148 for TWO ! $74 each. No special discount. Check out Madisound.com or partsexpress.com for pricing. Your driver is US$180. I think you can consider replacement only after thoroughly checking your driver.
Don't you know anyone with a multimeter who can easily see if the coil is OK or not ? Simplest method is to check it with a 1.5 volt battery. Place one battery terminal on one speaker terminal and with a small piece of wire connect the other battery terminal to the other speaker terminal. The cone should move in or out a bit. If it does this then the speaker is OK !

oh! ok. i have read that scanspeak actually provided 50% discount on replacement drivers in some forum (posted by someone who got the replacement). But that thread was a bit old so not sure if it is being done now.

I did check with battery on the terminals, there was no movement in the cone!:sad: Unfortunately there is noone i know, so planning to take it somewhere it could be checked thoroughly.
 
So the coil is burnt... :sad:
but... it happened to me too, with a Canton tweeter's little coil some years ago:
with 50 /$ it was possible repair with a new coil,
here in Florence, Italy :yahoo:
 
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Got the Driver tested today with multimeter... no continuity! electrician who tested says voice coil must be gone! :sad:
 
Looks to be the voice-coil, no doubts. Bad luck. Have to replace with a new driver here. Anyway, do keep in mind checking on your amplifier too while you get along with the replacement. Without speaker protection built-in the amplifier, instances of DC finding a way to the speakers is quite common for this issue. Good to be prepared for the future.
 
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