Question

Hey there. First post here.

I noticed that there are already some questions regarding this subject. However, none of them seem to contain a solution. Therefore, here I am.

One of the tweeters of my Eris E5 pair keeps cutting in and out. I opened the cabinet to see if the problem was related to the tweeter itself or the motherboard. The tweeter is totally fine. The problem seems to be happening on the motherboard and that is beyond my knowledge. These monitors were already sent to an Authorized Presonus Repair Center, but the issue still remains. I was wondering if anybody has the solution for this random "cutting in and out" thing so I'll know where to look. Thank you!

Answer 1

How to fix it. (You will need # 0 or 1 Phillips screwdriver, magnifying glass. sharp knife point or Xacto knife point for scraping.)

1. Remove the screws and take the back off the speaker.

2. Squeeze and Disconnect the tweeter from the little "motherboard". (just for easier access to the underside.)

3. Examine the underside of the motherboard, especially the two terminals that mate with the tweeter connector.

4. There you will encounter one of two problems either a.) a cold solder joint on one or both of the pins (less likely)

or - (more likely) a stupid thread of solder "bridging" across the two circuit board traces - which are stupidly closer together than they have any reason to be.

5. Take something sharp - knife blade point  - and make a few scrapes between the traces - BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVERSCRAPE AND CUT OTHER TRACES ON THE LITTLE BOARD.  YOU JUST WANT TO CLEAN BETWEEN THE PINS.

6. If this doesn't fix it, you probably have a cold solder joint.. Touching it up with a spot of heat from a small soldering iron should cure the problem. You should be able to "see" a cold solder joint - which often looks "granular", not glossy - or wiggle it loose.

But 90% odds would favor the bridging fleck of solder between the pins.

7. Reconnect the tweeter to the motherboard with a good firm scrubbing action. Reassemble the caase - and you should be good to go.

All problems s/b this easy - and unsolved where the tweeter cuts in and out is MADDENING know.

Answer 2

I have the Eris E8 XT speakers with the same issue. It's maddening and seems to be fairly prevalent with no solution. Would love to hear about someone getting this fixed and what they did.

Answer 3

I would also appreciate some information on how this issue can be fixed. Had my E5's for a number of years and the problem has persisted from very early on. The only information I come across is asking people to message privately. We would appreciate an informed response and solution from the manufacturer publicly in some way, as there are many threads on the issue. Thank you.

Answer 4

Hey, guys. Just an update! I'm working side by side with a colleague. He is a technician in the area and we will be performing tests to find the solution. I'll post it here if we find the answer to our problems! Thank you!

Answer 5

so has anyone ever gotten this fixed?  It just started happening to one of my virtually brand new Eris E8XT's.  Design flaw?

Should I open a ticket?

Answer 6

For anyone who hasn't lost the will for an answer, I have set up a ticket and am waiting for a response. I will keep the thread updated.

Answer 7

I have solved my problem.

Having confirmed I was outside my warranty period and seen the price I would have been charged (110 euro bench cost per speaker, excluding shipping) I decided to open the speaker up myself.

One of the cables attached to the back of the tweeter itself had been caught and bent into the back of the tweeter, I presume from when it was originally manufactured. I bent the connection away from the tweeter so it wasn't touching it anymore and carefully put everything back together and now it works a treat!

If you have this issue and are still under warranty then send it in asap. If not, it's up to you how you go forward as there is no guarantee you have the same issue as I do. I hope this helps and best of luck going forward.

Answer 8

was about to send in the speaker but then this started happening to the OTHER speaker as well.  I think it's a design flaw/very common issue that people just haven't been complaining about that much

Rather than pay the 40$ shipping on each speaker and deal with their silly "warranty" service, I just opened the backs up myself and took a peak.  jiggled around the two cables that connect to the tweeter and put everything back together.  Theyre "working" for now but who knows how long it will last.  unfortunately this is probably my last purchase from this company.  shoddy QC + No prepaid shipping for warranty service = ???

dreading the day the temblor t10 sub inevitably dies

If a presonus rep wants to directly comment on this issue, it would be appreciated.  Thanks

Answer 9

Hey everyone, I’ve never posted on a forum before so forgive me if my forum etiquette isn’t up to par.

