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Blown K48, what to do?


levrac13

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What can be done with a blown k48?  I had an amp failure that took it out.  Tried the 9 volt battery test and no cone movement.  Is it repairable, does it go to the dump or some other idea.  Thanks for any information/ideas.

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The news is not good. What exactly happened? Did the amp put an enormous signal into the speaker or is it putting out 10s of volts?. With an RMS meter, is there any continuity between the leads (measuring a few to several Ohms)? Visually, do you see any damage (where the cone attaches in the front or the leads on the back)?

 

When the speaker gets re-coned the voice coil will also be replaced. So it is fixable and the cost (parts and labor)  is certainly less than a new speaker. However, the cost to ship each way can burn up any cost savings. On an optimistic note, phone a few local music stores or guitar shops. They will have someone on staff who can fix this locally (ask the usual questions...).

Good luck,

-Tom

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2 hours ago, levrac13 said:

What can be done with a blown k48?  I had an amp failure that took it out.  Tried the 9 volt battery test and no cone movement.  Is it repairable, does it go to the dump or some other idea.  Thanks for any information/ideas.

 

Simplest way to deal with it would be to find a used one on eBay, they do pop up fairly often. If you go the re-cone route I personally would have them both done at the same time so you have equally matching woofer parts age materials break in time etc.

 

I would do as others have suggested first though which is do a little further investigating to make sure it is the woofer that is in fact bad. I would start by lightly pushing the cone in by hand careful not to damage it just to see / hear if it will move freely on its own, it could be completely frozen and not move at all or it could move but have a scratchy sound that comes from the voice-coil.

 

If it moves freely without noise I'd disconnect it from the crossover inputs and test the voice-coil with a multi-meter to see if it reads open or not. If you do not have a multi-meter on hand you can take your speaker cable from your amplifier and connect it directly to the woofer after it has been disconnected from the crossover at low volume to see if any sound comes out of the woofer or not of course being careful with the speaker leads not to touch them together or ground them on anything.

 

If you get nothing either way I would then remove the woofer from the cabinet and closely inspect the wire leads and the spider to make sure they are still intact. After doing all of these things and still no go then I'd figure what to do from that point on probably try and find one on eBay.

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Thanks guys.  It actually blew a couple of years ago.   Chorus II's hooked up to a Threshold 400a that had an output failure.  (I think that is what the tech said.) Looks like there was almost a fire, board is black and burned looking. I was not around when it happened. Amp has been repaired and I was able to get a good replacement on ebay.  Now I just have this 15" woofer sitting around and was wondering if it could be used for anything or is it feasible to have repaired.  The cone moves but not freely. If I push down on it it will not return to it's original position.  Maybe a guitar shop can use it.  Would rather not just throw it in the trash. 

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7 hours ago, levrac13 said:

What can be done with a blown k48?  I had an amp failure that took it out.  Tried the 9 volt battery test and no cone movement.  Is it repairable, does it go to the dump or some other idea.  Thanks for any information/ideas.

if the cone is good , and top shape , you can replace the voice coil and the dust cap  only , but you gotta do it very carefully --------

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Sad news is throw it out. Getting reconing done any more is a real pain and then you have to wonder if they used OEM equivalent parts to recone with. For future reference If you need to replace one that has been trashed I would look on EBay or Craiglist for a real K-48-K. I have a stack of K-45's here which are harder to find and I am giving them away rather than try to get them fixed.

 

  If you have the parameters of the woofer you can call Eminence for a close match or Klipsch for an OEM but it wont be cheap.

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It is definitely repairable. & not expensive to have done even with shipping or do it yourself if your're mechanically inclined.  Simply speakers makes high quality recone kits that meet or exceed OEM specs.  Well worth ~$100 to recone a k-48 woofer IMO.  These dont come up too often used & when they do they are more than the price to recone & then you have no way of knowing the history of a used woofer, used drivers are usually from abused speakers that couldnt be saved. 

 

https://www.simplyspeakers.com/klipsch-speaker-recone-kit-k48-k-rk-klpk-48-k.html 

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