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Transporting large heritage speakers: This End Up ^ ?


Endo

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When driving speakers for extended distances (not just across town) does the orientation of the cabinets/components make any difference? I am about to drive a pair of Belles 900 miles – and I'm wondering if they should be standing upright, or laying on their backs, or sides?

 

Anybody know about this? I read a post, on another forum, where I guy bought a pair of KLF-30s:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/klipsch-klf-30-advice-needed.665929/

They tested fine at the place of sale; but, after driving home, 3 of the 4 woofers had developed voice-coil-rub. Might be completely unrelated; but I thought I would ask.

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if your cabinet has a riser on the bottom then you want to pack the speaker with the top of the cabinet facing down as the flat surface can easily withstand an impact where as the riser cannot due to its small surface area. You can of course install some additional protection to make sure your top is protected. I like to use a layer of thin plywood between the cardboard box and the packing material 1/4" - 3/8" is plenty thick enough for all but very large cabinets.

 

special note: for those shipping a speaker like the KLF20/30 which has mid horns with thin horn walls. Best to remove and pack separately inside the cabinet the mid horn drivers as the driver is heavy and the horn wall is thin. I have had three drivers shear off these horns due to impact(s) during shipping. the mid horn of the Quartet Forte 2 Chorus 2 are very strong as are all the metal horns and even the resin K701 horns are fine.

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4 hours ago, Endo said:

I am about to drive a pair of Belles 900 miles – and I'm wondering if they should be standing upright, or laying on their backs, or sides?

 

Any orientation that has the cones/diaphragms vertical would pretty much be the same, wouldn't it?  Except perhaps in the sense that as/if any time-related sag occurs it might be best of those four options to travel with them upside down to have the most room available for any travel-induced lateral-to-the-voice-coil movement (if that makes sense).  Might be best either face up or down, though, to allow for less-damaging vertical movement as that seems would be the direction of the greatest jolts happening.

 

In any event I'd want to be carrying the load in a vehicle that outweighs the load by the most (no tiny little U-Haul trailer for sure).  Whatever has the best chance of soaking up surface imperfections before the speakers "feel" them.

 

Congratulations on the find otherwise.

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You can add some foam underneath to cushion some of the biggest jolts (the engineering term is called "jerk"--the rate of change of acceleration) during transport, like that which is found in most loudspeaker packaging from the factory--mostly styrofoam. 

 

I don't believe any Klipsch drivers (except an outside chance the consumer-grade direct-radiating subwoofers with very heavy cones and very compliant suspensions that would be subject to resonances during transport) would have any issues.  Horn-loaded drivers usually have very light cones relative to the suspensions (and big motors)--so transportation loads aren't going to send the cones into resonance--they're all overdamped.  Belle K-33 woofers are immune from this effect that you're describing.  They basically have infinite life (greater than 25 years), as evidenced by the numerous testimonials found on the threads in this forum. Rust is an environmental issue in the place the speakers were used or stored--not a transport issue.  If the drivers have lots of oxide buildup that flakes off, they're in for trouble in any case--and transportation is the least of your worries.

 

I will also caveat this advice by saying that only highly compliant woofers (i.e., direct radiating subwoofers) with poorly designed spiders/surrounds would be likely to have issues.  Any driver with sufficient surround stiffness and low-ish moving mass would be pretty much immune from problems.  Think about it: if the woofers sag permanently on transport, they're going to do the same thing just sitting in an upright (facing forward) position over time, so you're going to have trouble with the driver aging anyway if they have problems during transport.  If the magnet assembly shifts relative to the voice coil assembly, then you again have a driver issue that's going to occur in operation anyway. If the drivers were going to have issues, the manufacturer would be inundated with warranty replacements to begin with, since some of the worst transport conditions will be found going from the factory to buyer to begin with. 

