This isn't even the cause for the fault I opened the speaker up to fix (a fucky TDA7265 amp chip that that I was going to either cut a pin on or replace), but it certainly explains the extraneous noise when testing
Might still use it as recapping practice if I don't find too many other costly issues.
It's an eight year old pair of Mackey CR3s, and the reason they sound so good for the money is because the components are the bargain basement versions when it comes to durability.
I have some much nicer speakers to repair, but I'd like to get past the "accidentally stabbing something important with a soldering iron" stage of getting my hand back in on something less precious.
Fuck knows I certainly can't afford to buy new speakers right now.