Stonehenge woofer removal

[ron325]

First post (please excuse my ignorance)... I just bought a pair of 819a's (Stonehenge 1) in ok condition. One speaker- only the woofer works. I looked for loose wires behind the tweeter and HF attenuator thing, and found none... actually, it the wires look mint- like they've never been touched. I want to see if any wires coming from the woofer are loose, but I can't remove it (is it GLUED in?) I imagine the problem lies in the HF thing, but there are so many wires, I don't know where to start. And, there are no screws to take the cabinet apart, which is a pain.
Any help is appreciated.

[ron325]

I took the tweeter out and wired it directly to my amp, and got nothing... does that mean it's dead? If so, it seems odd, 'cause these things look so un-used or abused.
My other tweeter just spits out little trickles of noise (barely audible) when wired straight to the amp. That's even more confusing than the one which makes no sound.
This is looking like a bad gamble (buying speakers unheard, that is).
Any ideas?

[LICORNE]

Hi,
Yes hard to match. Fostex good tweeters.

I would ask Bill at GPA what a good match you could use.


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[bfish]

If you applied fullrange music straight from the amp at any signifigant volume, you may have fried the tweets. Maybe they were good before, maybe not, probably never know now.

[ron325]

No, that's not the case... there was no difference when running the the tweeters directly to the amp compared to while they were in the box.
One of them made absolutely no sound and the other made a tiny noise.
Is there some tool (a voltmeter?) I can use to test a driver? Heck, I don't even know if the crossovers are good.

[bfish]

I'm following you now. You can use an ohm meter to check the DC resistance of the voice coils, each driver (unconnected) should measure about 5-6 ohms terminal to terminal, and open (infinity) from either terminal to the frame.

[ron325]

I thought there was something like that (I had one like 20 years ago when I was a kid)... I'll go buy one today and test.
Thanks!

[ron325]

Well, one tweeter registers 0, so I guess it's blown.
The other tweeter (which only makes small noises) registers 5 Ohms. The woofer is 10 ohms. That tweeter makes no sound at all when the xover is turned to "10". Any number less than that it just sounds blown. Bummer.
Now, I'm gonna try and get the other woofer out.

[ron325]

Bill at GPA recommended calling MCM electronics for the tweeters. I guess I'll keep checking eBay for some stock Altec tweeters, though. I don't know of any other place to buy 'em (I thought GPA had that sort of stuff, but not so).

[bfish]

If your tweets are 427-8A as shown in the '75 component reference, they were listed as non-repairable (throwaway) even back then in '75. While these occasionally pop up on eBay, (the last ones I saw brought over $100-untested, as-is=big gamble=somebody with more money than brains) they're really nothing special, and were typical of the soft-dome tweeters commonly used in those days by many brands. Bill's suggestion to seek replacements from MCM was a good one, there's a wide selection to choose from, many of which will outperform the originals , are new with warranty, and can be had for <$50/pr. I bought some Peerless soft domes awhile back for $8 each that I guarantee would outperform the 427s This is one of those cases where the sacredness of 'keeping it original' just doesn't make sense.

http://www.mcminone.com/category.asp...3829626&Page=1