Driver woes

traw

Was trying to think of thread title to make more general purchase... To chime in on driver failures as have encountered some mistakes in purchasing used drivers since learning by iteration valuable.

A - bought pair of Tang Band W4-1720's little below the common 50% cost, plus was in a bundle off diyaudio swapmeet. Had tried them in a small 0.23 2 way few months back with 5" PR and SB26 neo tweet. Sounded good though learned few things about getting better bass alignment and not maximizing the woofers gusto. So, started using them for my Indy 3way isobaric as mid after 1st attempt with RS52AN (also bought second hand) was disappointing. RS52 sounded good enough as knocked down the 12k breakup and seemed rather easy to work with in crossover and experimenting, just seems like needed little lower reach than the 500-600hz for the particular isobaric'd woofers using. Anyway.... after thinking had everything worked out with crossover tweaking, started hearing a distortion on a woofer. As if something vibrating against cone, more prominent in the 200-800hz range of the sweep, it seemed. Took the steps to make sure not xover wiring whoa as not always happening until now. Did it a day or two before but went away. Removed driver, found no wires resting on cone. Little harder to hear when swept free air but still there. Maybe prev owner stressed the voicecoil though seemed almost unused with no marks and person was a hoarder heh, but visual/touch inspection nothing jumps out. While could buy a replacement, fear manufacture batches, perhaps other one that has no issues on verge. Or just bad luck, or did i get dust in the mechanical ug.... on verge of buying a replacement woofer pair for the 130mm openings, have a pricey 146 mm Seas that could make fit especially as could just make new baffle since it's detachable for the isobaric access, but the driver is overkill and intended for a later 2 way. Funny as built the indy project cabs using the cheap menards shelf board thinking make ok to destroy cabinet if fail - too often want to reuse cabinet forcing a project/experiment. Ug.... any idea's of what might be wrong with woofer?

B - bought a pair of Seas G18RNX 7 inchers, yeah quite dated. After paid, seller mentioned about some spider sag and when received, the magnets n terminal quite aged looking, like damn were these used in a hooka shop or in house fire, cones exterior looks fine and nice. Made a 2 way 0.5 liter book shelf, tried 2 diff ports, 1.75 x 4 (those common fixed size ports) and later changed to a 2 x 6 taking tuning just a couple hz lower.... Though a bit of a slappy/floppiness to bass on both tunings, Fbox about 51 and 46 if i recall. Is that spider sag possible culprit or just bad box alignment? Guess reason those were obtained maybe too cheap, like 80 for pair free ship. Think just throw back out there on ebay but now i have to disclose the sag especially if that is the culprit. Was not desiring to make this as own primary speaker, was more learning exercise to give away or shed locally cheap (CL/FB etc.)

Wolf

I have had glue joints on the spider shelf fail in TB drivers before. Superglue worked, but Allene's Tacky Glue is better for the fix. Could otherwise be a rubbing VC, leaky dustcap, box leak, or overloading.

PWRRYD

I bought a pair of Vifa P17wj midbasses back in about 1990 and when I measured them in 2010 they were pretty much junk as far as bass goes. I think a lot of cone sag happened over all those years as well as the rubber surrounds got really stiff.

tktran

20 years is a good run? Or not?

If anything lasts 20 years in the modern era I’d be happy…

New driver woes:

Unfortunately no response from SS about what this was, and whether it can be ignored.

This was from the era where I was unable to take measurements or compare with others (the pair I purchased both had markings), and for such a precision / premium product, I asked for an exchange.

Unfortunately the AU distributor we’re not able to offer a replacement, since the rest from the batch purportedly had similar markings. This unit was manufactured in 2009…

Distributor RMA’ed them. And I never did learn what it was from.

Anyone seen similar? It appears like a fluid that has run down and dried. Adhesive?

Wolf

back side only?

tktran

I had a pair- both had markings on the back side only.

But allegedly the whole batch had markings on them. Eventually they were sold on clearance at half price.

PWRRYD

Looks like my car's hood when I park too close to the pond at work