@mikedc -
A test* (if you haven't already):
*IF your problem/distortion only arises in one channel/woofer: swap your speaker systems to see if it follows the driver.
If not: it's probably the amp.
How does a speaker blow out?
I don't understand how a speaker "blows" if the wattage of the amplifier is less than the upper limit of the speaker's limit. Then again, I guess I don't really understand what "clipping" is. The amp is 22w, I was listening at a moderately high level, there was a bass heavy section in the music, and then I heard the most painful noise coming from one the of woofers. Sad.
Showing 5 responses by rodman99999
@mikedc - When you heard that painful woofer sound, during the organ music, was your source vinyl? Asking because: subsonics, caused by stylus travel (ie: record warp, arm/cart resonance, etc) will often cause woofer over-travel and damage, in a vented system. How old is your amp? Asking because: power supply filter caps (if one has gone South/leaked electrolyte) can cause noises that simulate a woofer malfunction*, at anything above low volume. *Especially on heavy Bass notes. |
After having repaired a few hundred speaker systems; I can only speak from my own experience/observations. A clipped signal and it's energy, after opening up a tweeter and having no where else to go, will end up in the x-over's, next-highest freq, driver.
Lots of blown up electrolytics, BUT- in over 15 years of repairing speaker systems (mostly: college student or Pro musician owned, it always seemed): I never once saw a burnt inductor. Some: with signs of having been abused and accompanied (in series) by a burnt driver voice coil, but- never one that opened or shorted. Perhaps the customers that clipped their amps, were just lucky in that regard. Then too: there are a multitude of systems out there, with no inductors in series w/their woofers, to block such damaging, high freq, energy. YEP (things happen)! Happy listening! |
What Erik said (regarding clipping), but: after a x-over passes that high freq distortion to the tweeter and burns it (typically: open), the energy that no longer has a path that way, is routed to the next highest freq driver, in the circuit. In the case of a two-way: that would be the woofer. I lost count of the number of two-way systems in which I found both drivers toasted by an under-powered amp, while in the reconing biz. Blown x-over caps, as well. Though a clipped signal isn't DC; it certainly can do as much damage. On the other hand: hearing a, "...most painful noise, coming from one of the woofers", might indicate a woofer that was driven past it's mechanical excursion limit (Xmech, per Thiele-Small), bottoming the voice coil, or: causing it to hit the gap's top edge(s). That type of damage usually resulted from boosted/heavy Bass and a vented cabinet, regardless of amplifier rating.
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