Speaker repair

JJV

Can anyone recommend a facility in Dublin that repairs speakers. The college where I work has 4 passive JBL wedge monitors. The students took them out to a charity gig & blew one of them up. :rolleyes:

I think the horn has gone although I can still hear some HF from it, the overall sound is very dull.

Thanks

JJ

Bluebirdstudios

Try Big Bear Sound they have a repair department. Not 100% if they do Speaker end of things but worth a call. My gut feeling - if the voice coil is damaged or tweeter cone ripped my be cheaper to throw in a new speaker. Guess work on my part!

TroutMask

JBL horn diaphragm replacement is an easy enough fix. The expensive part is the diaphragm itself. You could open up the wedge and look at the HF driver and check it out. There are two main types of events: overpowering and DC clip. If there is a tear around the edge of the diaphragm, then this is DC clip damage; if there is a scorched appearance to the voice coil (it should look shiny brass colour and not burned looking) then this is indicative of overpowering.

TBH (and certainly not meaning to sound preachy) - noob student-types shouldn't really be let loose with pro audio gear without supervision. If it has to be that way, then perhaps some protection is in order. I've used: fuses, truck-bulbs, and large polypropylene caps (set 1 octave below the crossover point for the horn driver) to prevent HF driver failure. System limiting should be in place too - DI's (esp. Bass!!) will frequently blow speakers and drivers if not compressed/limited on the channel - and preferably on the monitor send as well.

If you do decide to replace the diaphragm yourself - take great care to ensure that there is no debris, dust or charred bits of the blown diaphragm left in the
voice coil gap. I use (many) pieces of 1" masking tape folded into a triangular shape - sticky on both sides. If any debris is stuck in there - this will get it out. Keep cleaning it until the tape comes out clean.

PaulBrewer

John will get you JBL parts.