Alto TS212 Advice ?

[BobAsher]

Hello experts. I have a PA that I use for small pub gigs, which includes 2 x Alto TS212s.

One of them has started makin a constant rattling sound when being used. Kinda reminds me of the noise a small speaker makes when the cone is burst or ripped.

Have removed the offending item from the casing and there is no obvious damage.

Is there enough information there to determine if its just the speaker or is it more likely to be on the amp circuitry side ?

Just trying to find some validation on replacing the speaker or replacing the full unit ?

[Wonks]

If you gently push the cone and out with both hands, fingers spread out, perpendicular to the central axis, do you hear any rubbing sounds? If you do, that’s the voice coil rubbing against the magnet there’s not much you can do apart from a re-cone or replacement.

If you rotate it 180° from its original position and replace it, there’s a small chance that gravity will pull the voice coil down and away from the magnet and buy you some extra time.

I’m not sure it’s that easy to get replacement speakers for them any more and given the cost of doing so, you are probably better off looking for a used TS212 or moving up to a used TS312 or a new TS412, which are significantly better speakers.

[BobAsher]

Thanks Wonks. Yup, it's as you stated. I put it in round (nearly 180) after pushing the cone as you described a few times. It is slightly better but still there. You seem to be able to get a speaker for it (the original was an HK ) for around £100. Not sure whether or not to just do it.

Worst of it is, I have 4 Mackie SRM450s (so I'll be using 2 of them for this weekends gigs) but I prefer the Altos cause they're smaller and lighter and I'm a lazy fat ba****d

[Wonks]

Hopefully you realised that I should have said ‘parallel’ to the central axis rather than ‘perpendicular’. It sounds like you did.

If you can get a like-for-like replacement for £100, then I’d say it’s worth doing as a used replacement would likely be £150+ and will be a similar age.

[AlecSp]

It's not uncommon to mistake a loose screw/bolt/anything on a speaker cabinet as a failed driver. I've done it before. Hard to find, but worth checking for anything that could be loose.