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Kharma ceramic blow up

Has this happened to anyone?

I went to listen to the Kharma Exquisite Reference today paired with Soulution preamp, Soulution monoblocks, and the dCS Scarletti stack. I really enjoyed it until I put in Bela Fleck's "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo" track #4 which is very bass punchy/heavy.

The ceramic midrange proceeded to blow up BOOM and shatter! Is this common with ceramic midranges? I mean the whole driver literally blew up and shattered into pieces.

Usually a speaker blows up because of amplified distortion which causes the speaker piston movement to become non linear, but I highly doubt the Soulutions or dCS somehow caused this.

Nothing against Kharma, as maybe this was a one off thing. I did really like this setup though. The music was beautiful until it happened. I've been listening to setups from Rockport Altairs, Wilson Maxx3's, TAD Reference 1, and now today the Kharmas.

Should I be wary of about this? I don't want to spend so much money and have problems like this. Do you think this was just a one-off? Again I thoroughly enjoyed the Kharma's until then (but still needed to listen longer to get a better sense of the speakers).

Cheers.
changster

Showing 3 responses by jtinn

jtinn
1,124 posts
 
If the amp or preamp pass DC current to a speaker, it can likely cause the drivers or a driver to blow.

Having owned Kharmas and been a past retailer for them, I have dealt with this many times. It is always upstream. The driver does not just fail.
jtinn
1,124 posts
 
If you were playing over 115 db, you possibly over drove the midrange. If not, my guess is the preamp or amplifier was sending DC to the speaker.
jtinn
1,124 posts
 
"Tsk, tsk. Of course a driver doesn't commit suicide:)!
That, exactly that, was the question: i.e. in other words "what upstream element do you think caused the damage".:

Gregm: Your statement seems a bit odd when indeed I did suggest that the amp or preamp might have passed DC to the speaker.
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