Members Is There Gas In The Car? Posted October 6, 2008 Members Share Posted October 6, 2008 Hi. I own the EON PAK-15. It's an older model - black, not grey. The speaker (in it's case) fell a couple of feet out of my van some time ago and the HF driver must have gotten misaligned because it now distorts noticeably. I took it to have it repaired & the tech said he couldn't hear the problem. This was the same guy who left four screws out of it when I went to pick it up after he had it on his bench for over a month. I hear the distortion. Other people I trust hear it. Question: Can an end-user order the driver from JBL and install it himself? I really don't want to take this speaker back to this guy and, I believe, he's the only shop in town that repairs JBL products. Thanks, Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Danny (NS::U) Posted October 6, 2008 Members Share Posted October 6, 2008 I had a diaphragm de-spec on one of my Eons a while back. I don't know how hard it is to actually get a part, but the install seemed pretty straight forward for the tech I took the box to. The one caveat was that the HF driver assembly was apparently glued to the horn, necessitating a filter-wrench-esque device to remove. It may not be the same with your box, but be aware - and careful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members W. M. Hellinger Posted October 6, 2008 Members Share Posted October 6, 2008 Question: Can an end-user order the driver from JBL and install it himself? I don't believe end-users can order diaphragms and cone kits from JBL, but I'd suspect an end-user can order complete compression drivers through a JBL dealer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PJenkins Posted October 6, 2008 Members Share Posted October 6, 2008 This is a self powered model, correct? If so, the problem may not be the HF driver itself. The fault may lie in the amp section. Which should be easy enough for a technician to determine. Sometimes a slight distortion is hard for someone not familiar with the way it sounded before to pick out. Assuming this guy is JBL authorized maybe take in both speakers and point out the distortion you hear compared the the other box. If he is not authorized then find a shop that is and send it to them. Make sure you give them the history. i.e. " It fell a couple feet" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Is There Gas In The Car? Posted October 6, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 6, 2008 Thank you for your replies. I called a dealer in Durham (NC) who seemed quite knowledgeable. He said the same thing: either the HF driver WORKS or it DOESN'T. I figured that it fell out of the van and dislodged the coil. So, it could be the amplifier instead. OK. I'm using it with my keyboard - a Kurzweil PC2X. Usually, the board sits in my studio connected to my monitoring system. So I know the distortion is not in the instrument. I'll take the EON to the dealer in Durham. Thanks! Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Unalaska Posted October 6, 2008 Members Share Posted October 6, 2008 The diaphragm is damaged and needs to be replaced. No sure if the whole thing needs replacement. You can service this yourself, I'd do if if the tech seemed incomeptent (maybe) and there wasn't anyone in the area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Is There Gas In The Car? Posted October 16, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 16, 2008 Update: First - thanks for all your replies. I took the JBL EON 15PAK to another repair facility. Upon arrival, they took the speaker, opened it, disassembled the compression driver, reassembled and tested it. We played recorded music as well as a keyboard through it. No distortion was heard. I took the speaker home and connected my Kurzweil PC2X keyboard to it. I tested it by playing the internal demos at reasonable OK, fairly loud volume levels. I used the same cables as I have always used. No distortion was heard. I figure that there was dirt in the assembly. Either that, or when the speaker fell onto the concrete it was somehow misaligned. Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks, Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted October 16, 2008 Members Share Posted October 16, 2008 This is possible indeed. It's also possible thatt here was an intermittent connection and the act of disassembly cleared the problem. It's also possible that there is still an intermittent problem with either the amp or the diaphram. Drivers don't just work or not. There is a ton of in between symptoms... the dealer in Duram is clearly not as knowledgeable as he seemes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Is There Gas In The Car? Posted October 16, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 16, 2008 This is possible indeed. It's also possible thatt here was an intermittent connection and the act of disassembly cleared the problem. It's also possible that there is still an intermittent problem with either the amp or the diaphram. Drivers don't just work or not. There is a ton of in between symptoms... the dealer in Duram is clearly not as knowledgeable as he seemes. Thanks Andy. But don't get me wrong - these folks at the repair facility in Durham were not "know-it-alls". In fact, they did everything they could to help me from the minute I walked in the door. I think that in many cases a tweeter or HF driver can be destroyed by too much heat. This is where his comment of "it either works or it doesn't" was coming from when I called him. And that's fine. The distortion I heard sounded to my ears like dirt within the motor assembly of the compression driver. It didn't sound like a loose connection or a faulty amplifier component... more like a chafing. And I knew that it wasn't overloading the input section of the EON from the Kurzweil PC2X. Sure, it could have been a cracked circuit board or cold solder joint. But to me it sounded like the voice coil was rubbing against the magnet assembly. Anyway, the guy wasn't a jerk at all. And it's hard to diagnose something like this on the spot. I really do think that the simple act of disassembling the compression driver may have fixed it. However, I'll continue to use this speaker. If it turns out that this distortion reappears, I'll post again. Maybe this information will be of help to someone else here on the forum. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted October 17, 2008 Members Share Posted October 17, 2008 I didn't insinuate that the dealer was a jerk, just that he does not have much experience with high frequency drivers. There are a lot of things that can go wrong that can cause distorted output. Moisture causing corrosion , partial detachment of the former from the diaphram material, crack in diaphram, bit of magnetic debris in the gap, funk between the underside of the diaphram and the (radial) phase plug, dried up or contaminated ferrofluid, damage due to excessive heat (especially with a paper former)... etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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