dead diamond tweeter

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by SCAudiophile

And of course...

If a tweeter falls in a forest does anyone hear it? [emoji1787]

Only the tree huggers.

[sgbroimp]

Originally Posted by hdvidguy

Wow, is that per tweeter and USD? Only on D1's so far?

Yes, that is what those babies cost. Sometimes you see one for maybe a grand or so, but still awfully spendy to blow out.

[W9TR]

Originally Posted by sgbroimp

With all these tweeters blowing it surprises me that no one has come up with a solution such as a fuse or circuit breaker. My sub has a fuse that has saved its bacon a bunch of times, but it was so hard to get to to replace I installed a circuit breaker that auto resets after the overload is gone. No engineers in our midst with an idea? I mean who wants to replace a $1200 tweeter so it can shatter its cone yet again. Gets to be an expensive sport.....

I’m an engineer so I’ll weigh in with three technical*
ideas:

1. Publicly shame B&W into providing a design change so this never happens again.

2. Sell the speakers and buy something that is properly designed.

3. Start a class action lawsuit- put ads in Stereophile and TAS.

*Adding a bandaid to a bad design never produces a desirable result.

[meltemi]

Originally Posted by sgbroimp

I mean who wants to replace a $1200 tweeter so it can shatter its cone yet again.

The official US retail price for a tweeter for 800 D2 / 802 D2 (part number ZZ14388) is USD 1086.

I owned a pair of 800 D2 for seven years and run them on Accuphase power amps (P-800, after two years replaced by A-200).

In June 2014 I broke one tweeter mechanically (by stumbling and falling against it). The pretty thin diamond diaphragm was shattered into pieces.
My dealer charged me Swiss Francs 667 (which I think was what he had to pay for) and came to replace it personally. That's what I call customer service!

The above mentioned incident was the only one with a tweeter.
However in 2016 and 2018 I had to replace a total of three bass units (LF02372; USD retail 486.53; my dealer charged me Swiss Francs 350 each) because of partly broken diaphragm suspensions (beads).
I do not know whether I damaged them by occasionally dusting them off not sufficently carefully or whether it was an environmental / thermal / aging problem.

Hope you will find the cause of your problem soon.

Martin

[meltemi]

Originally Posted by piolaxo

It'd be cool to go forward instead, get the latest diamond D3 tweeter!

That would definitely be a mismatch.

Tweeters (including their housing) are matched to the corresponding models.
The tweeter for 800 D2 Series (ZZ14388; USD retail 1086) is different from the one for 800 D3 Series (ZZ28738; USD retail 1205.46).

Martin

[sgbroimp]

Interesting info, Meltemi. Have visited your great CH many times. Sounds like I need to get to know your dealer!

[Greg Gale]

Originally Posted by W9TR

I’m an engineer so I’ll weigh in with three technical*
ideas:

1. Publicly shame B&W into providing a design change so this never happens again.

2. Sell the speakers and buy something that is properly designed.

3. Start a class action lawsuit- put ads in Stereophile and TAS.

*Adding a bandaid to a bad design never produces a desirable result.

I have owned the 802D2 had for 7 years and now own the 802D3 for 4 years and have not once blown a tweeter.

Versions before the D3 had a removable tweeter grill that was held on magnetically and was easy to pull off. The diaphragm material is very fragile and thinner than a human hair and is easily shattered by any physical contact.

I have driven the speakers hard on many occasions with solid electronics (Classe Delta amps) minimizing risk of clipping, which will destroy any tweeter.

I feel it is unfair to bash B&W for having an inferior design on their diamond tweeter. On the D3 the diamond dome is one of the only components they did not change because it works and sounds excellent in my opinion and many others.

My two cents.

[sgbroimp]

Originally Posted by Greg Gale

I have owned the 802D2 had for 7 years and now own the 802D3 for 4 years and have not once blown a tweeter.

Versions before the D3 had a removable tweeter grill that was held on magnetically and was easy to pull off. The diaphragm material is very fragile and thinner than a human hair and is easily shattered by any physical contact.

I have driven the speakers hard on many occasions with solid electronics (Classe Delta amps) minimizing risk of clipping, which will destroy any tweeter.

I feel it is unfair to bash B&W for having an inferior design on their diamond tweeter. On the D3 the diamond dome is one of the only components they did not change because it works and sounds excellent in my opinion and many others.

My two cents.

In my case I am not sure it was the sound level as my amp will not hard clip and I generally do not drive it hard. I noticed it a couple weeks after our housekeeper was taking care when we were away. She brings her son who loves to fiddle with things, take stuff apart, etc. It is possible he unscrewed the grille and poked at the cone to see what it felt like. Can't be 100% sure of course.

[Greg Gale]

Originally Posted by sgbroimp

In my case I am not sure it was the sound level as my amp will not hard clip and I generally do not drive it hard. I noticed it a couple weeks after our housekeeper was taking care when we were away. She brings her son who loves to fiddle with things, take stuff apart, etc. It is possible he unscrewed the grille and poked at the cone to see what it felt like. Can't be 100% sure of course.

That is the main reason B&W changed the way the grill attaches to the tweeter on the D3 series. You need a special tool to take it off and the mesh grill is very strong no poking fingers on the grill will reach the tweeter. The previous versions you could just pull on the grill and it would easily come off, but putting it back on was tricky as the magnetic pull from the tweeter was very strong. B&W to maintain customer goodwill I have heard replaced many of these free of charge which was costly.

Like I said earlier I have not had one diamond tweeter issue on my D2 or D3 for over 10 years and I have absolutely cranked my system on many occasions.

This is not a design issue or quality issue for B&W diamond tweeters. If you know absolutely no physical contact has been made I would suggest you look elsewhere in your system for the cause of failure.

[W9TR]

Glad you have had a good experience.

The large number of failures of these tweeters is not a coincidence.