How will I know if I've blown my speakers??

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by audio, Jul 20, 2003.

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  1. audio

    audio New Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    guyana
    During a mixing session tonight I plugged into my stereo amp to check something and one of the guys I was sessioning with accidentally pressed play with the volume up REALLY LOUD and the sound burst out of my speakers with such force and volume that I was sure something was destroyed. I, of course, turned the volume down right away. My amp didn't shut off, and I'm pretty sure it has a protection circuit. As far as I can tell, the speakers sound fine. I'm wondering if I had damaged them, would I know it right away or would the damage to the voice coil creep up slowly on me? Basically, I am wondering if I should be concerned. Any thoughts?
     
  2. Cliff

    Cliff Magic Carpet Man

    Location:
    Northern CA
    When I fried the coil in one of my mids, it was pretty obvious. I played some classical wind instrument concertos, and it crackled like crazy. It was an easy fix, lucky for me.
     
  3. Damián

    Damián Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Spain now
    I haven't had much experience with this (fortunately!) but I'd think if one of the coils was fried you'd know right away 'cause the driver would be dead as a doornail, as you guys say :).

    I've been in similar situations to yours where I accidentally pressed some button or plugged something in without looking at the volume knob first and so far my speakers are working just like the day I hauled them in -- I'd assume that if you were quick to turn everything off probably no damage was done.

    Cliff's post makes a good point too -- play a recording you know well, at moderate listening volume. Does anything sound 'weird'? Any noises? Buzzing? Crackle? If you don't hear anything the drivers are most likely OK.

    Cheers,

    Damián
     
  4. hot_wax_man

    hot_wax_man New Member

    Location:
    Houston
    How do ya know?

    First off let me say this. A speaker rated at 100 watts will take 200 if it is clean. that means no square wave distortion from the amp.

    Chances are if you had a lot of power available then no harm was done. (except to your ears)


    Second: a speaker rated at 100 watts RMS continuous can be damaged by a 50 watt amp playing at 20% distortion in a short period of time.

    Thirdly : Tweeters are most often damaged by distortion. After such an occurrence they generally have a "raspy" sound that is easily discern-able on piano, acoustic guitar, and female vocals.

    fourthly: Woofer damage is characterized by a rattle or buzz type harmonic that Will be added to the bass notes.

    Listen to Rubber Shirt by Frank Zappa, or Welcome to the machine by Pink Floyd as good test material for this.

    fifthly: If you hear a clicking sound added to the kick drum , then the woofers voice coil is being driven "out of the Gap" and the Voice coil is hitting the magnet. If you hear this the woofer is being damaged in real time and may have already suffered permanent damage.

    Speaker Damage is progressive. Once it has started it will continue to get worse over time.

    I hope this helps..
     
  5. audio

    audio New Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    guyana
    Re: How do ya know?

    Tell me more about this tweeter "rasp". Will this be totally obvious or a subtle effect?? Can you recommend any good test track for this?
     
  6. hot_wax_man

    hot_wax_man New Member

    Location:
    Houston
    Re: Re: How do ya know?

    Well I like to use Sheffield Labs Missing Link II listen to the triangle on the opening cut.

    I also use john Klemmer "touch". first cut.

    Once again the best test would be a female vocal with like "What's new"
    Linda Ronstadt.

    If you notice a little distortion on any of these items your tweeter may be damaged. Also it will get worse with time.

    YOu could use a disc with test tones but this is fairly risky for anyone not trained and experienced in it. It is very easy to burn out your tweeters with test tones while testing them so i prefer music.
     
  7. Pinknik

    Pinknik Senior Member

    Oh, the subject heading makes me laugh, but I thought better of my response.:D
     
  8. Jason Brown

    Jason Brown Forum Resident

    Location:
    SLC, UT
    Prix,
    How are your speakers doing?

    I was calibrating the bass management on my DVD-A/SACD player last night, which requires my receiver to be at 00dB to have the pink noise register on the SPL meter. I forgot to turn down when I started playing some metal. 00dB from a cold start (ouch!).

    After having a bad tweeter in my last pair of speakers, I'm paranoid as hell now that it will happen again. I hear a lot of distortion in my music, but I'm sure that's to be expected with what I listen to.

    Steve Hoffman was the one who suggested I try a Telarc piano solo CD to see if I had any driver problems. Fortunately it plays fine on my current speakers, but it was exactly what I needed to diagnose the bad tweeter on my last pair. It is the only disc I have where the high notes would come out as a sickening white noise rather than anything resembling music.
     
  9. audio

    audio New Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    guyana

    It turns out the speakers are just fine, which is fantastic considering I've decided to sell them to get my Tannoys.
     

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