What causes clipping?

Thanks for the info.

Hmmm... if you're correct (which I assume you are), then my amp is actually overloading the speakers themselves. I usually only have the amp at half power or so and can have this problem. Interesting.

Does "clipping" ever have a load crackling, popping noise associated with it? The sound it is making just doesn't sound good for the speakers! ... so it would make sense they are being overpowered and pushed beyond their excursion ranges.

Is there a quick way to test if it is the speakers or the amp that is the problem?
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I don't think the driver is blown. It still seems to work fine at moderate volume levels. Just at loud, bassy times (i.e. organ in phantom of the opera or a big movie scene), they start having problems.

The fuses that sometimes blow are the ones inline to the speakers. Therefore, it seems like the amp itself is sending too much power to the speakers (causing them to exceed their excursion limit).

I was just wondering if there is some "power surge" effect caused when the amp can't get enough power and then tries to compensate but ends up overcompensating and thus overloading the speakers. Just a theory, but wasn't sure if it made any sense.
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Thanks for the info! This sounds exactly like what's happening to mine.

Do you think my power supply is damaged by now or do I just have faulty filters that fail at high loads?

For that matter, what are power supply filters and how easy can they be replaced? Sounds like a generic part that maybe someone can help me replace without being an audiophile.

Too bad Kinergetics still isn't in business. I feel stuck now.
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I think you are right with the room size, although this problem seems more than just a limited bass response. It seems like a bass malfunction or overload at louder volumes. I'm not sure if speakers overload if the room is too small, do they?!

Definitely will look into a tech to check out the Kinergetics, though. I wish I questioned the problem more when I got the system years ago!

Thanks again for your input!
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I did some experimenting over the weekend.

The Spica's are not full range speakers and if I don't call them "small" speakers on the HK receiver, NO signal will be sent to the subwoofer. Granted that they are physically large speakers, but their range is considered "small".

The SW-200 are "stereo" L and R subwoofers which have two 10" speakers in each box. The HK sends out a pre-amp mono subwoofer signal cutoff at 100Hz, so I split this and then go in the L/R pre-amps on the Kinergetics amp.

I found an old Enya CD which had some good simple monotone bass notes which helped me diagnose a bit more.

I tried switching the L/R speaker cables from the amp to the speakers. The problem stayed on the right speakers after the switch. This tells me that the amp is not the problem, but the right speakers themselves are having a problem.

But here are some notes / questions:

1. The problem is that both 10" speakers inside the right speaker sub box are vibrating to their extremes causing a jackhammer sound. This originally sounded like out-of-control, distorted, popping in the bass movie scenes, but with the clean Enya monotone, it was a steady pounding noise and I could visibly see what was happening.

2. Although the right speaker set has this problem, it sounds perfectly fine until it gets turned up to a loud volume.

3. I can turn the left speaker sub up quite a bit more and get it to do the same thing.

So... does this sound like a problem with the right speaker set or possibly a small room problem? I was wondering if there is some effect I don't quite understand where the speakers aren't able to create the bass they are trying to generate which causes this over excursion problem and speaker jackhammer effect. If it is actually a problem with the speaker, what could it be since they sound fine up to a point?

Any ideas welcome. Thanks for all your help!

John

It is a sealed box. I don't see what I could tighten on the box. What are the drivers? An air leak would make some sense, although everything seems really tight on the speaker box.

What type of battery would you use to check polarity? I assume you mean compare the the left pair of speakers and right pair of speakers move the same direction? Or do you mean the two speakers in one box? I can also just try reversing the red/black wires on the right side and see if that makes any difference.

I don't have an expensive DVD. I'm just using a PS2 or TiVo as the source through an optical cable for movies. I also read in the HK manual that if you set your speakers to "Large", there will be NO signal set to the subs. I didn't confirm this, but I will.

I did try plugging into the wall and didn't notice any change in the problem volume point.

Thanks for all your ideas!
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The subs have an external amp. I highly doubt that the two speakers / drivers would be crosswired inside the sealed speaker box. I also can visually see that both speakers in the box are moving in and out in unison.

Would reversing the black / red speaker wire have any effect? I didn't think it really mattered which way you hooked up the speakers. I'm pretty sure everything is matched up, but just one more thing for me to try.

I'll also make sure everything is sealed well, although it all seems pretty rock sold.

Is there anything inside the speaker box that could be failing? I wasn't sure if there are any electronics inside the box itself.

Thanks again for your ideas.
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I need to find an audiophile friend in my area who would be willing to bring over their amp for me to try out.

The Kinergetics has separate L/R channels. I can hook up the right sub to either channel and the problem still occurs. This makes me suspect something in the sub box itself.
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