Speaker driver replacement advice

[alex2ch]

Hello all, I am new here and really need some help with some speakers I have misused.

The backstory is as such: I hosted a party at home for my 21st birthday, and my father said that I should use the home HiFi system instead of renting a sound system. We have a Cyrus Lyric THREE Stealth which I believe outputs 2x200W. It is connected to a pair of Vienna Acoustics HAYDN Grand speakers which have an impedance of 4ohms and a recommended amplifier drive unit of 25-180W. At some point during the night, the proximity sensors on the Volume Up button malfunctioned and the volume kept going up (I tried pressing the volume down button but to no avail) until it reached the maximum setting and the speakers stopped working.

If anyone has any advice on what the damage to the speakers might be, I would really appreciate it. When plugged in, I can hear some noise from the tweeters but that's all. I don't know if there are fuses I can replace which might have blown to protect the drivers during the accidental surge, or whether the drivers are permanently damaged and I need to replace them.

If I need to replace the drivers, would anyone know where I could source some 15cm 4ohm drivers with a circa 200W rating? I've tried looking around, but they seem quite hard to find. Would a 8ohm driver be an okay replacement? Or would I then have to swap out a resistor? (I am completely clueless, apologies for the newbie questions)

Any advice would be much appreciated, and I thank you in advance for your help! Hopefully I will get to learn something as I am a bit of a newbie to this space.

Alex

 

[Duke]

the volume kept going up... until it reached the maximum setting and the speakers stopped working.

Ouch.

... or whether the drivers are permanently damaged and I need to replace them.\

Probably this. Fuse protection is rare in home audio speakers. I wired fuses in series with my dad's tweeters once upon a time after my younger brother hosted a party and fried the tweeters in dad's Bozaks.

Your dad's tweeters are probably toast.

Spread your fingers to distribute the pressure and gently press on the woofer's cone. If makes scratchy sounds or doesn't move, you're in the market for new midwoofers.

IF it moves without scraching or rubbing, it's possible that one or more crossover components failed. But ime that's less likely.

It is ALSO possible that the amplifier died or shut down first. Can you try other speakers and see if the amplifier is working? Preferably with the power cord in one hand so you can it yank out of the wall if the volume control goes rogue again.

If I need to replace the drivers, would anyone know where I could source some 15cm 4ohm drivers with a circa 200W rating? I've tried looking around, but they seem quite hard to find. Would a 8ohm driver be an okay replacement? Or would I then have to swap out a resistor? (I am completely clueless, apologies for the newbie questions)

IF they are off-the-shelf drivers, you might be able to source replacements. Carefully remove one of each and see if they have labels. Here are three North American-based options for off-the-shelf drivers:

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/welcome <- These guys might be able to suggest suitable replacements even if the drivers are not off-the-shelf units.

Parts Express: Speakers, Amplifiers, Audio Parts and Solutions

Your Audio Solutions HQ Since 1986. Shop Audio Parts from Speakers and Subwoofers to Home Theater and Pro Audio. Top Gear at Low Prices and FREE Shipping

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Solen

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If you can't tell what the specific drivers are, and if Madisound can't help you, I suggest contacting your Vienna Acoustics distributor. https://www.vienna-acoustics.com/distributors/

Hopefully I will get to learn something as I am a bit of a newbie to this space.

You're off to an epic start!! Seriously, in forty years this will make great story when you and your aging audiophile buddies are swapping tales of the good old days.

And, good for you for coming here and making the effort to fix you dad's speakers, even if the cause was an equipment malfunction.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Hello all, I am new here and really need some help with some speakers I have misused.

The backstory is as such: I hosted a party at home for my 21st birthday, and my father said that I should use the home HiFi system instead of renting a sound system. We have a Cyrus Lyric THREE Stealth which I believe outputs 2x200W. It is connected to a pair of Vienna Acoustics HAYDN Grand speakers which have an impedance of 4ohms and a recommended amplifier drive unit of 25-180W. At some point during the night, the proximity sensors on the Volume Up button malfunctioned and the volume kept going up (I tried pressing the volume down button but to no avail) until it reached the maximum setting and the speakers stopped working.

If anyone has any advice on what the damage to the speakers might be, I would really appreciate it. When plugged in, I can hear some noise from the tweeters but that's all. I don't know if there are fuses I can replace which might have blown to protect the drivers during the accidental surge, or whether the drivers are permanently damaged and I need to replace them.

