Checking Forte's

[Sybaris]

I've had my Forte's since '87. I think one of them doesn't have quite the response or coverage as the other one. It just doesn't sound right and I can't determine what freq range is low or missing. Is there any way to determine this with some sort of meter?

Thanks

[WMcD]

Yes.

The suspicion is that one driver has failed.

A classic test is drive the speakers with noise. If you can set your receiver to an open broadcast channel with mute off, you'll get a hiss.

This is just so you get noise to the speakers. CD test recordings have noise tracks too. Music varies too much to allow a good test condition.

Then you have to determine whether the bass, mid and tweeter are putting out hiss. A dead one should be obvious. Take off the grill if you can to allow good physical approximation of what you're listening to.

You might do this in three ways.

One is just by placing an ear next to the driver. Although it seems silly, putting finger in the other ear can help focus perception. Keep the level low so you don't get blasted. We want a lifetime of listening.

A second way is to buy three feet of plastic tubing at Home Depot. One end is held in your ear, the other end is a probe to hold up against the driver. Again, seems silly, but this works to let you explore with the business end of the tube. Here you don't have to plug the other ear with your third hand.

The third way is to buy a sound pressure meter at Radio Shack. One model has an analog meter, the other is digital. Most people like watching the needle on the analog meter. Makes sense.

This by the way is an excellent investment of about $40. HT set up demands that you have one of these and it is a basic piece of test equipment, which gets you into measurement instead of perceptive guesswork.

Naturally, you hold the microphone end of the meter close to the suspect speaker.

I have had a problem with speakers when something doesn't seem right. It is somewhat astonishing to realize that a driver can fail, yet it is not obvious without such tests.

Let us know what you find. On the forum, we're interested in experiments and results.

Of course, if you find that a driver has failed, we'll have to discuss what to do about it.

Gil