Sound level problem Elipsa

[newmill]

Hi Guys:
Wondering if anyone has any insight into my speaker problem. The right side of my 2 channel set up is playing at a much reduced volume level. When I unplugged the speaker cables at the speaker end and swapped it withe left side cable, the right side remained the quiet side. I think this proves it is actually a speaker issue. I am assuming that if it was a cable or electornic issue it would have followed with it and shown up on the left side. My Sonus Faber Elipsas are about 9 years old. Any insight, recommendations, testing, or service advice would be gratefully appreciated. As you may have noticed by the post, I am not an electronics guy. Not sure how to even access the crossover to look for problems. Thanks.

 

[Scott Naylor]

Sorry for your difficulties, newmill! Nothing that digs quite like the beloved music system not working like it should. I'm sure many of us here have experienced it and feel your pain

Idea - Have you borrowed a paper towel cardboard tube or the like and listened to each of the drivers in isolation to see if they are singing like they should? It can be surprising how much overall subjective output falls in a channel when just a lowly tweeter decides to keep shtum. This process will at least help with adding some info to the mix?

Wishing you all the best sorting this!

 

[newmill]

Hey Scott, thanks for the reply. I took your advice and listened a little closer. It seems the mid range driver is not working at all. Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Scott Naylor]

Sure thing! You may want to see if you can notice any voice coil problems by gently pushing the driver* cone back in a bit and feel for any catching or scraping. This will at least verify the driver needs replaced, but this “test” isn't always 100% reliable (there can be driver damage that doesn’t show up using this method) and voice coils can be malfunctioning and still not manifest the symptoms mentioned above. The next level of troubleshooting involves driver removal, ohmmeters, soldering irons, batteries or some combination thereof.

At some point accessing technically proficient help will be a must. If you don’t have dealer support, you could contact Sumiko ( http://sumikoaudio.net/sonus-faber/) and see what they suggest? One hopeful thing is Sonus Faber is a well established company and should have parts available, or access to them, if replacement is required.

Here's Sumiko's online service help form:

Online Support Form

All the best! S

edit - * don’t do this with the tweeter ;-)