Speaker dies on 1793SE! Noooo!!!

Well, the title pretty much sums it up. Saturday afternoon, all of a sudden my detector starts sounding like it has a scratchy throat. Sunday, the "blown out" sounding speaker's alerts start getting quieter... and quieter... and Monday now there are limited sounds altogether. Finally, yesterday, my trusty RD chirped its final alert.

I feel so vulnerable now, because it's still mounted there like it always was... but now eerily silent (which normally indicates all clear, but certainly not anymore!). My old 1540's speaker is still going strong, so this is kinda disappointing. :(

I was looking to get a new XTR-695 for a family member (currently a Cobra user :banghead: ), but now I'm having second thoughts considering the Passport 8500's very affordable price for the very high-level of performance delivered according to tests. Is this speaker problem common for Whistler's (I only found a few threads regarding dead/dying speakers) or do I just happen to find myself among the unfortunate few? At least my 1793SE is supposed to still be under warranty... does that mean this speaker issue is covered?

Whistler has the best customer service in the industry. Send it in.....

Haven't really heard or had any problems with my Whistlers and their speakers. My old ones speaker is still going strong. Sometimes components fail early as is common in ALL electronics, and I'm sure there have been the same problem with every other RD made.

Is it a common, always happening problem for Whistlers? No.
My advice: Get in contact with Mike B here on the forums, he's the Whistler rep around here and a top notch guy who will get ya hooked up. ;)

Yeah, I didn't find much on dying or blown out Whistler speakers nor did I have a problem with my old 1540... so I assumed it was just an unfortunate case of premature component failure.

I'll PM Mike B and figure out how this is best handled... whether I should send the unit in or maybe Whistler will just send me a replacement speaker (assuming the repair procedure doesn't cause too much aggravation).

Anyone know if speaker replacement is a straight-forward job, or better left for the manufacturer?

Best to let them do it as opening the RD voids the warranty ;) and they can give it a nice look over and I don't know if that model can be tuned up or not but I'm sure if it can they would probably do it while it's home for repair.