When you have to balance a day - beloved speaker dies

Hi-Fi Corner
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So one of my much loved Guru Qm10’s has died, gone to the big woofer in the skies.

Had today off and was in the cabin hitting the gym and watching a film, sound going through the system. Film was the Last Kingdom , 7 kings must die ( something like that anyway). I now know one of those kings was my right speaker.

There was a battle scene and a sound made me turn around, just thought it was some effects or something (system wasn’t loud at all).

Anyway didn’t think anything of it, finished with the weights and turned off TV to hit the bike and put on some tunes. As soon as the music went on I thought the balance was off.

Thought maybe I’d caught a control setting on the new Wiim Pro Plus or something. Anyway a quick bit of diagnosis and yup, right speaker only outputting low mids and bass, the rest goosed.

Now, I would have been right royally pissed at this turn of events but a few things have this in perspective.

Firstly I’ve had years of service out of these babies, they have been brilliant music companions.

Then, it’s a first world issue, I could move the Kef Ls50 metas from the third to the second system, but they are just sounding so damned good on the Densen I don’t want to change that.

Then lastly on this apparently unlucky day I reflect that earlier, when driving through the town centre roadworks I had a digger driver swing his rear bucket arm the wrong way, into the road and right at my windscreen and head.

Fortunately I’m always wary of these as unfortunately I know of someone who went this way, so I’m extra cautious with a digger in central reservation etc. I managed to brake and swerve before losing my head in a different way at the muppet on the digger.

So on reflection, I’m disappointed I may have lost a cracking pair of speakers that most likely are beyond economical repair, but at least my head is on its shoulders.

Eying a pair of Kef R3 Metas for the cabin system now…

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Open them up and take a look, could be a loose connection.

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Cheers, I did hear something when it happened and they have no obvious way in, have messaged their designer .

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Just remove the backplate, its like ten screws.

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By backplate are you referring to the recess where the speaker terminals are? If so any advice as to how that is removed, there are literally no screw mountings visible on any part of the speaker. Cheers.

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The QM10s that I see online have ten screws on the backplate, yours is different then.

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All sorts of questions here - the first is, is it the entire speaker or just one driver? If the whole speaker, have you swapped cables over at the back of the amp to confirm if speaker or amp? It is much rarer for an entire speaker to die than am amp channel.

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He mentioned it was certain frequencies. As I interpreted it, the tweeter died, the mid/bass unit is fine.

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Ah, thanks. I now see I didn’t read properly!

So, to the Op, does the mid/bass sound right? If yes, then if you can try swapping tweeter from one cabinet to the other. If problem moves with the tweeter you need a new tweeter, if not it is the crossover.

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Done all the checks isolate the source of issue, def the speaker. Swapped channels even swapped in alternate speaker cable etc and issue follows the speaker.

The version of the speaker is sort of mk 1.5. The original mk 1 was matt black / flat finish with the screws on the back. Then they polished it up with a gloss back and no visible screws, before the mk 2 with different driver setup for both tweeter and mid bass unit.

Have emailed the owner / designer for any advice.

Thanks for all the suggestions, it is appreciated.

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