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Quartet with Crites modded crossover killing midrange driver


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HI all, I've recently picked up a pair of very nice Quartets, and was thrilled to see the tweeters have titanium diaphragms as well as sonicaps on the crossovers. However one mid / squaker was DOA when I tested them. I installed a replacement diaphragm from Simply Speakers and it worked fine, for about a minute, then it cut out. Sure enough, that's dead now too. So something is up in the crossover. What in the mid section of the crossover could be so off that it burns out the mids like this?

 

Thanks in advance.

quartet killer crossover.jpg

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You may be right about the cause, but it is possible that the replacement diaphragm was at fault.

 

There was a several year period when the K77 tweeter was unrepairable according to my conversation with Bob Crites. He was one of the most knowledgable Klipsch guys on the planet, now his son runs things and is doing a great job. I mentioned the K77 diaphragm replacement available from Simply Speakers to Bob and he told me he tried several of them and they were inconsistent Chinese junk. Not that this proves everything from Simply Speakers is junk - but those diaphragms were. Like an idiot, I through away my K77's thinking they were history and now you can get the proper diaphragm replacements from Crites and others! : )

 

You really are going to need to make frequency response measurements of the voltage being supplied to the drivers. Do you know anyone that can do that for you?

 

Welcome BTW! I'm a newbie too.

 

Edit: I realize a K77 isn't involved here, it's just an anecdotal data point to illustrate that the problem might not be the crossover. I'm an idiot regardless! : )

Edited by Langston
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That loudspeaker doesn’t use the K-77 and that doesn’t look like work out of the Crites shop. Probably a cap kit and someone else did the work. Pretty sure Michael and Todd don’t use Command Hooks, lol. 
 

The driver is probably fine. I would send the network in for testing. They charge very little for that service.

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Very unusual outcome.  I pulled the midrange and as Deang suggested the mid driver is fine, tested at 11.6 ohms. Then I pulled the crossover and hooked up the mid outside of the speaker cabinet and found that it did work, intermittently. Here's the strangest thing, by wiggling the binding posts I was able to make the mid work. Then I reinstalled the crossover and mid, hooked the speaker back up, and by wiggling the binding posts I can get the mid to work.

 

But only the midrange goes out, the tweeter and woofer stay working no matter what. I've never seen this before. I assume I need to re-check the soldering at the binding posts, but how can two of the three drivers not be affected by wiggling the binding posts like this?

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30 minutes ago, sparks12kv said:

Very unusual outcome.  I pulled the midrange and as Deang suggested the mid driver is fine, tested at 11.6 ohms. Then I pulled the crossover and hooked up the mid outside of the speaker cabinet and found that it did work, intermittently. Here's the strangest thing, by wiggling the binding posts I was able to make the mid work. Then I reinstalled the crossover and mid, hooked the speaker back up, and by wiggling the binding posts I can get the mid to work.

 

But only the midrange goes out, the tweeter and woofer stay working no matter what. I've never seen this before. I assume I need to re-check the soldering at the binding posts, but how can two of the three drivers not be affected by wiggling the binding posts like this?

 

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but have you checked the physical connection of the wires to the mid compression driver?  I have a pair of Heresy IIs and the midrange driver kept cutting out on one of them.  I assumed the membrane was bad, or the crossover, but it was literally just a loose connection.  After cleaning up the contacts and making sure they were snuggly connected, they've been fine.

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47 minutes ago, sparks12kv said:

Very unusual outcome.  I pulled the midrange and as Deang suggested the mid driver is fine, tested at 11.6 ohms. Then I pulled the crossover and hooked up the mid outside of the speaker cabinet and found that it did work, intermittently. Here's the strangest thing, by wiggling the binding posts I was able to make the mid work. Then I reinstalled the crossover and mid, hooked the speaker back up, and by wiggling the binding posts I can get the mid to work.

 

But only the midrange goes out, the tweeter and woofer stay working no matter what. I've never seen this before. I assume I need to re-check the soldering at the binding posts, but how can two of the three drivers not be affected by wiggling the binding posts like this?

stop wiggling the wires , just in case there 's a short ---clean -check all connections --if some are very loose , replace with new connectors or repair -

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Understood, but the question still stands.

 

How is it that I can move the wire in the binding posts, which only have one wire attached to each to the crossover, and have an effect on just one of the three drivers? They should all cut out.

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11 minutes ago, billybob said:

The crossover is on the same terminal cup on just the other side of cup?

In other words, when you flex the terminal s, you are flexing the x-over. Look to the crossover for cracks in the solder, loose connections on it 

If you can do it safely as the capacitors should be avoided.

Regardless if power on or not.

Intermittent...

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I disassembled the binding posts and cable connectors, cleaned and de-oxit-ed everything, including some cleaning on the driver connectors and cables inside the cabinet and reassembled.

 

The problem seems to be the shape of my speaker cable expandable banana connectors which don't make good contact at the end of the inside of the binding post holes. By backing them out just slightly and then expanding them, it cleared up. Still weird, but I'll take the win. Thanks again for everyone's input. 

 

For the record, with the capacitor upgrade and Ti tweeters, these Quartets really sing!

 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, sparks12kv said:

I disassembled the binding posts and cable connectors, cleaned and de-oxit-ed everything, including some cleaning on the driver connectors and cables inside the cabinet and reassembled.

 

The problem seems to be the shape of my speaker cable expandable banana connectors which don't make good contact at the end of the inside of the binding post holes. By backing them out just slightly and then expanding them, it cleared up. Still weird, but I'll take the win. Thanks again for everyone's input. 

 

For the record, with the capacitor upgrade and Ti tweeters, these Quartets really sing!

 

 

 

Oh, a simple dimple...thanks for letting us know.

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