One of my speakers sounds like it's underwater.

[TLS Guy]

I may just throw a pair of these in there and see what happens

Waste of money. You can't swap drivers. The sensitivity is close, but that Dayton driver is breaking up before the crossover point and the porting and crossover will not be correct. If you want to use those speakers you need to recone them yourself, or pay to have them refoamed.

 

[isolar8001]

I may just throw a pair of these in there and see what happens

Bad Idea as TLSGuy has stated.

Rather than all of us shooting in the dark here...
Is/are the foam/surrounds good ?
Do they need new surrounds ? Thats easy and cheap if that's all it is.

If they are popping and breaking up with good surrounds, you need new woofers....the voice coils are blown.
Pictures of the woofers ?

 

[Gil_Pena]

Remember, keep them away from your aquarium ....

Hahahaha

 

[Gil_Pena]

Hmmm says my files are too large . Pics of course. The surrounds look very new. Almost perfect.foam.

 

[Gil_Pena]

So what does a speaker that needs refoamed sound like? I found this. My speaker definitely makes a crazy popping sound . Very loud. I ordered a multimeter reader. My circuitry skills are minimal but not zero. She be coming tomorrow and I will report back the results

 

[isolar8001]

So what does a speaker that needs refoamed sound like? I found this. My speaker definitely makes a crazy popping sound . Very loud. I ordered a multimeter reader. My circuitry skills are minimal but not zero. She be coming tomorrow and I will report back the results

Refoamed means replacing the surround that holds the cone to the frame...you said your surrounds look and feel fine.
From the loud popping noise you describe (and that's the best way to describe it), you need to recone...in simple terms, that woofer is blown.
Another test is to push the woofer cone in and let it come out (repeatedly and gently). If you feel any rubbing, the woofer is blown. I have seen woofers that are blown without the rubbing though.

A Multimeter won't tell you anything, it will still measure some resistance even if it's bad. You could measure the crossover components to see if you might need to replace the capacitors. (old speakers can be fun !)

Speaker Exchange offers a recone service if you feel you cant do it yourself.

JBL 118H Aftermarket Recone Kit - Speaker Exchange

Brand New JBL 118H Aftermarket Recone Kit 8 ohms. Note that the original speaker had a white cone with butyl rubber surround. This kit has black cone with foam surround. These are the only parts available for this model. Parts Specifications: Cone: 10″ black cone with foam surround, 2.125″ deep...

reconingspeakers.com

 

[Gil_Pena]

Racone and refoam are different? Sorry still learning. Vintage seems pretty fun so far

 

[TLS Guy]

Racone and refoam are different? Sorry still learning. Vintage seems pretty fun so far

I don't know how a speaker issue causes popping. Are you sure you really swapped the audio channels to the speakers? I have a strong feeling you did not.

So, to make sure you did, I want you to leave everything as it is, but physically move the speakers, so that what was the left speaker is now the right speaker, and what was the right speaker is now the left. Do NOT move the speaker wiring only the speakers. Now tell us what happens.

 

[jwarren82101]

Have you switched the amp channels to see if the fault follows that speaker or the amp channel? This sounds much more like and amp problem than a speaker problem.

I purchased a pair of JBL N28s on Ebay a few years ago and thought one was defective. For 100.00 I said 'Oh well, live n learn'...Turns out my 65 watt amp was not powerful enough to properly run them after I tested the old JBLs on a class D amp that pushes 100 watts per channel...They sound fine.

 

[highfigh]

I may just throw a pair of these in there and see what happens

You need to find the parameters for the original woofers. If they don't match, it won't work unless by coincidence.

 

[highfigh]

Are you sure that speaker is a JBL 156? I can find no information that speaker ever existed. Is it actually a JBL 56?

Use L56 when you search.

 

[highfigh]

Racone and refoam are different? Sorry still learning. Vintage seems pretty fun so far

Did you remove the grill? If not, you'll need to in order to remove the woofer, so you may as well do it now. You'll also see the foam, missing or intact. Then, you'll see what you need to to. Guessing won't help.

 

[Gil_Pena]

Well I have some new data for you guys to maybe help with figuring out the issue or at least providing data for future people with issues. The Resistance reading on the bad speaker is 6.2 while the resistance reading on the good speaker is 7.37.4, - The resistance on the bad speaker stayed steady at 6.2 when shaking the meter and cable --- the good speaker fluctuated between 6 5 and 7.2 when slightly shaken .

 

[isolar8001]

Well I have some new data for you guys to maybe help with figuring out the issue or at least providing data for future people with issues. The Resistance reading on the bad speaker is 6.2 while the resistance reading on the good speaker is 7.37.4, - The resistance on the bad speaker stayed steady at 6.2 when shaking the meter and cable --- the good speaker fluctuated between 6 5 and 7.2 when slightly shaken .

