tannoy speaker repair

H

Henry Arp

New member
Apr 5, 2023
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Iowa City
Hi folks! I have a pair of Tannoy Gold 7 monitors. One of them has, for lack of a better word, "seized up" on me. It's tinny and weak, and the rubber surround around the speaker is stiff and hard, instead of pliable like the other one. I contacted the Tannoy/Music Tribe support and was told this:

"If the speaker sounds weak and tinny, and the LF portion of the driver is not moving, then likely the low frequency coil is burnt and has seized inside the magnet. This type of failure is not recoverable, and is typically a result of overloading the input of the speaker and driving it into the "red zone". I would suggest the item needs to be inspected by a service center and to replace the drive if need be. If you feel technically inclined, you can try and remove the woofer and meter the coil terminals to determine if the load is gone."

I have no warranty. I really don't think I have ever overloaded the speaker. So... I'm willing to give this a shot to see if maybe I can salvage it. Where can I find a guide to "metering the coil terminals to determine if the load is gone"? How difficult is it? Any advice someone may have would be most appreciated!

--Nic
 
The basic technique is simple - disconnect the driver wires, and put even a cheap multimeter across them. You cannot get an accurate impedance measurement this way, but two thing will happen. Test the meter by touching the test probes together on a low Ohms setting and it should read very close to zero - A direct short. Try the probes on the speaker. A blown driver coil won't give you a reading at all - there is a break in the coil somewhere. Or, you will get a complete short - where the coil popped and connected itself to another turn in the coil. One thing to check is to splay your fingers out and gently touch all five onto the cone. Then add pressure and see if the cone goes in and out smoothly and silently. If you can feel roughness, or an 'edge' - then the former the coil is wound on may have overheated and warped so it rubs in the slot. Sometimes the coil may have 'over-excursioned' - maybe a big click or pop with the volume knob well advanced and the former popped completely out of the slot and didn't go back in, lodged on the edge.

Open or short circuit means a new driver or rebuild, but a stuck cone might be resettable and you'd be back to normal. Specialists can repair speakers, and sometimes far cheaper than a new driver.
 
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This is excellent, clear advice. Thanks very much. I won't be able to do this right away, but I will report back once I've done so. Just to close the proverbial circuit (heh). Thanks again-- Nic Arp, Iowa City
 
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