Help Needed - Dead SDA-2

[Marty913]

Well, my EBay SDA-2’s arrived late yesterday and appeared to be in great cosmetic shape; No major nicks, no tears in drivers or grills, all original it appears. Unfortunately, the right speaker does not work. Three choices:

1. Send them back as DOA (but they are in good shape, all original) :mad:
2. Give up stereo and enjoy the one speaker :eek:
3. Ask my new friends in this forum for some guidance :D

Ok, Door Number 3 (aren’t you happy). Here are the ugly details. All drivers in the Left speaker work fine. The Dimensional Array driver is working in the Right speaker which I assume is the signal from the left. The Bass, Mid, and Tweeters in the Right are not working. I’ve have swapped cables and amp terminals and problem does not move – still good on the Left, dead on the Right (except for SDA driver).

Crossover, right? I’m open to advice on how to proceed. Screwdrivers don’t scare me but soldering does so do I open up the back and look for loose wires and miscellaneous part laying around? Is there a fuse? Is it better to go in through the front (passive radiator)? Anything I should be careful about before I start on Monday?

Any and all advice appreciated. My thinking is with everything else looking good, I should just tear into this thing and fix it if possible. My other speakers are hooked up and working so I’m not suffering other than being deprived of the SDA sound.

[redbullet]

Well, my EBay SDA-2’s arrived late yesterday and appeared to be in great cosmetic shape; No major nicks, no tears in drivers or grills, all original it appears. Unfortunately, the right speaker does not work. Three choices:

1. Send them back as DOA (but they are in good shape, all original) :mad:
2. Give up stereo and enjoy the one speaker :eek:
3. Ask my new friends in this forum for some guidance :D

Ok, Door Number 3 (aren’t you happy). Here are the ugly details. All drivers in the Left speaker work fine. The Dimensional Array driver is working in the Right speaker which I assume is the signal from the left. The Bass, Mid, and Tweeters in the Right are not working. I’ve have swapped cables and amp terminals and problem does not move – still good on the Left, dead on the Right (except for SDA driver).

Crossover, right? I’m open to advice on how to proceed. Screwdrivers don’t scare me but soldering does so do I open up the back and look for loose wires and miscellaneous part laying around? Is there a fuse? Is it better to go in through the front (passive radiator)? Anything I should be careful about before I start on Monday?

Any and all advice appreciated. My thinking is with everything else looking good, I should just tear into this thing and fix it if possible. My other speakers are hooked up and working so I’m not suffering other than being deprived of the SDA sound.

Yes carefully remove the passive radiator and see if any wires go to the terminals came loose in shipping, I had this happen quite a few times over the years. I can help you more if needed once you check it.

[ben62670]

Do the cones on the woofers move if gently pressed with no scraping?

[Marty913]

Yes carefully remove the passive radiator and see if any wires go to the terminals came loose in shipping, I had this happen quite a few times over the years. I can help you more if needed once you check it.

Thanks redbullet, I will pull the passive tomorrow and look around. I will let you know what I find. Hopefully it's something simple.

Ben62670, yes the drivers all seem to move freely and all appear in good shape (no tears, etc.). With the exception of two small chips in the vinyl (old ones), everything looks better than I expected for 22 - 23 year old speakers. They were in the original boxes and there did not appear to be any "drop" damage. Of course, you never know.

[ben62670]

Too bad you are in the wrong part of FLA. It would be nice if I could help ya a little better. How are you with a multimeter?

[Marty913]

Too bad you are in the wrong part of FLA. It would be nice if I could help ya a little better. How are you with a multimeter?

Probably enough to be dangerous. I do have one and can follow directions pretty well. If I don't find a loose wire or obvious damage tomorrow, I'd be willing to take a shot at something. Nothing to really lose I figure.

[ben62670]

On the main speaker terminals take a reading on both speakers with the IC cable disconnected. Let us know what you get;)

[danger boy]

remove the passive radiator as mentioned above. then look closely at the resistors and caps on the crossover.. if yours are SDA2 or 2A's. I think there will be two crossovers in each speaker. you can also remove the crossover from the back side of the speaker.. and see if any of the components are burned up. that is almost guaranteed to be a dead speaker.

if you don't find anything like that wrong. then remove each driver and test it out from your speaker wires coming from your receiver at low volume and see if you get sound that way. if you aren't getting any sound from the tweeter or mid driver.. then i would think it's a crossover problem.

have you emailed the Ebay seller back and see what they say? it's pretty unlikely that a crossover would get damaged or certainly not burned up in transit. so he must have known one of them was DOA.

good luck.

[Marty913]

On the main speaker terminals take a reading on both speakers with the IC cable disconnected. Let us know what you get;)

With Ohms set at 200 I get 5.5 - 5.6 on the left (working speaker) and zero on the right (non-working). SDA cable and speaker cables disconnected.

