Damage to Tweeter?

[RTilbury]

Is it possible to damage a tweeter from a sudden loud burst of music or noise? For example my family was watching some home videos and the volume was very low so we turned the amp up a bit, it was still only at about 9'oclock on the dial. Suddenly someones voice came in on the video and it was loud and distorted. I instantly turned down the amp all the way.

Do these type of things damage speakers? Somtimes this also happens when I was listening to a low volume cd one day and the next day i turn on the TV and it is too loud.

How do you know when a tweeter has been damaged?

[Peter Duminy]

If you are asking about the Tannoy Fusion series, they have ferro-fluid cooled tweeters. It is doubtful if a short burst would have damaged them. The symptom of a blown tweeter is no sound. If the system sounds like it did before, I doubt you have any worries.

[RTilbury]

If you are asking about the Tannoy Fusion series, they have ferro-fluid cooled tweeters. It is doubtful if a short burst would have damaged them. The symptom of a blown tweeter is no sound. If the system sounds like it did before, I doubt you have any worries.

So basically if a tweeter is ruined it will sound terrible or not make any sound at all? I cant tell if it sounded as it did before because it had been a few hours in between.

[ruadmaa]

Is it possible to damage a tweeter from a sudden loud burst of music or noise? For example my family was watching some home videos and the volume was very low so we turned the amp up a bit, it was still only at about 9'oclock on the dial. Suddenly someones voice came in on the video and it was loud and distorted. I instantly turned down the amp all the way.

Do these type of things damage speakers? Somtimes this also happens when I was listening to a low volume cd one day and the next day i turn on the TV and it is too loud.

How do you know when a tweeter has been damaged?

The human voice falls into the 630 Hz to 1 Khz range. It is extremely doubtful that a human voice could have damaged your tweeter. To the best of my knowledge, when a tweeter burns out you get no sound at all.

[Peter Duminy]

So basically if a tweeter is ruined it will sound terrible or not make any sound at all? I cant tell if it sounded as it did before because it had been a few hours in between.

A tweeter that has been really damaged would have an unmistakable "raspy" and "tizzy" texture to it, especially on human voices, especially female singers. As ruadmaa also noted, the other symptom is no output at all.

[ruadmaa]

A tweeter that has been really damaged would have an unmistakable "raspy" and "tizzy" texture to it, especially on human voices, especially female singers. As ruadmaa also noted, the other symptom is no output at all.

Peter, tweeters do not play human voices. Human voices are far too low in frequency to even be considered playable by a tweeter. Average crossover points for a 3 way speaker system are 600 and 6000hz. The human voice doesn't go anywhere near 5000 hz. His tweeter WAS NOT damaged by a human voice. Tweeter damage results when there is a very shrill high frequency blast that is amplified far too loud by an amplifier. Mostly this kind of thing is done by an accident of some sort. (Playing a recording at double or triple speed too loudly will burn out a tweeter) It takes a fairly high frequency to "fry" a tweeter.

[Peter Duminy]

Peter, tweeters do not play human voices. Human voices are far too low in frequency to even be considered playable by a tweeter. Average crossover points for a 3 way speaker system are 600 and 6000hz. The human voice doesn't go anywhere near 5000 hz. His tweeter WAS NOT damaged by a human voice. Tweeter damage results when there is a very shrill high frequency blast that is amplified far too loud by an amplifier. Mostly this kind of thing is done by an accident of some sort. (Playing a recording at double or triple speed too loudly will burn out a tweeter) It takes a fairly high frequency to "fry" a tweeter.

1. The poster has a pair of Tannoy Fusions x-over 2.9kHz. This is a 2-way system.

2. I never said he damaged his speakers with a human voice. I merely suggested that a female voice could excite audible resonance in a tweeter if it was suffering from damage.

3. Tweeeters do in fact reproduce parts of the spectrum of the human voice, especially in a 2-way system.

[Pat D]

Is it possible to damage a tweeter from a sudden loud burst of music or noise? For example my family was watching some home videos and the volume was very low so we turned the amp up a bit, it was still only at about 9'oclock on the dial. Suddenly someones voice came in on the video and it was loud and distorted. I instantly turned down the amp all the way.

Do these type of things damage speakers? Somtimes this also happens when I was listening to a low volume cd one day and the next day i turn on the TV and it is too loud.

How do you know when a tweeter has been damaged?

With a crossover at 2900 Hz, this is unlikely. There is very little musical energy up there and distortion products from clipping are not really at a very high level under most circumstance.

How do you find out whether the tweeter has been damaged? Well, as others have pointed out, if the tweeter has its voice coil burned out, it just won't make any noise. Take some music or FM hiss at a moderate volume and stick your ear near the tweeter. If you hear something coming out, probably a little wispy sound and a bit of hiss (if you have never done this, you may be shocked at how little comes out!), then the voice coil is not burned out.

It is possible for the varnish or whatever on the voice coil to bubble up in some designs and introduce a scratchy sound and I suppose the tweeter could be driven past it's excursion limits but I doubt it.

If the speaker works OK, then it is unlikely the tweeters are damaged.

[ruadmaa]

1. The poster has a pair of Tannoy Fusions x-over 2.9kHz. This is a 2-way system.

2. I never said he damaged his speakers with a human voice. I merely suggested that a female voice could excite audible resonance in a tweeter if it was suffering from damage.

3. Tweeeters do in fact reproduce parts of the spectrum of the human voice, especially in a 2-way system.

Peter, the top end of the human voice (male or female) is just over 1 KHz. His speaker is crossed over at 2.9 KHz. How is his tweeter reproducing any part of the human voice whatsoever??? There is no part of the human voice reproduced by a tweeter in any system that I have ever heard of.

[Peter Duminy]

Peter, the top end of the human voice (male or female) is just over 1 KHz. His speaker is crossed over at 2.9 KHz. How is his tweeter reproducing any part of the human voice whatsoever??? There is no part of the human voice reproduced by a tweeter in any system that I have ever heard of.

I am sorry you are so doubtful of the findings in the R&D field of speakers. We found at the B.B.C. Loudspeaker Research Dept. when I was there that the opposite in fact occurs. This may help:







Also here is another illustration of the Male voice:




As you can see there is a reasonable amout of harmonic behaviour above 1Khz, even on a male voice. Hence, poor tweeters may suffer from "sibilance" on female voices for example. I hope this helps.