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Proac problem: tweeters or crossover?

Recently, something moved me to listen closely to the tweeters, and when I couldn't hear anything I hooked up the speaker cable just to the tweeter binding posts. I can't say there was no sound at all, because there was the faintest of recessed, tinkly sound that didn't seem to vary much with the level of the volume control.

I called up Modern Audio and they told me just to get the Scanspeak D2010s from Madisound. I soldered them in this morning. Now the new tweeters are a bit louder than before, but not nearly as loud and not as strong on the higher frequencies as I would have expected. They still sound subdued, recessed and tinkly/jangly, but not as much as before, and there's a bit more change in level when varying the volume control. This is as always with the cable hooked up only to the tweeter binding posts.

So...is this how they're meant to sound, or is there a problem with some component in the crossovers? If there is, it must be the same in both speakers' crossovers. I wish the result of the change-over had been less ambiguous: either virtually no sound, or a great improvement. Instead, it falls somewhere in between, but the result makes me think that I haven't solved the problem.

BTW, the Response 2.5s must be ~17 years old. Custom yew finish bought new from Accutronics in Ann Arbor in 1998/99. The mid-woofers still sound great.

Does anyone know what a Proac tweeter driven in the way I've described should sound like when it's functioning correctly?
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Showing 2 responses by timrhu

timrhu
2,779 posts
 
Hard to know exactly what you're hearing but tweeters alone don't make a lot of the sound when music is played. Assuming the crossover point is above 2kHz, there wouldn't be much information to produce as the majority of the music signal is below a the tweeters cutoff.
I once bought a pair of Eminent Technology speakers with a blown tweeter. I didn't notice until I was standing directly in front of the of the faulty speaker and noticed no energy from the tweeter ribbon.
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
With the crossover at 3kHz as Almarg stated, I think what you are hearing is normal. I had a pair of Paradigm Studio 60s that experienced a tweeter failure, the dome disintegrated. When I replaced it I first listened to the tweeter separately as you are doing and heard what you described. I compared it to the good speaker's tweeter as I was concerned.
You could measure the resistance of the tweeter and see if there is any difference between speakers. If there is a difference then there may be an issue with the crossover, but as you say both sound the same I doubt it. As for break in, not the issue here.
The real question is, how do the speakers sound when being played normally? I think you purchased an extra set of tweeters.
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