amp and speaker compatibility

Hi Bdertman. I don't know your amp or your speakers. As rule, you shouldn't be turning the volume on your amp to "max". Generally people don't go over half or a little further. Most amps will distort and "clip" if turned up higher. This not only sounds bad, it can damage your speakers (regardless of their power-handling capability).

How loud are you trying to go?

If you need more volume, there are a few possiblities:

1. You may need an amp with more power

2. You may need speakers that can play louder with a given amp (or more speakers) -- ceiling mounts might not do it.

3. If you can't even get reasonable volume out of the setup, you may have a mismatch between the CD/DVD player and the pre-amp -- can you borrow/try a different source?

4. Do you have multiple speakers attached to your amp outputs (as you mention in another post)? If so, try using just one speaker per amp speaker output -- that's how it's supposed to be used.

- Eric

If you turn your amplifier to the maximum volume it is very probable that you are driving the amplifier into severe clipping distortion. Such distortion can and will damage your speakers and possibly your amplifier as well. Most speakers are damaged by uninformed people doing this exact thing. The crackling sounds your speakers made corresponded to huge amounts of distortion from your severely overdriven amplifier. And most loudspeaker warranties do not cover this type of damage. They see this as product abuse.

If you need higher volume levels then you will need to get a much more powerful amplifier. Remember, distorted power will damage speakers at much lower levels than clean (unclipped) amplifier power...