New Member Intro - Pioneer S-7EX Crossover fail

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leeshelford

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 4
New Member Intro - Pioneer S-7EX Crossover fail
« on: 18 Aug 2023, 01:29 am »
Hi all,

Im new to the forum, so wanted to say hi and introduce myself, im Lee, I live in Bundaberg, Australia... I moved from UK around 12 years ago and brought my Pioneer S-3EX and 8-EX TAD derived speakers with me, which I absolutely love... recently I've been upgrading and found some of the bigger Pinner S-1EX and S-7EX models in Japan for a price too good to pass up...

...anyway long story short, I had them imported and the floor standers are just to dei fro, but the center channel tweeter arrived not working... I bridged the Mid and Tweet terminals (at low volume) and the tweeter sprung to life, so its a dodgy HP filter by the look of it...

... just wondering should I take this opportunity to upgrade all 3 speaker crossovers or just replace the parts in the centre channel....obviously at 40Kg and 70Kg they are too heavy to send to Danny and the team at GR Research...

... so, just after advice on where people think is should go next, some pics attached... need to get the boards out and get a schematic together.

Anyway, pleased to be on here and hopefully start meeting like minded people.

Cheers, Lee.







richidoo

Re: New Member Intro - Pioneer S-7EX Crossover fail
« Reply #1 on: 18 Aug 2023, 04:07 pm »
Welcome to AudioCircle, Lee!

Congrats on getting your new speakers.
Designing and building speakers is substantial work, but repairing is often much easier.

First thing to do is measure resistance across the speaker input terminals to rule out a major short, before you connect the amp. If input resistance is lower than 3ohms then I would also disconnect the hookup wires from each driver and measure the voice coil resistance of each driver, to make sure they are not shorted. Typical driver VC is around 3-6ohms, so if you see <1 ohm or >20 ohms then there is problem with voice coil and you would need a replacement driver. While one bad driver theoretically wouldn't prevent others from playing, a shorted voice coil could lower the input impedance of the whole speaker enough to cause the connected amplifier to go into self protection mode from over-current.

If all that checks out OK then you can play music signal through the crossover while probing the crossover circuit path until you find the loss of signal, which is probably a loose connection or broken solder joint from shipping. You can use a multimeter set to AC voltage to probe the circuit. As long as the readout is moving then the signal is getting through. If voltage stops moving where it should have signal, you have located your fault.

You can check part health with multimeter too. Even though they might not be accurate readings with the parts still installed in circuit, you can still see that caps are not internally shorted and resistors are not open, if they give very unexpected values. If something looks fishy, you can desolder one leg of the part to test it accurately.

They look like very well-built crossovers and I don't see any obvious cause for concern from the parts themselves, but damage in shipment is certainly a possibility. The polyester caps were chosen for good sound quality, but modern PP caps might sound differentbetterish? idk  I personally would just repair, not upgrade, but ymmv

Danny Richie

Re: New Member Intro - Pioneer S-7EX Crossover fail
« Reply #2 on: 18 Aug 2023, 09:49 pm »
It is hard to say at this point where the failure is, but it is a good time to upgrade the parts. They can certainly use it. Those are budget level poly caps. The inductors are all air core (that's good), but they look like they come from China.

It also looks like they measured the inductors and wrote the values on them for you. That was nice of them.

leeshelford

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 4
Re: New Member Intro - Pioneer S-7EX Crossover fail
« Reply #3 on: 26 Aug 2023, 08:13 am »
Hey Richidoo,

Thanks for the warm welcome, and the trouble shooting tips... all other drivers are measuring around 6Ohms, im getting nothing from the Be Tweeter :-(

I took it out of the centre and hooked it up on the floor stander, nothing!

So, next question, is a Berylym tweeter on a 12 year old TAD driver repairable or id have to try find a complete new driver now?

Part number is A14GR55-53DX.... only finding one place in US @ USD$2300!! Which is more than I paid for the entire centre channel :-(

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Lee

Danny Richie

Re: New Member Intro - Pioneer S-7EX Crossover fail
« Reply #4 on: 26 Aug 2023, 08:46 pm »
Quote
So, next question, is a Berylym tweeter on a 12 year old TAD driver repairable or id have to try find a complete new driver now?

Nope, there is no replacing the diaphragms on those.

leeshelford

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 4
Re: New Member Intro - Pioneer S-7EX Crossover fail
« Reply #5 on: 27 Aug 2023, 01:07 am »
Thanks guys... appreciate all the advice