Fixing broken tinsel leads

[mat3833 10+ year member]

Title says it all. I broke a tinsel lead on the neo Beehive sub I'm running. It broke about 1/4 inch away from the solder joint at the terminal. I went ahead and re-soldered it and it's playing again for now.

What are my options for a permanent fix without a recone? I've seen some subs use direct 12ga wire from the coil, could I just cut a length of 12ga and solder one end to the tinsel by the coil and the other to the terminal?

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[jt4x4]

Title says it all. I broke a tinsel lead on the neo Beehive sub I'm running. It broke about 1/4 inch away from the solder joint at the terminal. I went ahead and re-soldered it and it's playing again for now.

What are my options for a permanent fix without a recone? I've seen some subs use direct 12ga wire from the coil, could I just cut a length of 12ga and solder one end to the tinsel by the coil and the other to the terminal?

I don't see why that wouldn't work. The tricky part will be making sure it is secure enough so it doesn't rattle but loose enough so that it doesn't affect the cone's linear movement.

 

[mat3833 10+ year member]

I don't see why that wouldn't work. The tricky part will be making sure it is secure enough so it doesn't rattle but loose enough so that it doesn't affect the cone's linear movement.

Yea, the issue Is this top assembly was built with floating leads and its capable of somewhere around 2.5" peak to peak or more. Woven leads would have prevented this problem entirely...

I may grab some 12 GA and see if I can make it work better. But until then I'm going to see how much I can throw at it before the lead snaps again

 

[jt4x4]

Yea, the issue Is this top assembly was built with floating leads and its capable of somewhere around 2.5" peak to peak or more. Woven leads would have prevented this problem entirely...

I may grab some 12 GA and see if I can make it work better. But until then I'm going to see how much I can throw at it before the lead snaps again

I've done it with good results on cheaper speakers. If the ideal fix is a recone, what do you have to lose?

 

[dragon.breath 10+ year member]

You can buy tinsel wire pretty cheap.

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[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

there's a reason why they use tinsel leads. 12 gauge is too thick, heavy and stiff by comparison, the solder point will break off pretty fast.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

could I just cut a length of 12ga

I've bought SPL subs that used 8 gauge direct to the coil lead in place of tinsel, this will function for burps but playing music the wire will fail and possibly light the insulation on fire when enough strands break. I'd have higher hopes of a crimp connector lasting longer than speaker wire... if you can get some crimpers in there.

Really anything short of replacing the tinsel from the terminal to the coil lead will fail and pretty quickly. Can you get to the coil lead somehow? Tinsel is cheap enough and soldering to the terminal should be fairly easy but getting some bare wire at the coil lead may be tricky depending how the sub is built. If you can get some of the lead exposed to solder on the new tinsel be sure to bury that spot in CA glue after you confirm your connection.

 

[mat3833 10+ year member]

Alright, I have been playing the sub since I fixed it and it has stopped working again. I'm going to see if I can get the dust cap off to get access to the coil leads hopefully tonight. If I can I'll order some tinsel lead and try to re do the leads at the coil. If I can't get the cap off I'm still going to order some tinsel lead and will end up replacing the leads as close to the former as I can so I can reinforce it with CA. If it fails again, I guess I'll pull it apart and start looking for parts to build a 15.