Tighten those screws!
 

Can't remember who to give credit to, but I read it in a post here a while back.

Many years ago I was doing front of house mixing with a PA system I had never used and there was some distortion. I ran a sine wave sweep and found a cabinet that had a lot of loose screws holding the drivers in place.

I had not thought about checking my own home system speakers until I saw the post here.

Turns out, there were quite a few loose screws in my Revel F208s and my Mackie HR624's and HR626.

Years of use, lots of vibration, it makes sense screws would come loose.

I'm glad I did it and think things sound "tighter".

I did the same thing once and found a poorly seated gasket, allowing air to rush past. I removed the driver, reseated the gasket and I was back in business.

Rex.......Depending on how much you listen to your speakers, checking the tightness of the speaker mounting screws should be considered normal preventative maintenance. I have 31 speakers I check every couple of years. Occasionally I find loose screws on woofers, although never so loose the speaker rattles.

I have speaker envy now with only 6...

Thanks for the tip Dan. As an old audio pro, I should have remembered to keep up with that detail. Was out of the game for several years and I'm slipping! Thanks to AA for keeping me on my toes.

My Revel F208's are only 1.5 years old, I'll bet they came from the factory with some loose screws. Most were tight, some not tight enough, none extremely loose.

It will be on my radar to check them on an annual basis. I listen a lot, sometimes it's just background music, sometimes serious listening. I like to keep my ears tuned up since I'm still doing live mixing for my church band.

Just be sure to use the torque values suggested by the manufacturer.

Overtightening with a leather covered baffle results in sadly compromised sound.

Tight is not enough. Correct tight is what matters.

Magico actually ships a torque wrench with their M3's with instructions to check the bolts holding front and rear plates together.

Cincy