This may sound dumb, but.
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ddafternoons
Posts: 1
in Speakers
Answers
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Brand, model???Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
do they make sound? have you checked the crossover?
Remove them and plug them straight into the amplifier at VERY low volumes or a v/m meter- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit. -
So... in most typical multi-way loudspeakers, the tweeters 'play' frequencies low enough that almost anyone can hear them. That said... there is a classic test method for those folks* with impaired high frequency hearing.
Use the paperboard inner form ("roll") from a roll of paper towels. Hold one end of it close to the tweeter (carefully of course) and put one's ear up to the other end. It's a quick and dirty stethoscope, and it will usually allow diagnosis of a functional (vs. dysfunctional) HF 'channel' in a loudspeaker for even those with significant HF hearing issues.
Note that an in situ test like this will narrow down the problem if there's no sound, but the root cause could be the driver, wiring, crossover, or a protection device (e.g., fuse).
There ARE supertweeters that, even when working properly, can be very hard to hear. The Pioneer HPM (High Polymer Molecular [Film]) tweeters are a classic example.
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* You know, elderly types who've listened to too-much raucous music way too loud. NOT ME, of course!
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Say what?
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do they make sound? have you checked the crossover?
Remove them and plug them straight into the amplifier at VERY low volumes or a v/m meter
FWIW, my preferred method to test a raw driver (including a tweeter) is to use an AA "battery" (1.5 V cell) and two pieces of wire. Clipleads are best
Touch one wire to one end of the battery, and hold, wrap, or clip the other end to one of the driver's terminals. Hold, wrap, or clip one end of the other wire to the other terminal. Now, touch the free end of the second wire to the battery's other end. There will be a soft but audible "tick" or ssst of static as the circuit is made and the battery's DC turns the voice coil into an electromagnet and moves the driver's diaphragm either in or out.
Don't leave the speaker thus "energized" for too long, but the low voltage will be harmless to even a delicate driver AS LONG as it is not left connected for very long. Heat is the enemy and needs to be minimized. Using a small (low voltage) battery helps minimize the risk!
This technique can be used to ascertain the polarity of a woofer or MR driver (i.e., which terminal is "+" and which is "-" based on the way it moves and which wire is connected to which "pole" on the battery. That usually doesn't work with a tweeter because of the very short excursion of a tweeter's diaphragm, though.
And, yes, a DMM (digital multimeter) or VTVM (vacuum tube voltmeter), using the "ohms" setting, can be used to check the DC resistance of the driver voice coil. Reading of infinite resistance means either the voice coil is "open" (i.e., has a break in the wire somewhere) or one of the fine leads connecting it to the terminals of the driver is loose or disconnected.
A VOM can be used, too, but it should be a good one. Those very cheap pocket VOMs often are of low enough impedance to load the 'device under test' -- with the same potential risk as the battery gambit mentioned above.