Doesn't mean anything...as I said before the bad woofer will still have resistance.
A slightly lower value like that isn't a concern.

You said that the surrounds look good on both your speakers....It could be that someone refoamed them (very likely given their age) and the one that "pops" for you could be slightly off center. It would still play, but it could produce noise when pushed hard.

If that is the case, it might be saved by another refoam job that isn't very hard to do...but it must be done correctly.(perfectly centered)

 

[TLS Guy]

Well I have some new data for you guys to maybe help with figuring out the issue or at least providing data for future people with issues. The Resistance reading on the bad speaker is 6.2 while the resistance reading on the good speaker is 7.37.4, - The resistance on the bad speaker stayed steady at 6.2 when shaking the meter and cable --- the good speaker fluctuated between 6 5 and 7.2 when slightly shaken .

I think that resistance drop on the bad speaker is significant. I would bet that speaker has been overdriven and has a partially fried voice coil, with shorted turns and gap rub. I think that driver needs a total rebuild of voice coil, cone, dust cap and surround.

 

[Gil_Pena]

Okay. The next step I suppose is to take the driver out and measure the resistances or the resistance of it. Just for data sake even if it may not mean anything. While I'm in there also we'll check out the capacitors and stuff. If I can find a way to post pics I will post them. Thank you both of you for your replies and information. I'm learning a lot. Hopefully I can narrow it down and repair or replace

 

[highfigh]

Well I have some new data for you guys to maybe help with figuring out the issue or at least providing data for future people with issues. The Resistance reading on the bad speaker is 6.2 while the resistance reading on the good speaker is 7.37.4, - The resistance on the bad speaker stayed steady at 6.2 when shaking the meter and cable --- the good speaker fluctuated between 6 5 and 7.2 when slightly shaken .

DID YOU REMOVE THE GRILL?????????????????????????????

As I posted, playing a speaker when the surround has been damaged or is missing causes the voice coil to scrape on the frame and when that happens, the winding will be damaged, which usually causes a short circuit across the wire. Unless you remove the grill to inspect it, you can't find the cause and since any repair will require removing the woofer, the grill needs to come off- do that, remove the woofer and lay it with the cone facing up or down, then measure the resistance. If the voice coil was resting on the spaker frame, that could have caused the lower resistance measurement.

Shaking the meter and test leads shouldn't cause the measured resistance to change. However, shaking the good speaker cabinet enough to cause the woofer's cone to move CAN cause the measurement to change. If the bad cone's coil is resting on the frame, it won't move as easily.

 

[highfigh]

Okay. The next step I suppose is to take the driver out and measure the resistances or the resistance of it. Just for data sake even if it may not mean anything. While I'm in there also we'll check out the capacitors and stuff. If I can find a way to post pics I will post them. Thank you both of you for your replies and information. I'm learning a lot. Hopefully I can narrow it down and repair or replace

The cone can be replaced, but in some drivers, it's tricky because of the small gap between the magnet and frame. Once a new cone is in, it CAN'T rub, at all.

Where are you located?

 

[isolar8001]

Okay. The next step I suppose is to take the driver out and measure the resistances or the resistance of it. Just for data sake even if it may not mean anything. While I'm in there also we'll check out the capacitors and stuff. If I can find a way to post pics I will post them. Thank you both of you for your replies and information. I'm learning a lot. Hopefully I can narrow it down and repair or replace

How on Earth did you measure it without taking it out ?
Did you try pushing on it like i suggested to check for rubbing?

Everything you have posted leads to rebuilding that woofer...don't know what you paid for those speakers or if they have some sort of sentimental value, but you need to ask yourself if its worth it.

Ask Speaker Exchange for a recone quote...I will bet its going to be around 200-250 plus shipping.
(and the fixed woofer will be black instead of white)

 

[TLS Guy]

How on Earth did you measure it without taking it out ?
Did you try pushing on it like i suggested to check for rubbing?

Everything you have posted leads to rebuilding that woofer...don't know what you paid for those speakers or if they have some sort of sentimental value, but you need to ask yourself if its worth it.

Ask Speaker Exchange for a recone quote...I will bet its going to be around 200-250 plus shipping.
(and the fixed woofer will be black instead of white)

I still think the difference is significant. If you measure across the speaker terminals, then you measure the VC resistance plus the DC resistance of the woofer series inductors. So both speakers should have the same DC resistance. This is just the sort of discrepancy you get when a VC is fried, but not open circuit. The insulation brakes down on the copper wire in the VC and starts shorting some of the VC wire turns, lowering the DC resistance. The VC starts to unravel and there are also carbon deposits in the gap, which can produce strange effects. So you can be pretty certain the VC of that woofer is fried. The tweeter will have caps in series and so the DC resistance of the high pass will be infinite and not contribute to the DC resistance of the speaker.