Energy C8 cracked tweeter dome

[Northern beats]

Hello, greetings from Northern Canada! I bought some used C8s the other day and neglected to notice that both tweeters are damaged , one is unplayable after medium volume. Sucks to be me , a very sad discovery went from joy to gut sickness feeling after hearing the crack crack sputter from one of the tweeters. One dome is cracked 1/4” the offender and the other is pushed in but seems to sound OK still.

They overall condition of the speakers are 9/10 and the woofers sound perfect. Thanks to the interwebz I found this forum and a good older thread with some options on aftermarket replacement tweeters to replace the original 5DR53063 tweeters which are long NLA. The seller has offered to take them back at full refund , super kind person. It took me awhile to find some awesome massive speakers - I like my music loud and clear. So I like them a lot but live in a small town and rebuilding crossovers etc for aftermarket tweeters would be all outsourced and not cheap .
Basically, does anyone have any leads for a stock replacement tweeter or two? Thank you for any constructive advice / leads.

 

[lovinthehd]

Why not just take up the return offer and keep shopping? That's what I'd do....

 

[Northern beats]

That’s very logical response. Because these are local I’m tempted to try and save them. The seller has also offered a partial refund and I keep them (to fix). As mentioned I live in a small town and gear like this does not pop up for sale often. They were very reasonably priced but I don’t want to be stuck with some nice looking boat anchors.
Has anyone found and installed an aftermarket tweeter on a C series and using the stock crossover with “success”?

 

[TLS Guy]

That’s very logical response. Because these are local I’m tempted to try and save them. The seller has also offered a partial refund and I keep them (to fix). As mentioned I live in a small town and gear like this does not pop up for sale often. They were very reasonably priced but I don’t want to be stuck with some nice looking boat anchors.
Has anyone found and installed an aftermarket tweeter on a C series and using the stock crossover with “success”?

The problem is that finding a replacement driver is like the proverbial shot in the dark. You would need the exact specification of that tweeter and all of the Thiel/Small parameters. Even when you have them, you can seldom find a suitable unit. So salvage usually requires a crossover modification, and that requires the existing circuit and the Thiel/Small parameters of the woofer, in addition its acoustic response.

If you were skilled and had the equipment you could measure those parameters, and use a new tweeter with a redesigned and built crossover.

So that is a DIY job. However to pay someone to do it, would not be worth it.

If this is not something you could do, then take your refund and run.

The bottom line is that you need to be a skilled DIY designer and builder with the right equipment, and preferably the right computer design software. I suspect being in Northern Canada, there is likely not someone nearby who fits that description.

 

[lovinthehd]

That’s very logical response. Because these are local I’m tempted to try and save them. The seller has also offered a partial refund and I keep them (to fix). As mentioned I live in a small town and gear like this does not pop up for sale often. They were very reasonably priced but I don’t want to be stuck with some nice looking boat anchors.
Has anyone found and installed an aftermarket tweeter on a C series and using the stock crossover with “success”?

Unless you want to do your own dive into crossover design to incorporate new tweeters, I'd never even consider buying a general purpose crossover....I just don't think it's worth the time/effort for someone as green as you unless you really want to learn this sort of stuff and want to dive into the design aspect. It is too bad you can't get service/spares for Energy, believe you can thank Voxx/Klipsch for that.

 

[Pandaman617]

So Energy in past models had shared a substantial amount of driver and other technology with Mirage when they, along with Athena, were all part of API and eventually purchased by Klipsch and also ruined by them. I’m a bit biased as a huge Mirage fan obviously, but in stereotypical Asian fashion if given the opportunity I will fight Klipsch to the death one day. Anyways, for instance the RC-LCR bookshelf speakers were very closely related to the Mirage HDT-F bookshelfs I use as surround backs, the Energy Veritas Bipole surrounds are essentially a cheaper version of the Mirage HDT-R surrounds, the C-8 series from what I recall uses the same tweeter from the 2nd generation Mirage Omni series or one extremely close to it. I could be wrong, but if that’s the case I have multiple replacements if they’ll work for you

 

[highfigh]

Hello, greetings from Northern Canada! I bought some used C8s the other day and neglected to notice that both tweeters are damaged , one is unplayable after medium volume. Sucks to be me , a very sad discovery went from joy to gut sickness feeling after hearing the crack crack sputter from one of the tweeters. One dome is cracked 1/4” the offender and the other is pushed in but seems to sound OK still.

They overall condition of the speakers are 9/10 and the woofers sound perfect. Thanks to the interwebz I found this forum and a good older thread with some options on aftermarket replacement tweeters to replace the original 5DR53063 tweeters which are long NLA. The seller has offered to take them back at full refund , super kind person. It took me awhile to find some awesome massive speakers - I like my music loud and clear. So I like them a lot but live in a small town and rebuilding crossovers etc for aftermarket tweeters would be all outsourced and not cheap .
Basically, does anyone have any leads for a stock replacement tweeter or two? Thank you for any constructive advice / leads.

