Help Diagnose Speaker Noise

[chessman]

A friend has a pair of fairly new Onix Ref 1s. At certain low frequencies, especially during quiet passages playing music, the left front main strongly and the right front main slightly makes a "scritching" noise. Source does not matter. Noise follows the speakers when swapped with rears. I tightened the surrounds around the bottom woofers which were slightly loose. That had no effect. The noise only started recently. The speakers have never been driven hard. Touching the surround when the cone is making the noise causes the noise to stop. Any ideas?

[HAL]

With no music playing and the amp turned off try this idea. When you carefully push in woofer cones do you feel any scraping or hear the noise? If so the woofers voice coils maybe off center.

Mark Joslin at AV123 can help diagnose it farther if this does not show anything.

[kip]

Try this, turn your source off and turn your preamp/receiver volume up (not to the point of clipping or maximum) and put your ear up to the speaker and see if you still hear it. If that doesn't fix it then I'd play with speaker cable and interconnects.

[Daryl RL]

He didn't say "fronts and rears" - he said it follows the speakers if he switches them to the rear.

Hal's advice sounds like a good start and yours is still good too.