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Static sound Cornwall II


Kram Snave

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I hear a slight static sound coming from one of my 1988 Cornwall II. It only appears with a female voice at a certain range. I’m not a sound tech so I am having difficulty explaining my situation.  I think it’s coming from the mid range.

Any insight is appreciated.

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First thing to go through is the internal wiring connections.  Take them apart and put them back together again (screws and/or clips).  If that doesn't clear it up, then swap midrange drivers between the cabinets (only after you've isolated the problem to that driver - if it's actually a different driver then swap those).  You can isolate the output of a driver fairly well with a paper towel tube to your ear.  If the problem follows the driver it's the driver.  If it stays with the cabinet the problem is on that crossover board, or with the feed.  Swap feeds from the amp to see where the problem stays/goes, also feeds to the amp/pre-amp, etc.  Until you isolate the source.  Then a plan of attack can be developed.

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While you are in there checking connections, pull the mid.

 

The bolts holding the driver to the lens can loosen over time.

 

Almost every tweeter I have gone titanium with had loose bolts and mids from only a few years back have needed tightening.

 

Might as well separate them and carefully dust them out before tightening.

 

You weren’t messin’ with an EQ and cranked the 500hz band were you?

 

 

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5 hours ago, Kram Snave said:

I hear a slight static sound coming from one of my 1988 Cornwall II. It only appears with a female voice at a certain range. I’m not a sound tech so I am having difficulty explaining my situation.  I think it’s coming from the mid range.

Any insight is appreciated.

First thing I would do is listen to the offending song passage through headphones or a different speaker. Maybe you never noticed it before, but your cornwalls may be resolving so well, you're hearing distortion in a recording. Now that you've heard it, you'll probably be able it pick it up through a different source if you listen carefully. If you can't hear it then you can proceed to tear apart your speakers...

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Yeah, headphones very first.  Then do everything you can behind the equipment since it's easiest.  

 

At each point ascertain whether the anomaly has switched sides or gone away.  Swap left-right the leads from your source going into the pre-amp, at the source.  Same?  Put 'em back, check again and if that removal / reinsertion didn't fix something, like what you're describing, which can happen to/in a low-level connection,  then do the next available connection point in the chain,  the other (downstream) end of the interconnect.  Then the pre to power amp cable if one is used.  Then the speaker wires at the amp output, then at the speakers.  You'll be swapping polarity on the speaker wires so a change won't be to the other channel, obviously, and you'll only need to do the offending channel.  But if that swap-and-back of amp output polarity "fixes the problem" then you'll want to also do the other channel as a precautionary measure.

 

If in following the chain you find the noise repeatably switches sides, the upstream "whatever" is the culprit; or the interconnect itself.

 

Up 'til now you've not needed to touch the speakers (they're heavy!) and hopefully you've found the culprit already.  If not, you want to take a cardboard tube from a roll of paper towel and use it like stethoscope to determine exactly which driver (circuit) to concentrate on.

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