do I need a new crossover?

[Mattevt]

I have a pair of kg 3.5s. One was accidentally knocked over the other day and now my system goes into protect mode when ever I turn the volume past 2. If I change the balance all the way over to the right side the it plays just fine. I think a magnet or pole piece may have been damaged. I unhooked the tweeter and turned the volume up and it went into protect, so I plugged it in and unhooked the woofer, hoping to isolate that it was the tweeter that was damaged...but it still went into protect. Is it the crossover, or are both the woofer and tweeter damaged. I know the speakers are dated but I really like them. Are these parts replaceable or am I SOL?

[whamo]

Hey, Welcome to the forum. To me it sounds like something's shorting out. Perhaps a small strand of wire somewhere. Don't worry everything can be fixed. I believe to access the crossover on this model you must remove the speaker terminal cup. I've only worked on a KG series speaker once so I don't have much experience with them. Did you check the obvious first like you speaker wires? Other folks with more knowledge will chime in I'm sure so take care and good luck. Mark

[Mattevt]

Thank you for the reply, Whamo. I took out the terminal cup which entailed unhooking the speaker wire when I had everything out of the cabinet I experimented with the tweeter and woofer again. This time the woofer functioned normally and the tweeter did as well the tweeter definitely sounded better than before however the highs were still a little shaky. After returning everything to the cabinet the speakers sounded good again, not great but good. When this problem originally started if I positioned the speaker a little leaning forward it sounded normal again, but eventually no position would work and it would continuously go onto protect. I feel that it could have been a problem with the connection somewhere, but that was fixed when I took the components apart and reassembled them but I am almost certain that there is something wrong with the tweeter. i noticed certain shakiness when the balance was at 50/50 but only for a brief moment. I'm sorry for sounding like a novice, your help is greatly appreciated.

I have a Yamaha RX-595 receiver, a Yamaha CDC-655 cd player and a Realistic LAB-430 turnable. I put this "system" together from scratch on limited funds.

[DrWho]

First of all - do not play music through the tweeter without the crossover network attached. If you're not careful, you can damage the voice coil on the tweeter.

I would check to see if any components came loose inside the crossover terminal cup on the faulty speaker. I would also double check to make sure that the speaker wire isn't shorting out (both at the amp and at the speaker).

[Mattevt]

When I called Klipsch tech support, he told me to play music through the woofer only and then through the tweeter only to see if I could make it go into protect mode to isolate the problem. Both were still connected to the terminal cup when I played them individually, it's just that one or the other was unhooked. However, I recut the speaker cable and all seems well, I still notice that the highs seem a little shaky. Thank you for the responses.

-Matt.

[whamo]

Matt, You could always replace the tweeter diaphram in question. It is very easy. No soldering involved even. It's recommended that you replace both tweeters simultaneously but you don't have to if money is an issue. They're somewhere around $25 each give or take. They can be obtained from Bob Crites or Klipsch might have them as well. Take care, Mark

[PrestonTom]

I would no replace anything until you have finished the trouble-shooting with tech support and until you are sure that the original problem (which sounded like some wires that were shorting) has been solved. Part of the problem is that your description of the "tweeter being flaky" is not very informative.

What does "flaky" mean:

1. The output is intermittent (comes and goes)?

2. The sound is distorted (raspy, unclear, or sounds like static)?

3. The sound is not nearly as loud as in the other channel?

A better description would help otherwise we are only guessing.

Take care,

-Tom

[STL]

If you feel the tweeter has issues try swapping the tweeters between the two speakers. If the problem follows the horn tweeter then you know it is the issue, but if it doesn't then it could be the crossover. You can also make sure all three bolts holding the horn to the magnet are reasonably tight. Let us know what you find...

[Mattevt]

The sound becomes slightly distorted and I it seems to fade slightly for a split second when I return the balance to 50/50. After a second short while it goes away and seems to be fine. However, I realized that I was doing the testing with my turntable. And it may have been the vinyl that was dusty or flawed and I was just paranoid and began to assume that something had to be wrong with it after it fell over. I was not able to reproduce the problem with my cd player. Re-Cutting the wires seems to have done the trick. But here's my question...would a bad speaker wire connection have caused it to go into protect? Is it possible that while I was taking it apart I knocked some part or connection back into place temporarily? I wouldn't be able to tell by switching the tweeters now because the sound seems to be fine. I'm overwhelmed with the knowledge of the participants in this forum, I hope to learn a lot by frequenting the various threads. Thanks for all your insightful responses.

Matt

[DrWho]

A fault in your speaker wire could indeed cause the receiver to go into protect mode. I suppose something in your crossover could have fallen back into place, but that's less likely.

If it's not causing you any problems any more then I would just call it fixed and not worry about it anymore. If it starts acting up again, then you have some alternatives to consider before cutting up the speaker wire again.