Need help with strange noise coming out of one of my speakers (ELAC UB52)

[lulzor1234]

I was doing a frequency sweep when I noticed that at around 1.9khz one of my speakers started producing a weird noise when above a certain volume. This happens with only one speaker and occurs even after swapping amps. I have uploaded and linked a video here hopefully showing the issue and would greatly appreciate any help.

 

[AnalogSteph]

So you have confirmed that it's always the same speaker doing it (e.g. by swapping over the speaker leads), right?

This is usually an assembly-related mechanical problem, like a loose wire resonating or something. Would have to be in or near the mid-tweeter coax. Maybe even a bad tweeter or bad solder joints on the crossover. Hard to diagnose without some further disassembly.

When it's bad, it's definitely bad (ca. 6.5-6.8 s):

vs. a clean section (7.3-7.8 s)

Your camera (phone?) seems to be normalizing audio levels quite aggressively, any chance you could turn that off? Also, a recording of the good speaker under the same conditions would be good for comparison's sake (maybe position them far enough apart).

Ultimately this seems like a case for Elac's service department.

 

[Doodski]

Yes, this is a warranty claim for Elac. Let them replace the tweeter or whatever the issue is.

 

[lulzor1234]

So you have confirmed that it's always the same speaker doing it (e.g. by swapping over the speaker leads), right?

This is usually an assembly-related mechanical problem, like a loose wire resonating or something. Would have to be in or near the mid-tweeter coax. Maybe even a bad tweeter or bad solder joints on the crossover. Hard to diagnose without some further disassembly.

When it's bad, it's definitely bad (ca. 6.5-6.8 s):
View attachment 403238
vs. a clean section (7.3-7.8 s)
View attachment 403239

Your camera (phone?) seems to be normalizing audio levels quite aggressively, any chance you could turn that off? Also, a recording of the good speaker under the same conditions would be good for comparison's sake (maybe position them far enough apart).

Ultimately this seems like a case for Elac's service department.

sorry yeah its from my phone but there is nothing I can do about the audio, its probably youtube compression maybe?

here is the working side. Unfortunately I live in a country where getting warranty support is probably impossible to get, not to mention I've stupidly lost my receipts since its been awhile. if there is anything i can do at home myself that would be great if not I guess I'll just accept my loss this time I guess

 

[AnalogSteph]

Even at its loudest, that one is way cleaner:

H2 -69 dBr, H3 -75 dBr and H5 at -74 dBr. The bad one had H3 of up to -35 dBr and H2 not far behind.

Unfortunately I live in a country where getting warranty support is probably impossible to get, not to mention I've stupidly lost my receipts since its been awhile. if there is anything i can do at home myself that would be great if not I guess I'll just accept my loss this time I guess

Hmm. Depends on how good you are with repairs. If you've never been into a speaker before, I would be quite hesitant to try it myself. It's not even obvious what side you need to get into (front via trim rings or back). You might get lucky and somebody has posted a teardown for something similar at least, it's worth a look. Checking the crossover (and drivers) for bad solder joints would definitely be worth a shot, everything beyond that gets daunting very quickly.