Advice: Restoring Ascends from Kid Abuse

[enright]

Okay, that's a weird title - but I have a feeling I'm not the only one in this situation. I have three young boys (all under the age of 5 - argh) .. all of whom are attracted to expensive electronics like bees to honey. One of them (I may never know which one) likes to stick small objects in the speaker port tube of my Ascends. Even thought the tubes are quite long, a few small objects have made it all the way through and dropped down inside the cabinet.

My question is this: is this something to be concerned about? A few of the objects are metallic - can they effect the driver magnet in any way? I don't hear any vibrations or distortions. However, mentally, it bothers me to no end, just knowing that the speakers have been violated :). Is opening the cabinet up and removing them an option? It seems completely sealed - don't want to make a bad situation worse.

Thanks in advance!

John

[Mag_Neato]

I would not be at ease if I knew anything was inside my Ascends. I think you should be alright opening them up via removing the woofer. Any metal objects, particularly ferrous metals, will be attracted to the driver's magnetic flux field. Although they may be stuck to the magnet and not rattle, I would still prefer that the drivers are free of any foreign objects. My main concern is that it would somehow shunt the magnetic field and cause some change in the speakers performance. I'm sure Dave can give you a more informed response than that, but that is my feeling on this.

[Quinn]

Just unscrew the driver and gently and slowly twist the driver to break the seal and not damage the gasket. Remove foreign bodies and re-fasten.

[ebh]

and then if you have sierras, get some port plugs so they can't stick anything else in there!

[boludaso]

If you look at the back of your computer, if its a desktop, it should have a mesh covering over the fan hole. Maybe you could get something similar and put it over the ports.

[curtis]

If you look at the back of your computer, if its a desktop, it should have a mesh covering over the fan hole. Maybe you could get something similar and put it over the ports.
Doing something like that might/would create noise.

[davef]

Doing something like that might/would create noise.

Curtis is correct -- this could lead to excessive port noise. If you are using a subwoofer and setting the speakers to "small" -- you should be OK as this will greatly reduce the amount of air-flow through the port.

[enright]

Just unscrew the driver and gently and slowly twist the driver to break the seal and not damage the gasket. Remove foreign bodies and re-fasten.

Just a quick update: I finally worked up the nerve to perform the surgery this morning and the operation was a success! I found, among other things, a super bouncy ball, a variety of legos, banana plugs, and the speaker terminal caps - and that was just the front pair!

I was impressed with the quality of the drivers BTW - although I don't recommend opening the cabinet - it did give me new appreciation for how well these speakers are constructed.

Thanks for all the advice everyone!

John