Found Monster cables inside my Watt Puppy 5.1's


I finally got around to repairing all four blown woofers in my Wilson 5.1's (I still can't figure out how I could have blown them. Could using them with a 40 Watt integrated Proton amp and having the power accidentally turned on with the volume way up cause that?). As I took out the original woofers, I was shocked to see that one of the wires connected to the speaker was yellow and had "Monster Cable" written on it. I couldn't believe it. First, I thought Monster Cable was considered only for mid-fi products and Second, I thought Wilson only used Transparent cabling (it does for the Puppy Tail anyway). Weird.

H
henrus
Remember you have to break the new drivers in before they will have much bass. You did use the correct replacements didn't you?
The risk return ratio in out of wack here. I would not try to save a few hundrend bucks on a $ 10,000.00 used piece of gear. You would be better off sending the speakers to wilson to get the woofers fixed and see that no other 'tweeks" were done to these. I would think its extremely rare to blow the woofers in these. I listed to the 6.0's with 350 watt Krell Monos full blast and they ROCK ! PS the $ 100,000.00 system had Monster cable 2.4 speaker cables!
Some amps, after clipping, send a huge surge of current to the drivers, which could damage them. If there is no bass with the new drivers, even without break-in, the crossover could also be damaged. To be safe, ascertain that the volume is down before powering up your system, especially if you have kids in the house.

Also, onsidering the cost of the speakers, I agree with the above post about letting Wilson repair them. Maybe while they're at it they can upgrade the wiring.
I suppose break in is necessary, but there is absolutely zero bass. almost sounds like the puppy turned into a small PC speaker. That can't be right, could it?

To be honest, I can't figure out when exactly they blew. I suppose it's possible they were damaged before I even bought them, though I like to believe that I would have heard blown woofers. Can an under powered amp cause low impedance speakers (the puppys are known to be down to 2 ohms in the bass range I believe) to blow if played too loud? I know the sound gets very ratty when played too loudly.

As far as risk/return, I hear you. But I didn't realize that Wilson themselves would take them back for repair. Plus, I don't have boxes for them. (I wonder what they would have charged me?) I got the woofers from another dealer that used to carry Wilson as a favor. They never mentioned sending it directly to Wilson, and said that I should be able to just solder them in myself. I only paid about $4k for the pair, so the risk/return wasn't quite as high. What a painful lesson though.
I'm sure they can be repaired. Do they have any fuses or other internal protection. It just doesn't sound as though the signal is getting to the drivers. Be sure also to check the resistors on the crossover going to the drivers if there are any. They may be bad. I have seen resistors blown completely out to where they will not pass a signal. Also make sure these are not Wilson clones. There are some out there.