Speaker Repair Project

I

Iago

Audiophyte
I got some Magneplanar MG1-c's free from a friend. The reason he gave them away was that they "don't work". I had read that the common problems were things coming unstuck from the wood or from each other. I removed the 10 screws and eleven billion staples to get the cloth off, and gave it a fairly close examination. It all seems to be stuck together, with nothing apparently unglued or pulled away.
The fuses are blown. I will replace them, but I am not too confident beyond that. Before I dive into the electrical panel, does anyone have any suggestions, warnings, advice, or wisdom they'd be willing to share? I am not stupid, but I am a novice at this sort of thing, and totally unfamiliar with the inner workings of dipole speakers.
 
R

Reorx

Full Audioholic
Iago,
One of my friends ran a electronic's repair shop for 15years. What he taught me is that when a fuse gets blown, it's usually for a reason. A short, bad power supply, lose cables, bad solder, etc.
I've now repaired a handfull of TV's, speakers, and misc other equipment. One of the things I am always doing is scraping away the solder residue on the circuitboards.
Explaination: After a period of time, from my understanding, solder points tend to heat up a little bit, and excretes a conductive material. This will slowly creep and can bridge connections on the circuitboard, thus creating a short, which can blow the fuse. So what I do is take a look at the circuitboard for any brown residue that is around the solder points. If you see it, gently scrape it away with small flathead screw driver.

Also, take a close look at the circuitboard for any hairline cracks. If you see any that break any of the electrical paths, you may have to solder a wire to fix that.

Be sure to disconnect the power before doing any of this.

There are more things you can do if you had a volt meter.

Reorx

ps: I know my terminalogy isnt 100%, I can't remember all the proper terms.
 
I

Iago

Audiophyte
Thanks! I will do that. I am especially grateful that someone answered, as I was about to dive in blind, as it were. Yes, I had thought that very thing about the fuses, but was unsure about the actual circuitry on these things. Truth be told, had he given me a pair of conventional speakers I'd have already gotten them up and running, but when I took the cloth covers off of these...If someone had brought them to me bare and told me they were solar panels, at the initial glance I'd have believed them.
 
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