burning tweeters!?

AndreD · Post by **AndreD** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 5:31 am

hello,
some days ago, a friend killed his speakers (adam, active)
one tweeter started to burn during NORMAL mixing. (even @ low sound level)
has anybody an idea, how this could happend?
there was no "big noise" or something like that..
the music was not too hot by the way

best,
andre

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: AndreD on 2004-08-18 06:33 ]</font>

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 7:23 am

that's a

one - and pricey...
afaik those speakers ae rather sensitive to DC levels. According to Ohm a high voltage usually is paired with low current and vice versa, so a slight difference in level may cause a huge current flowing, such frying the tweeter.

It's strange, because an active speaker is a pretty independent environment and I cant imagine that it's possible to 'accidently' transfer DC offsets from the audio source.
Alfonso once mentioned to be careful with control voltages of the modular synth in that context...

On the other hand - not too long ago a voltage regulating rectifier in the PSU of my DS30 monitor just failed (right out of the blue...).
I'm far from gneralizing, but obviously such things can happen...

cheers, Tom

Post by **hubird** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 8:04 am

You're scaring me André, I

my Adams...
hope he can repair it

AndreD · Post by **AndreD** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 8:06 am

On 2004-08-18 09:04, hubird wrote:
You're scaring me André, I my Adams...
hope he can repair it

he is using a maudio delta audiophile b.t.w.

Post by **hubird** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 11:18 am

ehh...thank god

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 11:19 am

You say that the tweeter burned out during "normal" mixing. Does your friend normally monitor at higher volumes? Don't discount the idea that the initial damage may have happened during a previous session, and that the tweeters finally gave up a little later.

I have seen tweeter fry at "normal" volumes before when very high frequency material, such as an oscillating filter, is swept into the frequencies over 15,000 Hz, supplying way more evergy than the tweeter could handle at those frequencies.

It is also possible to damage them with extreme boost on an equalizer at the same very high frequncies. Don't forget that every 3 Db of boost requires twice as much power, so it is easy to fry tweeters by boosting 12 KHz by 12 dB. You won't hear the distortion because it is beyond your hearing range, but the tweeter feels it, and will not perform under those conditions for very long.

Are the speaker's still under warranty?

R

AndreD · Post by **AndreD** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 12:16 pm

On 2004-08-18 12:19, nprime wrote:
Are the speaker's still under warranty?

yes, but adam told him, that he damaged the speekers with an incompatible signal for a long time.
that was not the case...
he has to pay the tweeters.

AndreD · Post by **AndreD** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 12:17 pm

by the way, he is working in a flat.
there is no "abnormal" volume possible...

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 1:51 pm

That's a crappy attitude for Adam to take. Tell your friend to complain more, I bet they'll cave and replace the tweeter for free.

I had a bass player who blew up (literally -- I watched the whole thing in horror) his Eden amp because he tried to do something stupid. Eden laughed at him but fixed it under warrantee anyway.

If Adam doesn't respect its customers, threaten 'em with selling your speakers and buying Genelecs or Mackies or something...

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 3:52 pm

Screw Adams, buy some PMCs. You know you want to.

Post by **hubird** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:08 pm

On 2004-08-18 16:52, Mr Arkadin wrote:
Screw Adams, buy some PMCs. You know you want to.

screw Eva, not Adam

I'm convinced they belong to the top three in the cathegory, but this isn't the topic

Adams have an overload led, like all active speakers have or should have.
Anyway, he didn't overload as he says, but Nprime's truthfull post spots overamping the very high freq's.
On the other side, Adam's tweeters are designed to handle high frequencies till 32.000 Hz, to avoid burning the tweeter (and for better quality in the hearable range off course).
I would insist at Adams to get the monitor repaired under warrenty, they should do that

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 10:49 pm

On 2004-08-18 16:52, Mr Arkadin wrote:
Screw Adams, buy some PMCs. You know you want to.

ooooh, PMC's, them's some fine speakers!!

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 10:55 pm

On 2004-08-18 13:17, AndreD wrote:
by the way, he is working in a flat.
there is no "abnormal" volume possible...

As I say, not in your hearing range there isn't , but I bet some dogs nearby were spinning around in circles and yowling!

I'm not saying that this is what your friend did, but it's something I have done...I was young and foolish, what can I say! A Micro-moog in the hands of a sixteen year old is a dangerous thing. I was sweeping these really high frequency filter oscillations and we were all trying to decide if we could hear them or not, so someone turned the amp up...I remember being horrified as I saw these little white curls of smoke coming out of the tweeters of my friend's dad's very esoteric British speakers!!!

R

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 11:01 pm

On 2004-08-18 14:51, blazesboylan wrote:
That's a crappy attitude for Adam to take. Tell your friend to complain more, I bet they'll cave and replace the tweeter for free.

I had a bass player who blew up (literally -- I watched the whole thing in horror) his Eden amp because he tried to do something stupid. Eden laughed at him but fixed it under warrantee anyway.

If Adam doesn't respect its customers, threaten 'em with selling your speakers and buying Genelecs or Mackies or something...

I have to agree with BB here, it's entirely possilbe that they simply failed. Did they both go at the same time? If they went at different times then I would think it's just a random failure. If they went together than your friend should try to figure out why.

Still, making more noise about not being satisfied can't hurt. Is it the actual manufacturer who won't fix them or a dealer?

If the manufacturer has actually examined the speakers and won't replace them then they must have good reason for saying that the tweeters were subjected to something for an excessive period of time, they can tell by how the tweeters failed...

R

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 11:09 pm

[/quote]
On the other side, Adam's tweeters are designed to handle high frequencies till 32.000 Hz, to avoid burning the tweeter (and for better quality in the hearable range off course).

I would insist at Adams to get the monitor repaired under warrenty, they should do that

[/quote]

I agree that they should just fix them, what a bunch of wankers!

BTW hubird, they are desinged to handle musical frequencies to 32KHz, but not at 120 dB! I'm not saying that that's what happened.

Actually in a combination amp/speaker you would think that they would build in protection against frying their own driver, wouldn't you?

The more I think about it the more obvious it is that they shouldn't even argue with you! It's under warranty and it failed, that's all they need to know, FIX IT!

IMHO

R

Post by **hubird** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 9:18 pm

On 2004-08-19 00:09, nprime wrote:
Actually in a combination amp/speaker you would think that they would build in protection against frying their own driver, wouldn't you?

No, definitely not

the leds are more than enough for me

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2004-08-19 22:19 ]</font>