 

So the bottom line is: if the anecdotal story of drivers self-destructing during transport really bothers you, I'd recommend that you look closer at whether or not the drivers had issues before transport--perhaps the drivers were damaged due to overheating beforehand, but perhaps someone slipped in a little lubricant to disguise the problems before sale/transport to the buyer's location. 

 

Chris

 

 

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I picked up my first pair of LaScalas in nodtbern Illinois. I placed them on their backs. This meant the were sitting face down for the trip back to Georgia. Athey rode quite comfortably. Of course that meant the K400 and drivers were hanging by their screws, but they were fine.

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7 hours ago, Chris A said:

the engineering term is called "jerk"

 

... all this time I thought my wife was going hormonal on me, she was actually speaking to me as an engineer?!!!

 

Dang, I have some 'splaining to do!!

 

:blush2:

 

:emotion-21::emotion-21:

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28 minutes ago, Coytee said:
  7 hours ago, Chris A said:

the engineering term is called "jerk"

 

More likely a regional engineering term.  The other usage of that term is pretty much universal.  I know my wife isn't speaking in engineering terms when she uses the word!

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Funny, I'd use the term jounce for the topic at hand.

 

Jounce (jouns), v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Jounced (jounst); p. pr. & vb. n. Jouncing (joun"s[i^]ng).]
 To jolt; to shake, especially by rough riding or by driving  over obstructions.
 [1913 Webster]

 

Jerk, to me, has usually implied some direct (mis?)application of energy while the motion of a speaker cone during transportation would be the result of an indirect application of energy to it, thus somehow different.  Much the same as when teaching a child to drive a stick-shift, I'd say they were jerking the car, not jerking me.

 

I always try to learn something new every day, I guess this was it for today.  There's a whole slew of concepts relating to jerk as a physics phenomenon.  I'd still be surprised to hear of very many engineers using the term in the wikipedia sense.

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Perhaps too late, but it would not hurt to short the woofer terminals at the crossover and use the magnet/voice coil interaction to prevent the vc from moving too far because of some jerk.

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5 hours ago, JohnA said:

Perhaps too late, but it would not hurt to short the woofer terminals at the crossover and use the magnet/voice coil interaction to prevent the vc from moving too far because of some jerk.

Interesting thought.

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On 5/3/2019 at 1:33 PM, Endo said:

...
They tested fine at the place of sale; but, after driving home, 3 of the 4 woofers had developed voice-coil-rub. Might be completely unrelated; but I thought I would ask.

Oops! 3/4 Woofers got OOCHED! Just enough to cause Coil Rub! Try ooching then the opposite way! 😉

John Kuthe...

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On 5/3/2019 at 2:33 PM, Endo said:

Anybody know about this? I read a post, on another forum, where I guy bought a pair of KLF-30s:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/klipsch-klf-30-advice-needed.665929/

They tested fine at the place of sale; but, after driving home, 3 of the 4 woofers had developed voice-coil-rub. Might be completely unrelated; but I thought I would ask.

 

It doesn’t say how he transported them or if he wrapped them someway for protection during transportation but if it was in an open truck and woofers exposed to the wind as he traveled might have contributed to the problems he had.

 

miketn

 

 

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Looks like the speakers had been kept in a humid environment with rust whiskers formed but not yet shook off by (heavy-handed?) transportation when he'd auditioned them, near as I can tell by his second photo.  I doubt that snubbing the drivers either physically or electrically would've helped in that case.  Not shaking the crap out of them (literally) would have been the only thing to "save" them at that point.

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On ‎5‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 8:41 AM, Chris A said:

I don't believe any Klipsch drivers (except an outside chance the consumer-grade direct-radiating subwoofers with very heavy cones and very compliant suspensions that would be subject to resonances during transport) would have any issues

 

One thing I have always done is to short the input terminals on the crossover, or the terminals on a bare driver when moving or shipping loudspeakers. This will damp cone movement if things get rough. Drivers used to be shipped that way but I haven't seen it done lately.

 

I would lay the speakers face down if possible, with padding underneath.

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