Kids wrecked my speakers

[IRobot]

Hi folks,

Had some relatives stay with us for a few days last week including a couple of young children. It looks as if while I was at work, one of the blighters stuck his finger in my speakers.

This is what it looks like now:-



Should look like this:-



He did the same thing to the front left, centre and front right speakers.
At least the rear speakers had their covers on or I'm sure they would have ended up the same way !

Do you think these can be fixed or should I scrap them and get something else (and mount them 3 miles up a wall ) ?

I put a movie on last night and listened carefully but didn't hear anything obviously wrong.

Thanks

Steve

 

[pjclark1]

The bit in the middle is only a cosmetic dust cap
The working part of the speaker is the cone between the centre ring and the outer ring.
Just put the covers back on and forget about it.

 

[Crustyloafer]

The bit in the middle is only a cosmetic dust cap
The working part of the speaker is the cone between the centre ring and the outer ring.
Just put the covers back on and forget about it.

Sorry but you are wrong. The speakers the OP has are Kef iQ series which have dual concentric drive units which means that it is a tweeter unit in the middle, not a dustcap. Please make sure you know what you are talking about before offering advice on here.

See here for more info.

http://www.kef.com/kefamerica/technology/new_uniq/newuniq.asp

I would suggest the OP take the speakers back to the dealer he purchased them from and arrange to get all three speakers repaired. I would expect it to cost around £75 for the parts plus about the same again for labour costs.

 

[Scott_Mac]

Kids.. grrrr...

Thankfully as the Crusty one says the Kef drivers aren't too pricey so i'd take them to your dealer and get them repaired.

 

[AdamPV]

My advice would be to leave your grilles on your speakers.

It's simply NOT worth the risk. Not all that helpful after the event I know

 

[audionewb]

i would suggest you tell your relatives to teach their kids better and get them to foot the bill, i know they are young but i would never have touched my relatives stuff, i hope you can repair those succesfully.

 

[Trixster]

Couldn't agree more. You shouldn't have to suffer the antics of someone else's kids. Get the parents to foot the bill.

 

[Pat Marcus]

Maybe we should start a thread on other parents kids and speakers - should generate some interesting stories. My 803Ds nearly went bad when a kid poked the port bung inside the speaker. Fortunately he had a small enough hand to reach inside the enclosure and withdraw it again. I suffered palpitations nontheless while my wife-to-be basically told everyone thatr it "was fine."
Just think how angry Id have been if he broke a diamond tweeter !!

 

[Nimby]

I have read a number of posts from those who have successfully popped out their tweeters after terminally undisciplined minors have poked them in.

I think there was a relevant thread on here not so long ago. There is obviously something of an art to successful completion of the task. Sucking the tweeter dome straight into the vacuum hose is the most likely outcome!

I agree 100% with the cover on philosophy. Foolish risk for zero gain.

110% in agreement with the parents paying in full. Nothing like learning responsibility for their actions. (or lack of them)

Might save themselves some heavy fines further down the road.

 

[Max N]

I would have a go at 'pulling' them out - maybe a bit of sellotape or blutak touched lightly onto dome and then pull it.
Its worked for me in the past

 

[IRobot]

Sent my dealer an email today and he says it will cost about £210 (inc. labour) to replace all three tweeters. Do you think that's reasonable ?

Pulling out the domes using the various methods posted won't work really. They're stiff aluminium domes that have been de-formed. Bit like a car door with a dent, you need to bang it into shape from the other side.

That's got me thinking, if I can remove the Uni-Q driver from the cabinet and get access to the central tweeter dome, I might be able to do something

 

[Spinke]

That's some nasty deformation , I'd be having words with the parents!

 

[bsimmer3000]

This sort of things winds me up no end. this has happend to me before and if it had been a dent in my car im sure they would have covered the cost of repair but because it was my speakers they thought well they still work so no problem. there is this one kid that came around mine and everytime i caught him in my room he was either trying to pull buttons out of what ever he was touching, pulling the tv forward to try and tip it over or like now pulling the covers of the speakers and poking his finger into them. lukcy for me my new tweaters seem to take there shape back after being pressed. but the parents are like oh dont touch that you might break it. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh when i have kids they will be taught not to poke there gruby little finger into things they shouldnt be. I will fit them with them electric dog collers and everytime they even go close to av equipment they with get it. esp mine lol

 

[petetherock]

Kids will destroy speakers, if you don't want that, don't invite them over.
Simple fact.
I managed to tease mine out with some 3M scotch tape for my silk dome Dynaudio tweeters

 

[Crustyloafer]

Sent my dealer an email today and he says it will cost about £210 (inc. labour) to replace all three tweeters. Do you think that's reasonable ?

