Lower sound after speaker gasket repair (Audioengine A2)

[kaustubh]

Hello,

I've an old pair of Audioengine A2 speakers. These speakers have served me as my daily music driver for over 8 years. About a few weeks ago, the rubber ring surrounding the speaker (I think it's called gasket) got a tear.

I got it repaired from a local technician and I noticed that the repaired speaker operates at lower volume as compared to its counterpart. I'm not using any L/R balancing; and using the same settings as before on the desktop.

The technician said that I'll have to give it some time (about 200 hours) for the speaker to operate at its regular volume.

Can someone let me know if this is expected? Thank you for your time in advance.

[Gyro]

Speaker surrounds (surround is the correct term) can initially be stiffer and take some time to achieve their full mechanical compliance (flexibility). New drivers show the same effect but you don't notice it because both channels are doing it at the same rate.

It is of course possible though that the replacement surround doesn't have the same mechanical characteristics (spec) as the original - I guess time will tell (unless you get the other surround replaced too).

[Smoky]

What a coincidence, I installed new foam surrounds in my four JBL Control 5 speakers today!

Removing the gooey old foam and glue was the hardest part.

The new foam is super-soft and didn't affect the sound level. They sound really good.

If your speakers have a crossover, maybe the wiring got crossed

[Smoky]

One other thing to note, and if the speaker is large (+10" diameter), it's possible that the speaker cone got tugged over to one side when the surround was affixed to the frame and now the voice coil is rubbing?

I use the signal generator method when putting in surrounds that way if the cone is pulled over too far you'll hear an ugly change in the tone.

[andy3055]

It is possible that the new surround has different characteristics than the original. Giving it time will not work. If you need them both to sound same, both surrounds and the spiders must be the same. If you want to compare them, make sure your signal is the same on both channels. Put the amp on mono and test. But what I said above is still the driving factor.

[kaustubh]

Thank you all for the responses. My Audioengine A2 has a 2.75" woofer. Attached is the photo of the repaired speaker.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the technician didn't install the speaker correctly after repairing. There's some gap; which annoys me. I'm not sure if wiring could affect the volume. Please let me know if there's anything I could check.

I'm trying to get a multimeter to check the power supply to the speakers. I hope there's no issue with the power supply.

I'm also going to attempt fixing the speaker's position. My guess is that there's an obstruction to the speaker movement.

[andy3055]

If you want to make sure of the wiring, compare with the other speaker. Post a picture from straight above the woofer centered so that the details are visible.
It does not look like a proper job anyway.

[kaustubh]

The wiring looks okay to me; as there's not much to change. I've decided to adjust the L-R balance for a few days to get equally distributed sound. Serves the purpose. I hope this turns out to be a mechanical issue.

Will report back after 200-250 hours of playback on the speakers. That should take us to January next year.

[BurningTantalum]

That really doesn't look like a neat competent repair at all. The surround is badly glued to the cone. The speaker is way off-centre in the aperture in the box, and the rolled surround is squashed against the top edge. This alone will reduce the cone movement and dampen the sound. It would be likely that the surround should be glued to the back of the cone - what does the other speaker look like?
An easy way to test the speaker is to remove it and the speaker from the other unit and lay them face up on a bench (or carpet.) about a metre apart. Connect a mono output to both (in series is easiest, and in phase of course) and place your head equidistant between them. The sound will appear to come from the centre between the speakers. This assumes that your ears are reasonably similar!

[kaustubh]

@BurningTantalum - Good observation. I fixed the position of the speaker myself; almost took about an hour to do so. The speaker's audio's already a bit better than it was after the repair. Here's how it looks now -



As I mentioned earlier, I'm adjust the L-R balance to get a balanced sound from both the speakers.