Bad speaker or bad amp?

[Rockman0]

Hello All,

I am new here and was hoping someone could help me. I have the following setup at home:
Marantz SR8012
Marantz MM8077 7 channel 150watts per channel amp

klipsch RF-7III towers
Klipsch RC-64III center
Klipsch THX-5002-L rear surrounds
Klipsch RP-502S side surrounds
Klipsch PRO-180RPC atmos speakers x4

I am running the atmos speakers off of the sr8012 and all other speakers off of the amp (mm8077)
Everything was going fine until a week or so ago when I was changing some projector settings with my Apple TV on outputting only a screen saver and no sound what so ever. I was hearing an intermittent crackle or pop for about a span of 10 mins. Then I heard what sounded like a sizzle sound. Alarmed by this I put on a YouTube video and now my left speaker sounds normal but my right speaker is barely putting out sound.

I reached out to klipsch for support since I am still under warranty. They claim the following:

Speakers can work underpowered, but they will eventually fail. I would suggest to get a more powerful amplifier. It is likely that the drivers are bad now because of underpowering, but the same thing will likely happen again if you do not provide more power to those speakers.

Today I decided to look at my audyssey settings and the distance settings look correct and are nearly identical to the left speaker. I also changed the output of the right speaker as you will see below to get it to somewhat match the sound output of the left speaker. I did this with a very low overall volume to ensure I do not clip.

Have the drivers gone bad as klipsch is saying to me because I underpowered them? Is the Marantz going bad?

Below are some screenshots of my settings which includes the output setting I changed to try to match the left front speakers output.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[everettT]

Swap the speakers on the amp and then you should know which.

There's no way you underpowered those speakers

 

[lovinthehd]

Much more likely the Klipsch customer service dude was an idiot on the power situation than it caused any issues. Yes, swap speakers and see what follows. Were you making connection changes while the unit was powered?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I would guess it’s either the AVP or the amp.

 

[Rockman0]

Much more likely the Klipsch customer service dude was an idiot on the power situation than it caused any issues. Yes, swap speakers and see what follows. Were you making connection changes while the unit was powered?

Thanks. No connection changes were made as the speakers were in a sort of set it and forget it after their initial setup months back.

Should I just try the supposed bad speaker on the right with the cables on the left? I worry about hooking up the speaker from the left to the right cables if there is something wrong with the amp.

 

[lovinthehd]

Thanks. No connection changes were made as the speakers were in a sort of set it and forget it after their initial setup months back.

Should I just try the supposed bad speaker on the right with the cables on the left? I worry about hooking up the speaker from the left to the right cables if there is something wrong with the amp.

I would, and at a low enough volume level where problems are minimalized as all you're testing for is function. Hard to know whether it's speaker or amp at this point....but just what changes did you make and how particularly?

 

[Rockman0]

I would, and at a low enough volume level where problems are minimalized as all you're testing for is function. Hard to know whether it's speaker or amp at this point....but just what changes did you make and how particularly?

No changes, all I was doing was setting up a universal remote and I left the Apple TV on its screensaver mode for some extra light. The screen saver however does not output any sound. That’s what made that popping sound and sizzle sound so noticeable.

 

[lovinthehd]

No changes, all I was doing was setting up a universal remote and I left the Apple TV on its screensaver mode for some extra light. The screen saver however does not output any sound. That’s what made that popping sound and sizzle sound so noticeable.

Yeah that doesn't sound like anything that should induce a particular change/reaction. Have you tried a reset of the avr, either soft or factory/microprocessor?

 

[Rockman0]

Yeah that doesn't sound like anything that should induce a particular change/reaction. Have you tried a reset of the avr, either soft or factory/microprocessor?

I have not tried that yet do you mean just going into the AVR and resetting the factory settings?

 

[lovinthehd]

I have not tried that yet do you mean just going into the AVR and resetting the factory settings?

I'd first try a soft reset to clear glitches (unplug the avr for a little while), then if that not effective, the full/microprocessor/factory reset per your manual.....

 

[isolar8001]

Easy way to test a speaker....take a short piece of speaker wire and plug it into the speaker.
Take the other end of the wire and touch the 2 ends to the terminals on a nine volt battery.

If the speaker is operational, you will hear a thump out of the speaker.
This is also handy for keeping track of left and right wiring when running surrounds, etc.

 

[lovinthehd]

Easy way to test a speaker....take a short piece of speaker wire and plug it into the speaker.
Take the other end of the wire and touch the 2 ends to the terminals on a nine volt battery.

If the speaker is operational, you will hear a thump out of the speaker.
This is also handy for keeping track of left and right wiring when running surrounds, etc.

Maybe see a movement in cone than something particularly audible....

 

[lovinthehd]

I have not tried that yet do you mean just going into the AVR and resetting the factory settings?

Soft reset would be simply unplugging the unit from power, the full factory/microprocessor reset per your manual will wipe all setup you've done and start from a clean slate, and sometimes its suggested to even do three in a row to alleviate certain issues....but with some avrs you can save a calibration/setup profile, others it just wipes it clean so you might make sure you have a copy of the old one as a reference of sorts.

 

[isolar8001]

Maybe see a movement in cone that something particularly audible....

It gives a pretty good thump (doesn't hurt anything)....he could try it on the one that works, then on the one in question and compare the thumps. If they both sound the same...bad amp.

I used to use this method back in my car audio installation days.
Made it real easy to track down whether the speaker was bad or the amp blew.

 

[lovinthehd]

It gives a pretty good thump (doesn't hurt anything)....he could try it on the one that works, then on the one in question and compare the thumps. If they both sound the same...bad amp.

I used to use this method back in my car audio installation days.
Made it real easy to track down whether the speaker was bad or the amp blew.

Just saying it can go both ways...

 

[mtrycrafts]

If you are going to use a battery to test, use a 1.5V battery, safer.

 

[lovinthehd]

If you are going to use a battery to test, use a 1.5V battery, safer.

Just be sure to keep your tongue in the circuit for best effect.

 

[gimpy]

Did you re-run audessey? Or just look at its settings? See if that gives you any info?

 

[Rockman0]

Ok so new update I swapped the speakers and as you all speculated the original right tower speaker is outputting full sound when I perform the tone test and the original left tower speaker which was fine to begin with is exhibiting the same low output.

So can I safely assume the amp has gone bad?

I also went through the tone test and got zero sound from one of my 4 atmos speakers. My sub Also did not produce a tone through the tone test. The tone test is just through the Marantz setup menu.

The four atmos speakers are powered by the SR8012. The Sub of course is self powered connected to the LFE port on the sr8012. All other speakers are receiving power from the mm8077.

 

[Kingnoob]

Ok so new update I swapped the speakers and as you all speculated the original right tower speaker is outputting full sound when I perform the tone test and the original left tower speaker which was fine to begin with is exhibiting the same low output.

So can I safely assume the amp has gone bad?

I also went through the tone test and got zero sound from one of my 4 atmos speakers. My sub Also did not produce a tone through the tone test. The tone test is just through the Marantz setup menu.

The four atmos speakers are powered by the SR8012. The Sub of course is self powered connected to the LFE port on the sr8012. All other speakers are receiving power from the mm8077.

Tough luck I’ve only had an amp channel die in a used avr the second center channel. Couldn’t place one there anyways .. how old is the avr?? I know warranty aren’t for long .