I had the same on one of mine here in Thailand last week. It was "caved in" (due to badly designed packing I guess). I sealed my lips around the whole tweeter and sucking like crazy until it popped out. Lucky my girlfriend didn't walk in at the time. She knows I love my boys toys but this might have been too much :-) ... Post-it notes sound like a much better idea!

Oh and there are no crinkles left. It's made of resilient stuff.

edit: I flew the speakers down from Bkk and depending how well it's sealed the caved-in tweeter may have been due to increasing pressure as the aircraft came down???

edit: I flew the speakers down from Bkk and depending how well it's sealed the caved-in tweeter may have been due to increasing pressure as the aircraft came down???
This happens to our speaks on the tours too, due to the aircraft pressure, but they usually pop out. When they don't, I use the post-it note trick. The crinkles suggest that it was a reasonably harder pressure though. One would hope the coil was still intact, but I wouldn't want the tweet myself, not if it's got folds/crinkles in it.
I'll have to remember the "sucking" technique. Great story!

Thanks for the advice, guys.
I returned them this morning and got a new pair.

I'd like to hear about the post-it approach. I've had this happen twice now as my 2 yr old acts upon his musical curiosity a little too much.

My technique is duct tape. Make a short piece long enough to fit over the sides of the cone. Center the tape and carefully press the tape onto the portion that is caved in. Now, do NOT pull outward. Instead, keep your hands alongside the cone and pull the tape APART as if you're trying to stretch it. The idea is to pop the cone back into shape without pulling it outward.

Rich, that's the method i use, although i often use dance floor tape instead as it's less tacky and messy. The black color is also cooler. ;) I've done this dozens of times and always had good success.

I do have one of a pair of monitors though in which all i have to do is look at them and the center of the tweeter cone inverts. it still retains it's spherical shape, just concave instead of convex. It doesn't seem to affect the sound at all. I finally "caved in" and pushed the other one in to match it and have left them that way ever since.

I have done the same thing using the wand from a vaccum cleaner. I rotate the airflow collar so that it is open (reducing the suction), place it over the caved in dome, then slowly rotate the collar to close it which gradually increases the vacuum until the dome pops back out. Works like a charm unless the cone is damaged.

John

As long as the coil isn't damaged, it theoretically only affects the radiant directionality. I don't know that it even affects that. the "crinkle" is the part that would worry me, if it's enough to cause a fold, then it's an issue. Paper is more of an issue than the impregnated polyester most tweets are made of today.
The duct tape/masking tape/scotch tape tricks are all the same as the large Post-It note trick. The Vacuum cleaner one is the new one on me! Good idea, Craftech. I'll have to try that one next time.

Have the BX5's been discontinued? I saw where Guitar Center had them on sale awhile back as a closeout.

I still need a couple more pairs for 5.1 set-up.

David