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Broke both my 035Ti Tweeters :(

Zonker92

Zonker92

All shiny and chrome
I've been slowly restoring some JBL L80Ts: Recapped T3 crossovers; veneer chip repairs, grill cloth, refinishing cabinets, refoaming woofers, and this weekend I was almost done. One of the last things I planned was to install new foam dampers in the tweeters.

Darn it.

They worked fine, but no, I had to crack them open.

Gently pulling the faceplates off broke the hair-thin leads coming off both tweeters' diaphragms: The ancient adhesive stuck to the faceplates and broke the leads as they came off.

Don't do that. :(

I suppose I can try to solder on jumpers to bridge the broken sections, but my iron isn't that precise and I'm having trouble seeing the breaks. Hard to test for continuity since the leads seem to be coated.

Argh.

One last note: There was adhesive residue under the old foam dampers, and they were 7/8" in diameter. (I had understood there was no adhesive used and the diameter was 3/4".)
 
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Replacement diaphragms are available, but they're not exactly cheap. It might be more cost-effective to buy a smaller, more "precise" iron and attempt a fix. Low-watt small pencil-style irons aren't that costly.
 
Thanks, 1T. But ... this wire is just incredibly fine. I can barely see it, even under a magnifying glass.

Ah, screw it; I just bought some clean used 035TiAs on eBay for $119 shipped, for both. Pretty good deal and it's the correct driver for my T3 crossovers anyway. Whatever; "it's only money" ... Now I can stop agonizing about fixing my stupidity. I'll leave these ones alone.
 
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Zonker92 said:
Thanks, 1T. But ... this wire is just incredibly fine. I can barely see it, even under a magnifying glass.

Ah, screw it; I just bought some clean used 035TiAs on eBay for $119 shipped, for both. Pretty good deal and it's the correct driver for my T3 crossovers anyway. Whatever; "it's only money" ... Now I can stop agonizing about fixing my stupidity. I'll leave these ones alone.
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Good that you hang onto them, diaphragms may come down in price eventually.
 
I've resisted doing the foam on my 044ti's for the same reason. There is just too high a chance of failure to risk the slight sonic improvement it might make.

Sooner or later all of us JBL nuts need to find a good new tweeter that we can use to replace the 035/044ti units with. We can reform bass drivers for decades to come but all of the tweeters out there - working or not - will have deteriorated foam, which will make the speakers overly bright.

I am slowly coming to terms with this now and looking at some options...


Jblnut
 
Maybe their deterioration will automatically compensate for our progressive hearing loss as we age. :D

I had one of my 044Tis open and the tinsel leads seemed much thicker and less vulnerable than the microscopic ones on the 035s. But now I'm escared to mess with them ...
 
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