extremely frustrating

2261 Views 13 Replies 5 Participants Last post by dreamofinsanity69, Jan 25, 2008

Discussion Starter · Jan 17, 2008

I recently purchased a tempest-x from diy cable and had installed it into a 7.5cu.ft ported box with a 500w oaudio amp and was loving it, it dished out the bass effortlessly at a new years party. I brought it home yesterday and was preparing a physics demonstration with it and listening to some music pretty loud when a particularly bass heavy portion of the track began. It was fine for a few seconds then all of a sudden there was a very loud buzzing which turned out to be a voice coil lead that had broken right where it connects to the cone. Im now a) stuck without what seemed to be an awesome sub and b) no demonstration and don't know what to do.
Any ideas on if a repair is possible? is this obvious neglect on my part and won't be covered?:hide:

Thanks
Benny b

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1 - 14 of 14 Posts

Bent

· #2 · Jan 17, 2008

I'd call Kevin, and indicate you need to do a re-cone on your Tempest X.
I'd doubt it's a warranty claim, but it should cost less than a new driver.

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bonehead848

· #3 · Jan 17, 2008

DIY cable has really good customer service and should take care of you. As Bent said, it may or may not be covered by warranty but that is by far the best option available to you IMO.

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Ricci

· #4 · Jan 17, 2008

What is your box tuned to? Seems weird that you would get a snapped lead with only 500 watts, unless the sub was unloaded below tuning:scratchhead:. Those are supposed to have 27mm xmax.

Could you post a picture of the damage?

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Discussion Starter · #5 · Jan 17, 2008

Well i believe it was at about 5/10 gain, nothing sounded wrong and it only took a split second to hear bad slapping noise( prob leads extending fully ) and then snap and vibrating noise of loose lead hitting back of cone while other coil was still operational. I will upload a picture very shortly. It just seems weird, i've never heard of a speaker reaching a mechanical limit in this way, shouldn't leads be well over long enough for a number of other mechanical limits to be met first?

My 8.5 cu.ft box have dual 4inch dual-flare ports that are 52in long which is roughly a 12hz tuning. I do believe it was a very short burst below tuning but i'd never expect the leads to be this short as i've already stated.

I've just tried to call but no answer for the time being, i will update any news from diycable.

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Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 17, 2008

Hi it is possible to repair the wire itself i have seen it done on more than a few subs which were a mk1 own brand design for a company i worked for.

Now they have a longer wire as it was a big excursion design so it ripped off like yours did, i would try and get them to change it saying it could be a design fault ( as you were n't playing it that loud ?? )

If you get no joy from them, why not solder it yourself ?
It is quite difficult as the wire does n't always like to take the solder,
but it can be done.

Good luck

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Ricci

· #7 · Jan 17, 2008

Wow...with a 12hz tuning I don't think that it was anything below tuning. I've heard of people snapping leads like that in car audio before, but honestly that is from absolutely punishing the subs.

I modeled your set-up in WinISD and you should be ok up to about 600watts and your peak excursion is around 23hz. I don't see any red flags. You would think that the leads would have quite a bit of slack left after xmax.

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imbeaujp

· #8 · Jan 17, 2008

Post some pics and maybe you could fix it yourself.

JP

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Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 23, 2008

Alright, got in touch with Kevin over at DIY Cable and he said he would happily replace the driver if i ship it to him and cover all return costs. This is awesome news and more then I could have hoped for as it is somewhat questionable as a warranty item. Only thing is, I live on the opposite coast in Canada so this is no doubt going to be expensive so i figured I'd look to you guys for some other options.

I'd like to attempt a repair myself as it seems rather intuitive. Here are some pictures, I intend to remove the dust cap with a utility knife and hopefully be able to access the tinsel lead/voice coil soldering point and replace all four leads with slightly longer tinsel. Upon replacing leads i would affix a 5" dust cap in pace of the current 4".

This is just a best guess as to my options, any suggestions otherwise would be great as I thoroughly enjoy listening to this sub and will be careful to keep it under wraps after repair.

Thanks for all the help to date!

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imbeaujp

· #10 · Jan 23, 2008

If the dealer are ok to change if for a new one, I think that you should choose that option.

Once you remove the dust cap, you will not be able to return it if you find something else wrong.

But if the shipping and duties cost are too high (you will pay duties 2 times), fix it yourself maybe the only option.

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Mike P.

· #11 · Jan 23, 2008

You can atempt to repair it yourself, if you know what you're doing and know how to properly solder. From reading on other forums, quite a few people who have tried this have failed. Personally, I would ship it back and get a replacement, and then not have to worry about a fix that might fail in the future.

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Discussion Starter · #12 · Jan 23, 2008

I appreciate all the input, i think i will check with a local repair shop, but i believe i wont have to pay duties if it's listed as a warranty claim, anyone have experience with this?

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Mike P.

· #13 · Jan 23, 2008

Good point. You can phone Customs Canada and ask.

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Discussion Starter · #14 · Jan 25, 2008

Well all is well again, i was able to make the repair myself and now i`m just looking for a source of 5 inch dust caps so i may cover up the repair work

Moving driver to a sealed box so i wont be able to over drive it as i am a bass head and have decided i just need more subs to keep me happy its not the design of my single subwoofer!

. Thanks for the advice along the way, this driver actually has a secondary dust cap over voice coil so i may decide to downfire and leave it the way it is.

Cheers,
Ben

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