DrWho Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 so...I ended up with a pair of heresies with two blown tweeters and was wondering what would be the best way to go about repairing them. I have a feeling that there might be something wrong with the crossover, but I haven't had the time to do a swap between the old broken 73's and the newer working 84's. But let's assume that it's a tweeter problem for now... I believe Bob Crites offers a service to repair tweeters for around $35/each? The other option, which I think would be more fun, cheaper and more interesting would be to get a pair of KSN-1016 piezo tweeters: http://www.itcelectronics.com/pdtl.asp?P=6220 ($9.50/each at martinsoundpro.com) I understand however that the piezo's would require a different kind of crossover. djk has posted a few times over at audioasylum (which I have in my favorites list) about designing a crossover for them. Does anybody know if this would be a suitable drop-in replacement for the heresy? I have heard two varying opinions about piezo's - either they sound great or they sound awful, so I would also like to hear them for myself to draw my own conclusions. They'll be going in the car anyway (for now) so I'm not too extremely worried if they end up sounding bad...so long as I've got some HF information resembling the source material. If I end up going the piezo route, then I'll have a pair of broken K-77's for sale (or I might have Bob fix and sell them for me and then share the profit or something like that). I am under the impression that it is very expensive to purchase new replacement tweeters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kriton Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Hey, Can't you just purchase the replacement tweeter diaphragms, and do it yourself? Surely nothing mechanically is wrong with the tweeters other than the diaphragms are bad? Bob sells some excellent titanium replacement diaphragms (bought a pair for my Corns - should ahve some for the Heresy), and it took me all of 10 minutes to carefully replace them... Or am I not understanding something here? Sorry if stating the obvious... K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Mike, just get em fixed. Buy parts or have Bob do it. I'd stay original.... You moving to campus this week? Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Hardy Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Piezos are, at best, an acquired taste :-) They don't technically "need" a crossover (they essentially ARE capacitors, and cut themselves off at lower frequencies) but benefit from some (IIRC) series resistance to stabilize them ("preclude burnout", is the way PartsExpress puts it). Pezos run without a crossover, though, are felt by many to sound hot, harsh,or spitty (see below). The best piezos were made by Motorola, who sold the line to CTS which (I have heard) has abandoned it. AFAIK, only relatively poor quality, cheap knockoff versions of the old Motorolas are available new at this time. XO's for piezos can be made. A number of DIY gurus have used piezos as 'supertweeters' crossed at very high frequencies to augment full-range drivers to add 'air and sparkle'. Much can be learned on this topic at www.fullrangedriver.com and the forum to be found there. See, e.g., http://melhuish.org/audio/DIYBX16.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben. Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Ten bucks seems high for piezos. A dollar or two is what I paid for the 8 in my bass cabinet, IIRC, but they may have been those Motos on closeout. I don't think any protection is needed in a home environment, but a simple first order network should be adequate, if they don't roll off high enough on their own. I think mine go down to 2-3kHz. If that's true, then they'd need filtering in a Heresy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Anything other than a real Motorola/CTS piezo is a waste of time and money. $10 for a real one is reasonable at this point in time. There were never any closeout prices on these, if you paid a buck or two you got a worthless knock-off. While the real KSN1016As sound quite a bit better than a K77, they require a special crossover. I also would not bother unless you intended to buy a couple of spares against future need. While they don't sound as good, it would be more economical to buy replacement K77 diaphragms from Bob Crites (about $50 or so for the pair). PS: The photo at http://www.itcelectronics does not show a genuine unit. Be careful. I got bent over to the tune of $250 by someone that claimed to have the real thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Hardy Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 It is indeed generally agreed that the real Motorolas are the way to go. I am fortunate to have a few, as well as some of the hypercheap knockoffs. Crossovers are not hard to make for these... the only trick is that the driver itself is a capacitor, so the XO design is rather different than we're used to. "Godzilla" describes his XO in the link I attached previously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 my two cents: get the hersey tweeters fixed BUT US speaker claims to have these tweeters for less than $30 @ http://www.usspeaker.com/cts%20index-1.htm They are nromally a very reliable supplier, regards, tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted August 18, 2005 Author Share Posted August 18, 2005 Ya, I'm moving to campus this weekend...so much stuff to do and so little time. Man life can be hectic (was up till 5am after bringing kait to the ER last night...nothing major, but there's a possibility for appendicitus). I was interested in the piezo's because I heard that when done correctly (motorola with correct crossovers) that they should sound at least decent if not better. This is very much a curiosity thing and I will be putting these speakers in my car anyway so I won't be too upset if they don't sound better. I will of course keep the tweeters laying around and I can easily get them fixed in the future. Not to be lazy, but could someone help me with a crossover diagram specifically for use inside a heresy? I don't quite have this crossover thing nailed yet, but I'm trying to learn. Throwing in the capacitor concept just makes it harder. I believe the specs indicated that the tweeter has a sensitivity of 92dB, which means I have to knock down the squaker and even the woofer? Btw, I linked to the itcelectronics because they had a picture that I could easily link to...I take it the martinsoundpro version is the real deal? http://www.martinsoundpro.com/item.asp?id=340 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 The KSN1016 from Martin are the real thing. http://www.usspeaker does not have any KSN1016, their pricing is BOHICA anyway. The KSN1176 is a POS, avoid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 as usual, dennis is the best source of info...tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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