It certainly doesn't sound unreasonable to me. In my previous post I was only guessing at the cost of the replacement tweeter units.

Having performed a replacement of the tweeeters in the iQ series myself, I know that is is a fairly fiddly task which involves a reasonable amount of manual dexterity and skill with a soldering iron. It is not helped by the fact that the area you have to solder is right next to the main magnet assembly for the mid/bass drive unit so you are constantly battling against the stong magnetism pulling the tip of your bloody hot soldering iron away from its intended target.

There is easily 2-3 hours labour involved in the job which is likely to account for about £80-120 of the overall charges.

It is not possible to get direct access to the rear side of the tweeter diaphragm to push it back out as the tweeter assembly even when removed from the Uni-Q array is still sealed together and easily disassembled without rendering it useless. Even if you could do this, you will rarely be able to return the diaphragm to its original state and thus although it would sound similar, it would not exhibit the same dispersion characteristics as a perfectly formed diaphragm.

My advice is to get the tweeters replaced by who knows what they are doing and making sure that parents of the children that caused the damage are asked to pay for or at the very least made aware of the costs that they have you have incurred because of their children's behaviour and your displeasure at the situation.

 

[BAN5HEE]

I feel your pain... I had two of my speakers tweeters dented. I managed to get them out with some seriously sticky tape but as you say you can see where the damage was. I would get the parents to foot the bill. Next time they come ound they might be more alert to what their kids are up to.

 

[ELV]

Claim off your house insurance if your covered and it's worthwhile, you pay for the service and if you have accidental damage you have every right.

 

[Wonka]

same thing happened to me last year - told the insurance company and they happily paid to get both Left & Right speakers fixed for me

 

[area51nz]

insurance claim, failing that ive had some luck years ago with car audio fixing this sort of problem using suction cups, a vacumn cleaner and also once used duct tape to the dust covers back out with. if that is in fact a tweeter it might be a different story....

 

[garyb9900]

I've replaced a Uni-Q tweeter before now and given that the tweeter was around £40 (KEF Ci2000) then the price you've been quoted seems reasonable.
As an alternative maybe getting the offending kids round again. Popping a small dab of super glue on their finger tips and placing this on the damaged tweeter will reform it when they pull away!! Only downside is the small amount of skin residue on the tweeter, which may alter the sound!!!

 

[sparky46]

I've replaced a Uni-Q tweeter before now and
As an alternative maybe getting the offending kids round again. Popping a small dab of super glue on their finger tips and placing this on the damaged tweeter will reform it when they pull away!! Only downside is the small amount of skin residue on the tweeter, which may alter the sound!!!

LMAO! Love that suggestion...

I have two kids, 11 and 13 now, but they have never, ever done anything like this, either in my house or other peoples - it's how you bring them up - and yes, I have the grilles off my speakers!

 

[deanym]

Sent my dealer an email today and he says it will cost about £210 (inc. labour) to replace all three tweeters. Do you think that's reasonable ?

Pulling out the domes using the various methods posted won't work really. They're stiff aluminium domes that have been de-formed. Bit like a car door with a dent, you need to bang it into shape from the other side.

That's got me thinking, if I can remove the Uni-Q driver from the cabinet and get access to the central tweeter dome, I might be able to do something

I had a Q tweeter replaced - I contacted KEF, bought the tweeters direct, then took the speak to my local dealer and he replaced it for a tenner - tweeter cost approx 25quid delivered.

 

[ShadowTD]

Ouch! That's nasty.

I don't think that kids and AV are fundamentally incompatible. From about the ago of 3 I had my own turntable and from the age of 4 was allowed to use my Dads system (casette only though - not allowed to touch the PL150!). I would have no more dreamed of poking my fingers into his Leek speakers as flying to the moon.

 

[IRobot]

I finally got round to fixing my speakers. I decided to do it myself and so got the local hi-fi shop to order the tweeters. They charged £56 in total for the three tweeters so it didn't turn out to be too expensive in the end.



It was quite easy to replace the tweeters although a little bit of soldering needed to be done. First step was to remove the bezel and the screws holding the main speaker in place.



Removed the four clip on wires but the black tweeter wire was soldered in place so that had to be unsoldered.



There was a screw holding the tweeter in the middle of the main magnet, once that was removed, the tweeter dropped out and the new tweeter could be slotted in. Took about 15 minutes per speaker.

 

[angelislington]

^ Who paid the bill?