Unfortunately, I have discovered that during a trip away, something happened to my tweeter cone. After realising that the grill was on upside down, I then found the ubiquitous ‘pushed in’ soft tweeter cone.
Using sellotape and blutak (other sticky stuff is available) I got it back to this. It sounds OK, but should I still replace it?
Ultimately, it requires replacement as it is now damaged (if it wasn’t before) and is likely best done as a pair with the other speaker.
Do you know the tweeter manufacturer? If you’re in the UK, the friendly chaps at Wilmslow Audio are a good place to go for replacement advice and do the job for you if you wish.
As a thought, an alternative method of getting a pushed in tweeter dome to come back out is to get a suitable sized pipe and very gently suck on it to pull the tweeter back in place. I have also seen a hair dryer work on tweeters work but again, just gently heat on the lowest setting and from several inches. Patience is the key.
What make/model is the speaker? The tweeter is probably just fine. If it’s an expensive part, I wouldn’t replace it unless you can hear anomalies in the sound. If its inexpensive then a replacement may ease your mind (!)
Bad luck on the damage. I had a nosey on your profile I’m afraid, are they Dynaudio Special 40s? I think if it was me, with such a lovely speaker, I’d be budgeting to replace the tweeter (both if advised to do so by Dynaudio)
Speaker, location, county etc. or don’t bother
Martin
Hi, yes they are Dynaudio Special 40s. I expect that it is not a cheap tweeter!
They may not be, but a speaker’s components will only add up to a fraction of the actual retail price.
Any item’s retail price is made up of several things R&D, components, manufacturing, wholesale profit, and dealer profit, to name just a few things and on top of all that VAT (or whatever purchase tax is in force in one’s country) for the government coffers.
The Dynaudio website is quite helpful, a bit more searching, in the region of £200
I’d replace it, just for piece of mind. I did when mine was damaged (like yours still sounded okay). I wouldn’t bother replacing both as others have suggested. You already indicate you can’t really tell the difference, while this damages will make a bigger difference than any matching. And then we’re not even discussing placement and room shape/furnishing which is unlikely to be perfectly symmetrical either.
It’s too late now, but I would never touch a soft dome tweeter with anything adhesive (or, really, anything at all).
Many years ago my child (he was about 5) thought that my shiny soft dome tweeters were cute buttons and he pushed both of them in. I did some online research and decided to try using a vacuum cleaner to pop them out. It worked like a charm, and there was almost no visible damage. The only caveat I’d stress is that you should deploy some means of keeping the nozzle from making full contact with the baffle, otherwise you risk a sudden and possibly excessive suction force.
If I was in your shoes I’d at least give this a shot. The tweeter in the photo looks like it has a crease, but you might be lucky and get it to pop back to its original shape. When mine had their “accident” I was sure there would be, at best, some permanent damage, but that was not the case.
