Speaker Test ?

[Lyle Bradford]

Is there a way to check the horn in a speaker to tell if it is good or not? It sounds like one is rattling in one of our JBL's at church. Thanks for any help.

[Donny Hinson]

Lyle, first, check the wires on the horn...they might just be loose. Next, try swapping the speaker wires with one of the other speakers so that it's playing from a different channel. Lastly, try unplugging all speakers but the defective one, and then play some music through it. If it still rattles, it's probably shot.

[Lyle Bradford]

Thanks for the response Donny!I will try it this weekend.

[Denny Turner]

NO NO NO NO NO. DO NOT swap a speaker wire for a horn's wire unless you know what you are doing. Many high fidelity horns will fry in a hearbeat if even a VERY small wattage is put through them without first going through their crossover network (they OFTEN have VERY delicate diaphrams that can't take the displacement or power required of sound wavelengths longer than they are designed for). And if you swap input wires at the input of the crossover network you don't have any way to know if the problem is in the crossoever network or the horn.

Due to the dangers involved, I cannot give suggestions on how to isolate the problem. But if you're gonna try it anyway, ...YOU do the volume setting AND the listening; DON'T let one person adjust the volume as another person is listening close to the speakers. ALWAYS have the person doing the listening ALSO set the volume; Keep everyone else religiously away from the amplifier ANYTIME someone has their ears close to the speaker cabinets. Also, never unplug a speaker cable from a speaker cabinet unless the amplifier is turned OFF. Likewise, make sure all the cables are hooked back up propertly before you turn the amp back on.

I hope this helps.

Aloha,
DT~