Speaker’s crossover have electrical components? Right? Could this be the issue or am I barking up the wrong tree?
Which amp with Wilson watt puppy 8
Hi there !
i live on an island with no audiophile shops around.
I arrived in 2011 with a Jeff Rowland continuum 250 and Sonus Faber Cremona m speakers who were a great match. Unfortunately I blew the speakers a few times, then upgraded to columns, blew them also twice. I guess the amp is too powerful for them, but this time Sonus Faber was unable to provide me replacement tweeters and speakers, which is an enormous disappointment. I will never buy anything from them again. I ran through the web and found corresponding parts that I changed myself, but they seem to sound much higher in the trebles and lack bass, especially at high volume levels, (above 55%) . I tried swapping the cables, but it didn’t change anything.
I now bought a pair of Wilson audio watt puppy 8 that arrived this week from a NYC store. I hope them to last lifetime.
They have cost me around 11.5k$ door to door, look great and tough, but need to be driven above 60 % of volume otherwise nothing comes out of them, especially bass !
I also get the same sharp treble sound, which is very disappointing.
My problem is to find the issue :
1/ room acoustic
2/ change my class D amplifier for tubes or transistors
3/ find better cables
4/ me turning old ?
what should I do next ? what amplifier would you recommend with this configuration (watt puppy 8, MIT Avtr 1, ps audio direct stream mk1, aurender n10, musical fidelity M6 CD) ?
thank you
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- 61 posts total
@OP A few further observations. Given what you say about occupational hazards, you should get an audiogram done. You may have an notch beween 2 and 6 Khz which is affecting your tonal perception. Also, the fact that you are blowing up speakers may be because hearing loss which can lead to playing things excessively loud in an attempt to get a more linear perception. That in turn can lead to exacerbating room problems etc. All that having been the earlier generations of W/P can tend to sound bright. Also they are very critical of setup and listening height in particular. It might be worth paying an experienced Wilson dealer to do a setup. Money spent on setup and room treatments are the two best investments in hi fi. I'm always surprised how people are willing to spend a lot of money changing equipment without addressing the fundamentals. |
@ozzy as I mentioned above, I spoke to Jeff from Jeff Rowland (yeah the guy himself answered the phone !). He clearly said there was no problem with the electronics, blowing drivers at a certain amount of volume is normal, and advised me to keep the kids away. I wonder why hi fi constructors don t protect our expensive toys ? Bose outdoor speakers are self protected : I tried a pair of Bose 251 on my JR amp and at a certain level the sound suddenly faded. I thought I had grilled them like the sf but after a few minutes of cooling down they went back to normal. You can say what ever you want on Bose, but that is true engineering. |
The magic word is "at a certain amount of volume." Your SF Cremona could handle power up to 300w w/o clipping and is a nominal 4-ohm speaker with a factory-rated sensitivity of 90dB/2.83v/m (at 8-ohm). The drivers may not damage at the clipping power at burst but it may, especially tweeter, at a RMS power approaching its limit where the high freq. energy to which the tweeter is vulnerable. Your JR continuum 250 is rated 250w at 8 ohm and doubled at 4 ohm load. Let us assume your tweeters were damaged when pushed at 150w at 8-ohm when the amp is operated at the clipping power 300w at 4-ohm. Now, into 4-ohm, the equivalent sensitivity becomes 90dB/2w/m (since P = V^2 / R = 2.83^2 / 4 = 2w). Converting to 1W, the sensitivity rating becomes = 87dB/1w/m (= 90 + 10 log(1/2) = 87). Now, at 300w, the SPL = 87 + 10 log(300/1) = 111.8dB at 1m away. Assume your MLP is 3m away from the speakers. At your listening position, the SPL = 111.8 - 10 log((3/1)^2) = 102.3dB (square distance rule). What sound level of 102.3dB we are talking about in real life. A typical SPL inside the aircraft cabin during takeoff is approximately 105dB. My question to you, OP, is that were you listening to music at a sound level comparable to sitting inside an aircraft cabin during takeoff when the tweeter blew out? Your perceived sound level may not be very accurate, so I suggest using a smartphone app like Decibel X to measure it. |
If I’m not mistaken the resistors in Wilson Audio speakers will melt and protect the drivers. |
- 61 posts total