I have a Peavey Messenger Pro-15 4 ohm speaker. Last weekend my son, who was helping me de-rig, accidently 'dropped' one of the speakers. It landed on it's side and this weekend there was no bass. I've just removed the woofer, and there appears to be no damage, I'd thought perhaps that the driver may have sheared off. What tests can I carry out to determine what's wrong and if it can be fixed or needs replaced?

Assuming this has an internal crossover, could it be damaged or disconnected/loose connection?

If the woofer tests OK out of/disconnected from the cabinet and the HF is working normally, that could be the answer.

Does it have a built in crossover_
Maybe the board is damaged or the coil snapped off due to the weight of the ferrite.

Jim

Yes it does have an internal x-over and all the wires were connected when I opened it up. How can i test the speaker directly to see if it could be the x-over?

Simplest way would be to take it out and disconnect it from the cabinet then take a feed from one channel of your amp direct to the connections on the woofer.

If it were me, to save stripping cables etc. ( and getting stuff out of my van to set it up ) I would take a 2 wire feed from a hi-fi amp.

If nothing reproduces then you'll know it's the driver.

Going for basics here. If you pick up the cab (with no power/signal going to it) and move it this way and that, does there sound like anything loose rattling around inside? Maybe a fuse or festoon bulb from the crossover?

I thought the festoon bulb was part of the horn/tweeter protection circuitry, no? If the bulb goes the top end wouldnt work either?


Could always try sticking an ohm meter directly across the woofer terminals and see if there's a continuous circuit (making sure to disconnect the speaker from the crossover first). If its open circuit doubt there's much you could do:(

David

Right, I've plugged the amp into the speaker in situ and it gave a bit of a buzzing sound and then with the music playing it was a bit muffled and distorted. I then connected the woofer directly to the amp and the same symptoms, so I guess the speaker's f d. Now where's the best place for a replacement?

Give Peavey a call. Their contact details are:

Service Dpt - Peavey Electronics
Great Folds Road
Oakley Hay
Corby
Northamptonshire
NN18 9ET
Phone: 01536 461234
Fax: 01536 747222

Just spoken with Peavey and a new woofer will be £85.26, for a speaker that only cost me £140. Does anyone know if there's a better price out there?

It may just be the magnet rather than the cone/whole thing.

I had a pair of 115RX bass bins a few years ago.

The drivers in both went after only a few hours use. Turned out to be faulty construction - muck getting in between the magnets and the main assembly - and Peavey sent 2 replacement magnets FOC.

Only other company that I know of that may be able to help is BK Electronics http://www.bkelec.com/. They do carry spares for other makes so may be worth giving them a call 01702 527572.

It sounds as if the magnet or pole piece has shifted as a result of the impact and has pinched the voicecoil in the gap. You can get them re-centred but they have to demagnetize them first and it's very expensive, simply not worth doing on that driver.

To be fair, £85 is about average for a reasonable 15" driver. If you wanted to go for a cheaper driver you'd have to replace both really as they'll sound different, and you'd need to ensure the replacements are suitable for the box tuning. Mid bass drivers that are designed to meet a compression driver/piezo tweeter have quite different characteristics to those designed for bass only applications.