[Marty913]

remove the passive radiator as mentioned above. then look closely at the resistors and caps on the crossover.. if yours are SDA2 or 2A's. I think there will be two crossovers in each speaker. you can also remove the crossover from the back side of the speaker.. and see if any of the components are burned up. that is almost guaranteed to be a dead speaker.

if you don't find anything like that wrong. then remove each driver and test it out from your speaker wires coming from your receiver at low volume and see if you get sound that way. if you aren't getting any sound from the tweeter or mid driver.. then i would think it's a crossover problem.

have you emailed the Ebay seller back and see what they say? it's pretty unlikely that a crossover would get damaged or certainly not burned up in transit. so he must have known one of them was DOA.

good luck.

Thanks Danger Boy, I will pull the passive tomorrow and look for damage - and test the speakers. I suspect the crossover but am hoping for loose wire, etc. I have not emailed the seller yet and have not provided feedback pending the outcome of my findings tomorrow. His ad guaranteed "tested and working" and not "as is" so I won't jump to any conclusions yet.

[sda2mike]

my 2b's (ebay) arrived with the big coil inside each speaker laying loose in the cabinet and disconnected from the crossovers!:eek:

might sound like mr obvious but.....check the polarity of your speaker wires;)

good luck!

[redbullet]

Thanks redbullet, I will pull the passive tomorrow and look around. I will let you know what I find. Hopefully it's something simple.

Ben62670, yes the drivers all seem to move freely and all appear in good shape (no tears, etc.). With the exception of two small chips in the vinyl (old ones), everything looks better than I expected for 22 - 23 year old speakers. They were in the original boxes and there did not appear to be any "drop" damage. Of course, you never know.

I bet it's a loose connection since you get zero reading on the meter. :D

[ben62670]

I bet it's a loose connection since you get zero reading on the meter. :D

Agreed

[avguytx]

Maybe I missed it but did you physically take each non-working driver out and simply hook it up to the speaker wire to see if it has sound? That's an easy way to check for a dead speaker.

Oh wait. I see dangerboy said that too. But that's what I would be doing as well.

[Marty913]

I bet it's a loose connection since you get zero reading on the meter. :D

Agreed

You guys win the prize. Choose anything from the very small Teddy Bear shelf.

I will attempt to attach a picture of the culprit. How in the hell that wire came loose is beyond me. When reattached it snugged up very tightly so there is no way it could have been shipping. Regardless, when reattached the multimeter read 5.5 (same as the other speaker). I checked everything else within sight and all appears to be fine. They sound great (limited listening so far). I cannot THANK YOU both enough for all your help. I would have found it on my own but my confidence was so much higher because I knew I had you guys to help me out if anything went wrong. A very nice feeing.

[ben62670]

No problem. When I first got here I had a bunch of questions, and this forum has helped me a lot. I am glad to help when I can.
Enjoy
Ben

[redbullet]

You guys win the prize. Choose anything from the very small Teddy Bear shelf.

I will attempt to attach a picture of the culprit. How in the hell that wire came loose is beyond me. When reattached it snugged up very tightly so there is no way it could have been shipping. Regardless, when reattached the multimeter read 5.5 (same as the other speaker). I checked everything else within sight and all appears to be fine. They sound great (limited listening so far). I cannot THANK YOU both enough for all your help. I would have found it on my own but my confidence was so much higher because I knew I had you guys to help me out if anything went wrong. A very nice feeing.

Bet that made your day :) I have seen it happen more times than I can count.
Enjoy those babys

[schwarcw]

I'm glad it all worked out for you. I love the SDA-2's they are very musical. It looks like you have one of those "crossover" models with the two stereo drivers and the SL2000's. I thought most of the SDA-2's had the SL1000 tweeter (silver). I'd recommend that you replace the tweeters with the new soft (silk) dome RDO-194's. They are much smoother and pleasing to my ears.

Congrats and enjoy!

[Marty913]

I'm glad it all worked out for you. I love the SDA-2's they are very musical. It looks like you have one of those "crossover" models with the two stereo drivers and the SL2000's. I thought most of the SDA-2's had the SL1000 tweeter (silver). I'd recommend that you replace the tweeters with the new soft (silk) dome RDO-194's. They are much smoother and pleasing to my ears.

Congrats and enjoy!

It was a little scary there for a while and I'm assuming it worked out. You never know with 22 year old speakers you bought from a stranger. I'll probably just listen to them for a while before I upgrade anything. Something else may pop up. I've heard mixed thoughts on the RD0-194's. I'd probably be more likely to rebuild the crossover first. It is definitely a crossover model as a couple of the dates inside were a little off from the published production years. A least one of the caps had a 1986 sticker on it which is when the 2A's came out. OK with me, I get the extra mid driver from the 2's and the SL2000's from the 2A's. :D

[schwarcw]

I always thought, more speakers in the cabinet, more music! LOL! I think this model sounded bigger than the SDA-2A or B's. Just my opinion, but I think you got some really nice speakers at a good price. Congrats again!

Carl