Hi JPMC,
My sincerest apologies, my post about the ribbon needing to move was really just a friendly tease to you on a personal level well knowing how meticulous you are. Sometimes a person can be overly meticulous about things. You even admitted this to me when I suggested saving the $$$ and keeping the original cabinet with the damaged finish on the bottom which was due to that oily residue produced from the sorbothane that actually ate into the polyester resin clear coat. I didn't mean to offend so I do apologize...
That said, as meticulous as you are, I am even more so and I inspect and test every single speaker we ship - even with service items sent in, even if we don't end up servicing it. However, my memory is not as good as it once was and I am not sure if you sent both speakers back to us so we can match the cabinet or only one speaker?
However, I do recall telling Joe and Dina how meticulous you are so that when they matched the cabinet for you, I eventually found out they had to examine about a dozen different cabinets to get it exactly right. They weren't happy about this as it took a few hours, but I am the boss (well, sometimes at least
)...
The compliance on the ribbons will slightly loosen over time, I wouldn't really call it breaking in though. When we first started working with RAAL, they actually sent their chief technician over to visit us and we spent a full day going over ribbon tension. He proved to me that (and I backed this up by my own measurements) that the tension doesn't affect sound quality, provided that it isn't overly loose or overly tight. The design is such that the tension is controlled by a material that is adhered to the foil and then adhered to the housing, it is similar to heat shrink.
Thinking back, we have had your speakers in the shop on 2 (3?) separate occasions now and this last time, I do not recall if you sent just the damaged cabinet back or both? Because if both, they would not have been shipped to you without me fully testing both of them, of which I am confident they are perfectly matched performance-wise...
If you sent only the one cabinet back, send me an email and let me know. I will make shipping arrangements to get them both back so we can test both of them together. I do recall that you originally installed the replacement tweeter into the cabinet itself or am I wrong about this.
Also, when we replaced the first cabinet for you (the first time), did you send back both cabinets or just the single cabinet? Is this the same cabinet with the ribbon that seems to be looser or the cabinet with the ribbon that seems to be tighter? Did you swap the left/right speakers to 100% confirm that one tweeter isn't moving more than the other due to receiving a different signal? Remember, with stereo - the left and right source material will be different. Also, do not test by sending sine wave signals (even swept sine waves) to the ribbons -- this can be damaging and can actually cause the ribbon to tear or stretch.
Sorry for all the questions, it is hard to remember the exact circumstances at this point...