Muffled Sound from Heresy II after Crites Crossover Rebuild

[captainfunk]

I recently had Bob Crites rebuild my crossovers on some 1988 Heresy IIs. Before the rebuild, they didn't necessarily sound bad, just a bit dark. After some poking around online, I decided to have the crossovers rebuilt for clarity and longevity. So tonight I finally found some time to install the new crossovers. I was sure to match polarity in the wiring, with the squawker being the only posts that were unmarked. After putting everything back together and firing them up, I found that the sound was VERY distant and muffled, almost as if something was wired incorrectly. I ABed them with a crappy set of old Sony speakers, which ended up sounding as good as they possibly can. I took the Heresies apart again, making sure there wasn't anything obvious wrong, and even reversing the wires on the squawker, but to my amateur eyes everything looked fine. I've been through every iteration to try to determine if the problem is something that I did, but just can't pin it down.

I know Mr. Crites is held in high esteem around here, and don't want to question his craftsmanship, so I'm wondering if anyone has any advice as far as something I could have done incorrectly before I bother him with a phone call. Thanks!

[Arrow#422]

Make the call in the morning & he will surely walk you through a process of elimination.

A-1, +++, , for BC

 

[wuzzzer]

Do you have the + and - on the network inputs wired correctly?

[PrestonTom]

When people use the word "muffled" it usually means the tweeter or midrange has little or no output. 

Do both cabinets have this problem? Can you run test tones through to hear if you are getting output in the mids and tweets?

 

 

[CECAA850]

Yes, call Bob.  Most likely an installation error.

[Frzninvt]

Could be that you had a blown driver and did not realize it.  Make sure you are getting output from the tweeters or check them with a multi-meter.

[Dave A]

36 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

Yes, call Bob.  Most likely an installation error.

+1   Bob is an outstanding guy and will walk you through whatever is wrong and I bet it is not the crossover. I have found those tweeter spade ends to be easy to twist and break the wire if you are not careful. Getting old connections loose sometimes can be tough and an ohm meter will tell the tale if you have broken the diaphragm wire.

[captainfunk]

10 hours ago, wuzzzer said:

Do you have the + and - on the network inputs wired correctly?

 

I matched the positive and negative from the board to the designated posts on the speakers. The squawker didn't have any indication which was which, but I tried both configurations with the same result.

 

2 hours ago, PrestonTom said:

When people use the word "muffled" it usually means the tweeter or midrange has little or no output. 

Do both cabinets have this problem? Can you run test tones through to hear if you are getting output in the mids and tweets?

 

 

 

Yes it seems that there is almost no output from the midrange or tweeter. One of them seems to get a bit more sound out of the tweeter, but they are both sounding very similar to each other.

 

1 hour ago, Frzninvt said:

Could be that you had a blown driver and did not realize it.  Make sure you are getting output from the tweeters or check them with a multi-meter.

 

1 hour ago, Dave A said:

+1   Bob is an outstanding guy and will walk you through whatever is wrong and I bet it is not the crossover. I have found those tweeter spade ends to be easy to twist and break the wire if you are not careful. Getting old connections loose sometimes can be tough and an ohm meter will tell the tale if you have broken the diaphragm wire.

 

It is a possibility that I could have damaged the posts when disconnecting the wires before taking the crossovers to Russelville. I will check them with an ohm meter later today so I have a bit more information before I call Mr. Crites.

Thanks all!