Possibly blown tweeter?


So I recently acquired a pair of Paradigm persona B used, everything sounds really good and normal and I don’t believe I’ve driven past its limit and have been listening to mostly music. One day I started to listen to podcast, and noticed some male voice will create sudden burst of a sizzle/rattle noise from one of the speaker (the same noise you hear when you are in a bubble bath and all the tiny bubbles foams start to pop). They also sound like when you’re placing your iPhone/MacBook on a metal surface and it vibrates together with the surface when playing loud.

I originally thought it’s resonating with maybe some furnitures, but after some digging, I’ve pin-pointed that it’s indeed the tweeter. Interestingly, signal sweep won’t reveal the issue, piano won’t reveal the issue, it’s only male voices from podcasts.. it’s driving me a little crazy so I’ve reached out to paradigm and see how much it will cost to replace it (as I also notice the warranty isn’t transferrable even though the speaker has 5 year warranty from the first owner and the product line is less than 5 years old). Wish me luck..

Lastly, I always thought blown tweeter or damaged tweeter must have some obvious flaws, but in my case, I think the tweeter is still 97% functional, it just distorts with a set of podcasts, it’s really annoying. I’m perplexed but also relieved to be able to reproduce the issue and could tell Paradigm exactly what to do to reproduce it once if they receive my unit.
bwang29

Showing 5 responses by oldhvymec

If the tweeter was bad, how would you get at it? Same difference ay..

I'm not sure, what your working with. Let me see if I find a pic..

Regards
Ouch... special filter on the face of the tweeter.. for incoming distortion, your blocking something going in or out with your hand?.

Touch the face of the tweeter GRILL diffuser with a pencil eraser, or something pretty soft.. Is it cracked?

Looks like a job, if you had to change it, but you never know...

Regards
Everything is tight? Make sure they are torqued in place and not vibrating because of another driver. Check the securements coming lose from driver to faceplate or faceplate to cabinet.. Check for wires being lose and vibrating.

I'm guessing it's a mechanical noise. You can use a small vac hose to listen whether it is a vibration, or a cracked part. Cabinet or actually the driver, low volume, ay..

LPad if you have them.. clean them move back and forth like 3000 times. :-)

All I have that cost nothing...

Happy hunting...

Regards
Man oh man, that's better than eatin' bugs...

Glad you got it...

Regards