If I need to replace the drivers, would anyone know where I could source some 15cm 4ohm drivers with a circa 200W rating? I've tried looking around, but they seem quite hard to find. Would a 8ohm driver be an okay replacement? Or would I then have to swap out a resistor? (I am completely clueless, apologies for the newbie questions)

Any advice would be much appreciated, and I thank you in advance for your help! Hopefully I will get to learn something as I am a bit of a newbie to this space.

Alex

It is unlikely you blew all the drivers at one time. Tweeters are most vulnerable. So I'd think it is a fuse or you may have blown the amp.

I once had a pair of huge amps capable of a genuine 1000 wpc. And a couple of faults caused all that to go thru some speakers rated for 200 watts. I did blow a tweeter and I had a woofer that had a clicking sound and was damaged. I've been around other similar disasters and never has it resulted in all drivers in a speaker being blown at once. If you have another amp on hand try the speakers with that.

 

[Blumlein 88]

https://www.cyrusaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cyrus-three-handbook-en.pdf

The manual says this Cyrus unit will show fault conditions, are there any shown? Look on page 47 for trouble shooting info. It also mentions for some issues disconnecting the power cord for 30 seconds and plugging it back in may correct issues. I'd try that. Also mentions headphones being plugged in could stop output to speakers.

Sort of a dirty check on speakers is to connect a battery to the speaker leads (disconnect the speakers from the amp first). You should hear a thump or thump tick. If you look you'll see the speakers move either in or out. I'd use a 1.5 volt battery for this. Even a AA or some such will suffice.

If the speakers are damaged it is still possible the damage is to the crossover which may have replaceable components.

 

[DVDdoug]

You are unlikely match the original performance with a different driver, but maybe you'll get lucky and improve it!

When plugged in, I can hear some noise from the tweeters but that's all.

The tweeter might be OK. It's surprising how little sound comes-out of a tweeter alone (especially with a proper crossover blocking the lower frequencies).

If I need to replace the drivers, would anyone know where I could source some 15cm 4ohm drivers with a circa 200W rating?

It's unusual to find a small speaker with a 200W rating. I wonder if it's an honest rating... Speaker power ratings are a little "fuzzy" anyway because a 200W speaker is supposed to be safe with an amplifier hitting 200W on the peaks, with a much lower average... You can burn-out a "200W" speaker with a constant 200W test tone, and the tweeter can handle even less power. So you can burn-out a 200W speaker with a 200W amplifier under certain conditions.

When you crank-up an amplifier into clipping, the peaks don't go up any higher but the average continues to go up. It's the short-term average that heats-up the voice coils. And as the "smooth" sine (and sine-like) waves become more like a square wave and you can get even more than the rated power out of an amplifier!

Is that a port around the tweeters? Ported speakers are "tuned" by adjusting cabinet size and port dimensions to the driver's Thiele-Small parameters. With a different driver you may need to modify the port. You can use speaker design software to modify & re-optimize the box, and you can virtually experiment with different drivers before buying. (WinISD is free.) The software can also predict/model sealed designs.

It's going to be difficult to match the sensitivity of the new woofer with the tweeter. It will be easier if you also buy a new tweeter, but the crossover (which often adjusts for sensitivity differences) is another unknown.

Would a 8ohm driver be an okay replacement?

Maybe. It would be best to stick with 4-Ohms. With double the impedance you get half the wattage (with the same voltage). That would likely mean less output (so less relative to the tweeter) but different speakers have different sensitivity (efficiency) so it's not a sure thing. With the same speaker, half the power is -3dB, so not a huge difference. Different speaker impedance will also mess with the crossover frequency.

Going the other way is usually more of a problem because you are "pulling" more power out of the amplifier and you have to make sure the amplifier is rated for 4-Ohm speakers.

I don't know if there are fuses I can replace which might have blown to protect the drivers during the accidental surge,

Assuming it's not the amplifier that's blown, there might be (blown) speaker fuses. Speakers often rattle (the voice coil) when they burn-out, and usually one burns-out before the other. Both woofers going completely dead together is unusual.

I hosted a party at home for my 21st birthday

When someone says "party" it's usually a drunk person, or a "kid" with access to the volume control. And, you're not going to get "dance club sound" out of those little speakers.

At some point during the night, the proximity sensors on the Volume Up button malfunctioned and the volume kept going up (I tried pressing the volume down button but to no avail) until it reached the maximum setting and the speakers stopped working.

I'd be afraid to use it in the future!