Help Please! Damaged tweeter!

[Anonymous]

Tonestar1:

Hi,

The tweeter in your 685s is sealed there is no way to push it out from behind. Trey some really sticky selotape, masking tape or blu-tac. The tweeter unit is easy enough to replace though. You need to do the following:-

1. Pop off the plastic from around the bass driver.

2. Remove all of the bolts holding the bass driver in place. Be careful as the driver will fall out when last bolt is removed. Probably best to lie the speaker on its back whilst doing this.

3. Put your hand up inside the cavity to the back of the tweeter and loosen large nut that holds the tweeter in place. Remove this, try not to drop it in the cavity 🙂

4. Push the tweeter unit out and pull the crimp connection off. Slide onto new tweeter unit and reverse the process.

Hope this helps.

How can I pop off the plastic around the bass driver?? It seems quite impossible without leaving marks or damaging it... I already scheduled the tweeter replacement, B&W has been excellent, it's gonna be done by a professional but I must confess I'm a little scared about the replacement because looking at the speaker I can't see how they're going to access the tweeter....

 

[Anonymous]

JazzDevill:How can I pop off the plastic around the bass driver?? It seems quite impossible without leaving marks or damaging it...
You'd have to make a thin, hook type tool to do the job. Perhaps paper-clips (or similar strong wire) bent to shape might fit in the gap between the trim and baffle and be strong enough to pull the trim off? As you suggest, levering tools against the baffle will damage it.

I already scheduled the tweeter replacement, B&W has been excellent, it's gonna be done by a professional but I must confess I'm a little scared about the replacement because looking at the speaker I can't see how they're going to access the tweeter....
B & W themselves would have special tools for the job. If by "a professional" you mean the work will be done at a B & W dealer, they should have the appropriate tools.

 

[Anonymous]

dont touch it and leave it to the expert then youve got comeback if something goes wrong assuming its your local dealer doing the work

 

[JoelSim]

If the sound is affected then you need a new tweeter and you should leave it to them. When mine happened the sound wasn't compromised.

 

[Tonestar1]

Quenzer:JazzDevill:How can I pop off the plastic around the bass driver?? It seems quite impossible without leaving marks or damaging it...You'd have to make a thin, hook type tool to do the job. Perhaps paper-clips (or similar strong wire) bent to shape might fit in the gap between the trim and baffle and be strong enough to pull the trim off? As you suggest, levering tools against the baffle will damage it.I already scheduled the tweeter replacement, B&W has been excellent, it's gonna be done by a professional but I must confess I'm a little scared about the replacement because looking at the speaker I can't see how they're going to access the tweeter....B & W themselves would have special tools for the job. If by "a professional" you mean the work will be done at a B & W dealer, they should have the appropriate tools.

You don't require any special tools to remove the plastic cover around the bass driver. You remove it by placing your fingers in the inner part of the cover and pop it off. It only has slightly more resistance than the speaker covers themselves. I really can't imagine why this would require a special tool. I called my dealer straight after I noticed it and there was no mention of any specialist hooks or tools. I am also a complete novice as far as speaker repair is concerned and have never tried anything like that before.

In saying that, If you aren't confident don't touch it. I do not want to be responsible for breaking someones speakers, I was only trying to help. If you're being charged and more than £60/70 for the repair though I would ask why? B&W only charge £37 per tweeter and it only took me about 10/15 mins to replace mine once I knew what to do.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi all

Just to say that mu tweeter problem is solved. I took it to a hifi shop pointed by the B&W manager to Portugal and Spain. They only charged me the tweeter price (58 euros). They did a perfect job with it as the operation didn't leave any signs in the speaker. My terrific treble sound is back. I don't know about burn-in time in the new tweeter, listening to it everything sounds perfect. I'm very happy about the B&W support. Thank's to all about the help.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi everybody!

I've been reading through the forums trying to find a proper solution to a similar problem: a friend's kid managed to make a nice dent in the tweeter of one of my new B&W 685. After almost fainting hot sweat and anger settled in. Then I calmed down and thought it through. I decided to go with the strong tape method and, to my surprise it worked wonderfully well! the dent was gone but you could notice it's edges.... could be worse, I thought. Well, it was!!! The little devil somehow managed to rip the dome from its rubber suspension on about a third of the circumference. It was definitely the same perpetrator since the direction of the riped off rubber was consistent with the position and direction of the dent and I was oh so careful in pulling it out...

Thinking I had a ruined tweeter I just took the speaker to a nicely lit place and taking the excellent advice on how to remove the bass unit and tweeter (thanks Tonestar1 for your detailed instructions, they were a life saver!!!) I decided to go the Do It Yourself way. I was a man with nothing to lose, worst case I had to buy a new tweeter...

I removed the tweeter in no more than 5 min and then contemplated how it was made. It seemed to be one single piece and the rubber suspension was actually glued on with a sticky glue that easily detached but would not reattach... (lower quality, and hence lower price, China manufacturing? maybe). I tried to just glue back again the detached part with some 2 min two component epoxy. It is very strong but does not get rock hard when cured. It didn't work because both the aluminum dome and the rubber suspension had this sticky brownish glue. Therefore I decided to go commando on the thing: using a thin toothpick I unglued the rest (came off unbelievably easy!) and then tried to figure out a way to dismantle the thing since the dome actually then sinks in the magnet assembly and has a wire coil around it. I removed two screws in the back thinking that would be it but the damn thing was glued to the front plate with some kind of double sided adhesive gray foam. This was the the part that took a looong time. I carefully but forcefully started pulling the front plate from the edges and slowly unglued it from the tweeter body. The rubber suspension was still attached to the assembly by 3 small screws; once removed the black plastic back part with the connectors (that contained the rubber suspension) came loose from the dome/magnet assembly and I unweld the wires to free both completely from each other. I noticed that there was a brown/orange-ish liquid in the cavity where the dome went into the magnet assembly. Must be some kind of lubricant so I tried to clean as little as possible from the wire coil and kept the magnet vertical, just in case.

Then the "I need you to be calm and patient" part came. Using cotton swabs and cleaning benzine I removed all traces of the old glue from the edges of the aluminum dome and the edges of the rubber. I then placed a minuet amount of two component epoxy (using a toothpick again) on the edge of the dome where the rubber sits and carefully sat the rubber on top and pressed on the rubber against this edged of the dome. Let it sit for 30 min and it looked maybe not perfect but very good indeed. I then welded on the coil wires and reinserted this into the magnet. I had to try different positions (the magnet is round and can be fitted in 3 different positions because the 3 screws are placed radially equidistant) because the first time round the dome was clearly not moving freely into the magnet when pressed gently to allow the rubber to do its job. Once the right position was found I reattached the 3 small screws, glued this to the front plate and replaced the 2 larger screws that secure the front plate to the tweeter assembly. Then it was just a matter of placing everything back into the speaker box while praying. It is not easy to mess up the wiring because the tweeter has a red painted terminal where the red wire should go and the bass unit has spade connectors of different sizes so they only fit one way.

Then, the big test! I still waited another couple of hours to be sure the epoxy was fully cured and then replaced the speaker on its stand. I picked "the best of sting and the police" and dire straits live at BBC" for the test. They both have nice cymbals so they should do the trick (nervously laughing now...).

To my surprise the thing works wonderfully well!!! Not sure if worse than before but I myself cannot notice the difference. The dent is pretty much invisible since I took the opportunity to straighten the bends from the inside by pressing with my finger nails, only on close inspection can you tell that the little fella has suffered... I just hope it keeps on playing well like this

There you go, I thought I would share my story, it might help others.

Cheers,

Paulo.