The tweeter diaphragm should be replaceable- search for Energy Connoisseur Tweeter 5DR53063 diaphragm. It may have two raised areas in the magnet's plate and two holes in the plastic of the diaphragm that align before being snapped into place or it may be a round assembly that has three or four clips that need to be released in order to remove the tweeter.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hello, greetings from Northern Canada! I bought some used C8s the other day and neglected to notice that both tweeters are damaged , one is unplayable after medium volume. Sucks to be me , a very sad discovery went from joy to gut sickness feeling after hearing the crack crack sputter from one of the tweeters. One dome is cracked 1/4” the offender and the other is pushed in but seems to sound OK still.

They overall condition of the speakers are 9/10 and the woofers sound perfect. Thanks to the interwebz I found this forum and a good older thread with some options on aftermarket replacement tweeters to replace the original 5DR53063 tweeters which are long NLA. The seller has offered to take them back at full refund , super kind person. It took me awhile to find some awesome massive speakers - I like my music loud and clear. So I like them a lot but live in a small town and rebuilding crossovers etc for aftermarket tweeters would be all outsourced and not cheap .
Basically, does anyone have any leads for a stock replacement tweeter or two? Thank you for any constructive advice / leads.

I have done some sleuthing. I am pretty sure this is the tweeter you need. Those C8 speakers used Titanium tweeters. Titanium is a brittle metal and prone to cracking.

The sensitivity matches your speakers, and Fs is low enough to match the crossover point of your speakers.

I am sure those tweeters will work.

 

[Northern beats]

So Energy in past models had shared a substantial amount of driver and other technology with Mirage when they, along with Athena, were all part of API and eventually purchased by Klipsch and also ruined by them. I’m a bit biased as a huge Mirage fan obviously, but in stereotypical Asian fashion if given the opportunity I will fight Klipsch to the death one day. Anyways, for instance the RC-LCR bookshelf speakers were very closely related to the Mirage HDT-F bookshelfs I use as surround backs, the Energy Veritas Bipole surrounds are essentially a cheaper version of the Mirage HDT-R surrounds, the C-8 series from what I recall uses the same tweeter from the 2nd generation Mirage Omni series or one extremely close to it. I could be wrong, but if that’s the case I have multiple replacements if they’ll work for you

Thank you PandaMan!! You da man! Very kind of you, I will definitely research further.

 

[Northern beats]

I have done some sleuthing. I am pretty sure this is the tweeter you need. Those C8 speakers used Titanium tweeters. Titanium is a brittle metal and prone to cracking.

The sensitivity matches your speakers, and Fs is low enough to match the crossover point of your speakers.

I am sure those tweeters will work.

Thank you TLS guy. I appreciate your time and homework spent on finding a solution for me. According to the Energy C8 manual they are an aluminum hybrid dome tweeter. Not sure where your sources of info but I don’t think they are not titanium.

 

[Northern beats]

Update: I went back to the seller with the speakers and the extra gear that the seller included in the deal (Nakamichi RE receiver and M4 CD player, 2 sets of beautiful speaker cables) with the intent of getting a full refund. Before I unloaded the gear I asked what they would now do with all this gear, and was told they would go to the dump or goodwill.
I wound up leaving with all the gear , basically a full refund and they were happy with the knowledge that their system will go on with new life! So now I have to fix the tweeters! Funny how life works sometimes.. cheers

 

[PENG]

Update: I went back to the seller with the speakers and the extra gear that the seller included in the deal (Nakamichi RE receiver and M4 CD player, 2 sets of beautiful speaker cables) with the intent of getting a full refund. Before I unloaded the gear I asked what they would now do with all this gear, and was told they would go to the dump or goodwill.
I wound up leaving with all the gear , basically a full refund and they were happy with the knowledge that their system will go on with new life! So now I have to fix the tweeters! Funny how life works sometimes.. cheers

For repair/replacement of the C8 tweeter have you tried the following:

Energy : FAQ (energy-speakers.com)
Energy : Service Centers (energy-speakers.com)

 

[TLS Guy]

Thank you TLS guy. I appreciate your time and homework spent on finding a solution for me. According to the Energy C8 manual they are an aluminum hybrid dome tweeter. Not sure where your sources of info but I don’t think they are not titanium.

I am not sure that is right. I suspect that they may have some aluminum, but I bet they are largely titanium. For one thing they cracked and aluminum domes generally just dent. Titanium is very light and those speakers are unusually efficient. There are not many dome tweeters with an efficiency of 93 db. Those Audax tweeters have a very flat frequency response. They match the efficiency of your speakers, and their Fs is far enough away from the crossover point. That means it is safe to recommend them as a drop in replacement for the tweeters of your C8s.