NSats’ tweeter surround

PSA: while obvious, check any products when you receive them.

I bought a pair of Nsats a couple of years back but it took forever to finalize the remodel here. When I finally went to mount them today, I noticed the tweeter surround on one of them is cracked. Enthusiastic tightening? Shipping damage? Who knows.

Any thoughts on potential solves? This is what it looks like.

My guess is that over tightening could have done it. Hard to see how shipping damage could affect a recessed area like that. Maybe worth backing off all the screws carefully to see if they are too tight, then re-tightening to a suitable torque setting.

In the first instance, I would email Naim and see if they hold spares.

Hope it works out for you.

Can’t tighten them - the plate where the screws press against cracked.

I was thinking more that you should loosen them, as if one was overtightened they probably all are. Then retighten then to a suitable setting which you might be able to get from Naim support. Thet might save the other drivers from a similar fate, but I suspect the damaged one will need to be replaced.

They were not that tight actually.

The more I look at it the more I think they must have been dropped in transit and the weight if the tweeter cracked the very thin plastic of the surround.

Does it sound OK? If you swap speakers over (physically as well as electrically, positioning each where the other is now), does it sound the same? If yes, then unless you can obtain a replacement it may be best not to fiddle - if you disturb that piece of plastic it may impinge on diaphragm edge movement. If the two speakers sound different (in the treble) then obviously something needs doing.

Best Answer

If necessary, could you repair it? Looking at the picture, I assume undoing the four outer ‘screws’ will release the whole tweeter faceplate and housing from the speaker. I am guessing that undoing the inner ‘screws’ will release the tweeter from the tweeter housing assembly. Once removed, could you then very carefully glue the loose piece of tweeter housing back to the faceplate? Alternatively would something like plastic weld do the trick? If you don’t feel confident to do this it could be worth finding someone who can. Alternatively, if Naim still hold tweeter faceplate stocks then I would expect that swapping the tweeter over to a new faceplate would be quite straightforward?

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Maybe you can obtain the part number and find a replacement (pair) from Vifa. I believe these are still being made. Get in touch with Naim and ask for the torque settings…:pray:

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So, I tried super gluing them - literally. I used Loctite Super Glue Professional Liquid yesterday and waited for the 24hr full cure time. Put it all back together while trying to replicate the torque of the other speaker by touch (I know…).

They sound great. No difference that I can hear between the two units. Looks reasonably clean from a distance, and certainly perfect with the grilles on.

I’ll still look for a replacement part as I don’t know how long they will resist, but this confirmed that it is worth pursuing it. I had never heard NSats before and even plonked in place of my 109s in the second system they sounded really, really good. This is far from the wall, on the top plate as they are too small for the spikes.

Can only imagine what they will sound like once mounted to the wall on NBrackets.

In the meantime, does anyone know the torque specs for them? :slight_smile:

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I believe Scan Speak are make some ring radiators that can be interchanged with the vifa ones… It might pay to try and get model number and do some searches to see if you can use one of the scan Speak ones still in production.

For example: ScanSpeak R2604/832000 replaces Vifa XT25TG-30-04

The above is from a diy site (Troels Gravesen) regarding the ring radiator that a small speakers of mine uses. It does look the same as yours from the outside but not necessarily the same driver.

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I’m pleased you managed to repair them - this gives you time to find a replacement piece at your leisure!

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Dear Richard, please Richard, can you tell us whether woofers & tweteers spares are still available ? Years ago i suffered a woofer failure replaced under warranty. Mine, bought new in 2010 are still fine fortunately.
Regards
Roberto

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