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So, I'm kinda tired of buying used/vintage speakers online and having them show up with rubbing VCs. Every time the seller claims they tested fine before sending, and then it turns out they just measured DC resistance and sometimes maybe played some audio through it without paying close enough attention to the output. It seems people think, barring cone tears/rips, that either a speaker works or it doesn't, this is a misconception and I'm here to try to help fix that.
There are 3 basic tests that should be done when buying or selling a speaker:
1) Measure VC DCR. This is basic and I won't go into it here, but the rule is that the value should be less than the expected nominal Impedance rating ( with some, especially older, speakers it may be just barely below the rating like even only 0.1 ohms; this is not weird).
2) Audio test. Again pretty straight forward but I would mention that you should use program material you are intimately familiar with, listen for anything that doesn't sound right such as distortions or other bad noises not in the program material, or lack of top or bottom end ( remember that a speaker not in a cab will naturally not have much bottom end, it is handy to have a second speaker of same size to compare, another idea is to stick yer face right in the cone so that you hear the bass from the front wave before it hits the back wave and cancels - obviously keep the volume low and don't blast yourself - also helps to you use the tone controls or EQ to boost the bass then the treble to highlight issues in these extremes).
3) The manual test. This is what I will focus on here because it is the one people seem to be unaware and scared of but it is essential and has saved me numerous times from buying bad speakers ( the other tests can show no bad signs but this one will). The other advantage is that you need no special tools just your hands and an ear.
Before we get to that, I would just like to say that sometimes you can't perform all these tests - for example you may not have a multimeter with you or there's nowhere to hook up the speaker to an amp. 2 out of 3 tests is enough as long as one of them is the push test ( and as mentioned this is the easy one - no special tools required).
Anyway, I have to make a vid to send a seller about this so gonna 2 bird it and post it here later as well. Life's too short for blown speakers; buyers deserve to know how to protect themselves and sellers should do this because making it right later ( especially in the eBay age) costs too much time and money. I hope this saves both parties unnecessary hassles.
There are 3 basic tests that should be done when buying or selling a speaker:
1) Measure VC DCR. This is basic and I won't go into it here, but the rule is that the value should be less than the expected nominal Impedance rating ( with some, especially older, speakers it may be just barely below the rating like even only 0.1 ohms; this is not weird).
2) Audio test. Again pretty straight forward but I would mention that you should use program material you are intimately familiar with, listen for anything that doesn't sound right such as distortions or other bad noises not in the program material, or lack of top or bottom end ( remember that a speaker not in a cab will naturally not have much bottom end, it is handy to have a second speaker of same size to compare, another idea is to stick yer face right in the cone so that you hear the bass from the front wave before it hits the back wave and cancels - obviously keep the volume low and don't blast yourself - also helps to you use the tone controls or EQ to boost the bass then the treble to highlight issues in these extremes).
3) The manual test. This is what I will focus on here because it is the one people seem to be unaware and scared of but it is essential and has saved me numerous times from buying bad speakers ( the other tests can show no bad signs but this one will). The other advantage is that you need no special tools just your hands and an ear.
Before we get to that, I would just like to say that sometimes you can't perform all these tests - for example you may not have a multimeter with you or there's nowhere to hook up the speaker to an amp. 2 out of 3 tests is enough as long as one of them is the push test ( and as mentioned this is the easy one - no special tools required).
Anyway, I have to make a vid to send a seller about this so gonna 2 bird it and post it here later as well. Life's too short for blown speakers; buyers deserve to know how to protect themselves and sellers should do this because making it right later ( especially in the eBay age) costs too much time and money. I hope this saves both parties unnecessary hassles.
