Speaker Voice Coil Rub - Lab Series L7

This is a quick demo of a couple of speakers that, while they did in fact still measure a reasonable DC resistance, had some seriously toasty voice coils! These were in a "blown" Lab Series L7 that I bought for a song. There was nothing wrong with the L7 ... except that all four speakers were toast! I replaced them with 4 WGS Veteran 10's, and she sounds superb now!

[@nycLPplayer]

super helpful in helping to diagnose my speaker issue which ended up being a wobbly table

[@3MonkeysGarage]

Hey, know this video is a couple years old, but wanted to add some to it. I had an old Rola ceramic in my 4x12 that I could hear coming down, so I pulled it and sure enough, the voice coil was rubbing. I took off the dust cover and had a look, shook it out and did see a few glue particles. So, I assumed the coil was burned and was going to need major surgery to bring it back. After a few months neglect I pulled it out of the closet and did a resistance test. looked reasonable, slightly over spec. then i had to play with the cone a bit more, cause I am just like that. and hmmm, the coil was completely detached from the cone. well now. I gently pressed it back into place, making sure not to bend it and that it had free travel into the mag. tested it and good. of course this threw the coil back out, but now a super easy fix. reset and glue. good to go another 30 years.

[@danm3188]

Interesting. Thanks. Never seen just tapping on the cone to hear a difference. Testing by moving the cone / coil is usually effective and sufficient, but one more tool doesn't hurt.

[@stratking78]

Very helpfull for fast speaker testing if there are obvious issues!!!

[@MustacheVerra]

Thanks for the video. Very useful.

[@oooweebaby4483]

How do you fix the rub? One of mine has rub and overloads easy on higher volumes while the other of the same brand handles intense bass heavy volume with clarity.

[@bajaskier]

1959 Jensen bas speaker....paasses the test: no noise when moving cone in and out, no tinny sound when tapping on cone, however tinny rattle when in use. Any advice?

[@aaadogman]

sorry I should have said how do you check voice coil if there is no foam surround left

[@VaughnSkow]

That's an easy one! Since those amps are VERY warm (some say dull) ... I'd go with a pair of nice sparkly-smooth WGS Retro 30s - that'll make an L5 into a world-class amp that will eat any other 2x12 for lunch :-)

[@aaadogman]

what if the speaker needs refoamed? I have speakers here with no foam left at all...

[@neilrobinson8101]

Hi, I'm trying to fix some speakers - I believe they've had re-foamed surrounds, but I think it's been done poorly (one has loose glue); however, the other one sounds good when playing audio, but it has a noise/friction when I gently press the cone, as you do in this video. Could this be the alignment being slightly off following the previous re-foam? If so, could that be resolved by another re-foam? Should I even be concerned if the sound is fine? Any help would be appreciated, as I'm new to this. Cheers!

[@AllHandlesHaveBeenTaken]

No, there are ways to recenter to coil sometimes. Like bending the basket a little

[@davidsaldana7174]

I have sound coming out of my subwoofer but it is in a frozen like state. It worked fine when I took it out of my car but I think iit got rusty

[@deltaw7363]

why would an only way to fix a only burnt speaker be by recone, you can just drop in a new voice coil

[@VaughnSkow]

All depends on the health and beauty of each. A "perfect" L5 is worth about $400-$500 ... a "perfect" MM HD130 (any config) is worth about a hundred bucks more.

[@VaughnSkow]

There are plenty of re-foam kits available on ebay and elsewhere ... or if it's a valuable speaker, you might want to send it to a pro re-coning shop.

[@jeanlarroque9056]

Hi Vaughan, I have a unknown alnico speaker that exactly like the last blown speaker in video. Mine was painted and has no ID code, can you share the name of last blown speaker in video? Thanks, Jean’

[@VaughnSkow]

Just saw this ... it was in fact a CTS.

[@user-xg5gl5uc9w]

HLO po pwde magtanong ano po pang linis ng voice coil

[@itzzjok3rzz208]

my subwoofer has a rubbing sound. When u press on one side it's fine but when u let go, it makes a horrifying sound. I had this for 9 years

[@ryantoomey611]

The resistance test is not always a good indicator. I had a "blown" speaker that had coil rub, but yet they still measured 4 ohms.

[@danm3188]

Yeah, rubbing doesn't = blown. Was it just rubbing, or was it actually not working at all? (yes, I see it's a 2 year old post, but new to me and no one else seems to have replied. :)) If just rubbing, it could be a sagging spider or just a marginal previous job replacing the surrounds that went out of alignment after some time. So if the coil measures good, still a chance it only needs to be re-foamed. First thing would be take a closer look at the spider to see if it's taught and springy still. If the spider seems good then remove the current surround(s) and check to see if the cone/coil can be made to move without rubbing. (Though yes, the coil could be deformed and need replacing even if it does still work with .)

[@robertromero8692]

Thanks for this. I drummed my fingers on my blown woofer, and I can clearly hear a tinny rattling sound. Horrible.

[@XCI5ION]

i got a sub and that makes a rattle sound you can hear when its at low volume and when you push down on the cone part way down you feel that crunchy feeling but it doesnt sound as bad as yours. Is that coil rub I guess the sub its on its way out or is it possible to fix this?

[@jacoblewis4757]

XCI5ION I have that problem too, did you find a solution?

[@VaughnSkow]

Yea, it's well on its way to death! Sorry :-(