I wanted to mention that I seem to have addressed this same problem I was having with my pair of e5 XTs.

Initially I wanted to believe this was a problem with the ground or perhaps even with my audio software considering how awful this ring/buzz/cut was. It turned out to be my woofer shorting out, which would trigger once I’d raised the gain high enough and also more specifically when I played any sort of F# which seemed to be the closest to a resonate frequency that would cause an absolutely dreadful droning sound.

thanks to Miro666 and michael’s suggestion of opening up the monitor (which I should never have to do), I shined my phone flashlight where the black cables for both the woofer and tweeter connect to the board. I’ll admit I know next to nothing about circuitry, but this space is so congested and the conductive adhesive there was so messy that I went in with a pocket knife and cut away some of the stray strands that were touching nearby components.

I’m not sure whether it was the wriggling or the cutting or both, but it seems to have stopped the incessant cutting and droning I was hearing.

thanks to everyone who posted, let’s hope this fix holds up. And to Presonus, your customer service is just as cheap and unreliable as your product. I looked through several threads relating to this issue and didn’t once see any response from a Presonus tech and absolutely nothing on the knowledge base.

Answer 10

Thank you everyone who commented on this discussion. It's a shame to see that is also happening to some of the newer models. I simply gave up on the problem and ended up buying new speakers. Got myself a pair of Yamaha MSP5's. No issues over here. I hope this ticket gets to people before they buy the product

Answer 11

As Miro666 has already mentioned, the awful stock soldering job on the tweeter terminals at the motherboard are the culprit.

Since there's nothing much more I can add to his answer, I'll just describe my process and post a couple of pictures of the problematic solder job, so anyone else facing this issue can easily locate it:

1. Same as Miro666's solution, remove the screws and take the back off (gently, as the speakers are connected with thin wires)
2. What I did here instead of Miro666's suggestion, is take out the 4 screws connecting the motherboard with the heat-sink as I found it a lot simpler than disconnecting the very inaccessible spade connector from the tweeter.
3. Same as Miro66 solution, locate the underside of where the tweeter wires connect to the motherboard (pic included)
   
4. In my speaker, it was the more common case of an unnecessarily huge glob of solder, bridging both traces causing the issue.
5. Opted for completely re-soldering the points instead of scraping away at it, because as you can see by the sheer amount of solder that would've been a nightmare. A clean tip, some fresh solder and a cheap solder pump and job done - the solders now look like this:
   
6. That's it! This is a good time to refresh the thermal paste on the heatsink connection spots if you wish, otherwise re-screw the motherboard onto the heatsink and re-screw the entire back panel into the speaker box.

I don't think they soldered this particular spot on the production line. Seems like a hacky, quick fix for a missed solder spot, because the other tips are soldered with factory perfection. Not sure what happened here, but hopefully this fix keeps.

Thanks to Miro666 and all the people that contributed, hopefully Presonus have acknowledged this super annoying issue, and improved their supplemental solder jobs, especially since a lot of people really like the monitors themselves.

Cheers, hope this helps someone.

Answer 12

I think the 'solder blob' in the pics connect two pads that both connect to ground, so I don't think it matters.

Answer 13

Could be, but it absolutely fixed the issue for me. Haven't heard a single tweeter drop, whereas previously it was at least 2-3 times per day, and a lot of the time, the tweeter would be just off.

Answer 14

For me its not the board, thats a comon ground connection and does not matter if it has a bigger blob of solder. For me the problem is the tweeter... if I knock on it while its out ( cutting off/ sounds sunk or off) it comes back ... so Its a shady wire connection on the speaker side or the sound coil of the tweeter is the problem.. was sent to store warranty and came back the same..

Answer 15

My 15 month old Eris E8 xt had this problem today. It happened at just over 1/2 volume. I had been at my cpu limit and thought I was glitching at first. I turned the volume down and checked my leads but no joy. I gave the speaker a quick blast at higher volume and my tweeter came back, for now. I'll try the motherboard if it happens again. Thanks for posting a solution.

Answer 16

For me the connectors for the tweeter weren't crimped properly and it was cutting -out