"Speaker POPPED tonight, but not Blown" ???

[Gatsby191]

I had the opening 15-20 minutes on, for "Independencs Day" tonight. When the severe rumbling started as the mother ship passed over the moon, my front right speaker made a popping noise repeatedly, and I almost had a coronary. (Tannoy Sensys DC 2's). I tried playing the scene over a few times, and there it was again. (like a real loud single kernel of pop corn-popping about 4 times). I tried leaning on the volume a bit in other scenes and it didn't happen again, and everything sounded great. This happenned during the playback of "Crank" too! I thought it was a high bass issue at first, but my crossover is set to 80, and the bass is set to +2db on my tone control set-up for the front L & R. (Onkyo TX-SR875) These new Tannoys cannot be damaged already! I haven't beaten on them all that much, and they aren't in constant use. Like I said above, they sounded clean and just fine afterwards, but I don't want to be unaware of a possible underlying problem. If any piece of my 7.1 set-up gets pushed hard at times, it's my Aperion Intimus S-12 Sub, and that thing has never even been at half way yet. It's a beast.
Any advice or Diagnosis out there will be greatly appreciated. Thanks all. Joe B.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I had the opening 15-20 minutes on, for "Independencs Day" tonight. When the severe rumbling started as the mother ship passed over the moon, my front right speaker made a popping noise repeatedly, and I almost had a coronary. (Tannoy Sensys DC 2's). I tried playing the scene over a few times, and there it was again. (like a real loud single kernel of pop corn-popping about 4 times). I tried leaning on the volume a bit in other scenes and it didn't happen again, and everything sounded great. This happenned during the playback of "Crank" too! I thought it was a high bass issue at first, but my crossover is set to 80, and the bass is set to +2db on my tone control set-up for the front L & R. (Onkyo TX-SR875) These new Tannoys cannot be damaged already! I haven't beaten on them all that much, and they aren't in constant use. Like I said above, they sounded clean and just fine afterwards, but I don't want to be unaware of a possible underlying problem. If any piece of my 7.1 set-up gets pushed hard at times, it's my Aperion Intimus S-12 Sub, and that thing has never even been at half way yet. It's a beast.
Any advice or Diagnosis out there will be greatly appreciated. Thanks all. Joe B.

Almost sounds like your low frequency driver reached its limits
Yes, that segment is brutal especially if the volume is up there and the speaker is just not capable.

 

[Soundman]

Maybe you should look at your crossover settings. It might be that your speakers jst can't handle certain passages and your crossover needs to be adjusted. Make sure your sub is handling those hard core frequencies! I could be wrong, but it's definitely worth checking.

 

[Gatsby191]

I do have the crossover set at 80, and these are a full range speaker(according to Tannoy and there Sensys DC 2's) and I was thinking it may have been the crossover setting too, but does that make sense on a speaker like this, when I have it dumping everything lower than 80 to my beast of a sub? (when I say beast, it's not just in reference to it's big size, but it's actually in reference to it's output, and overall performance.) I am confused and a little dissappointment right now. Joe B.

 

[TLS Guy]

I don't think this a speaker issue. I think this is an amp issue. There are a number of causes of this when an amp begins to fail. Arching in a power transistor when they are about to fail, and a failing cap some place are causes. If your crossover is set to 80 it is very unlikely to be the speaker. I would take your amp or receiver in for service and have the tech drive it hard into dummy loads and see if he has spikes show on the scope. I have a very strong hunch this is an amp problem.

 

[Gatsby191]

Uh Oh! I hope it's not the Amp/Receiver. YIKES!

I don't think this a speaker issue. I think this is an amp issue. There are a number of causes of this when an amp begins to fail. Arching in a power transistor when they are about to fail, and a failing cap some place are causes. If your crossover is set to 80 it is very unlikely to be the speaker. I would take your amp or receiver in for service and have the tech drive it hard into dummy loads and see if he has spikes show on the scope. I have a very strong hunch this is an amp problem.

My AVR is an ONKYO TX SR875, and I bought it last September, and I haven't even pushed it to 3/4 Max at this point. I don't think I could handle being in the room at that level, to tell you the truth. What I did do, was call Onkyo about a month ago, because I was able to turn it all the way up on a few movies (Crank, and others), and the volume was so poor, that my sister and I could have a full blown conversation (elevating our voices of course) while the movie was playing.(forgot to mention that we had had a power failure a week before) Please keep in mind though, that during playback of ANY CD, I wouldn't and couldn't, dare to turn it up past half or so, because my ears would literally bleed. Anyway, Onkyo told me to go into the Speaker set-up menu, and select calibration, and then push the DB settings on all of the speakers up. I was told to set the Front L&R's to +10, the Center to +11.5, and then the rears at +8.5, and the surrounds at +6.5 , and finally the Sub at +2. (which I turned down to -0-). Well after that, every movie since, can't go up much past -15 on the master volume display. What have I done wrong? Thanks all. Joe B.

 

[TLS Guy]

My AVR is an ONKYO TX SR875, and I bought it last September, and I haven't even pushed it to 3/4 Max at this point. I don't think I could handle being in the room at that level, to tell you the truth. What I did do, was call Onkyo about a month ago, because I was able to turn it all the way up on a few movies (Crank, and others), and the volume was so poor, that my sister and I could have a full blown conversation (elevating our voices of course) while the movie was playing.(forgot to mention that we had had a power failure a week before) Please keep in mind though, that during playback of ANY CD, I wouldn't and couldn't, dare to turn it up past half or so, because my ears would literally bleed. Anyway, Onkyo told me to go into the Speaker set-up menu, and select calibration, and then push the DB settings on all of the speakers up. I was told to set the Front L&R's to +10, the Center to +11.5, and then the rears at +8.5, and the surrounds at +6.5 , and finally the Sub at +2. (which I turned down to -0-). Well after that, every movie since, can't go up much past -15 on the master volume display. What have I done wrong? Thanks all. Joe B.

Well just may be you are overloading a digital circuit some place. Those gains sound excessive. I would take the gains down to about around + 4db on the fronts, and the others accordingly.

The other thing is you can easily have failure of equipment when it is new. In fact that is when faulty solid state devices are most likely to go up.

The other think is you might be having arching on a board. In my view we are about to see a rash of failures on equipment manufactured in the last 18 months or so. The reason: manufacturers have switched to lead free solder, to meet the EEC RoHS compliance. This solder sprouts tin whiskers and causes shorts on boards. I have tried the solder and it's frightful stuff, and I will pollute with lead solder as long as I can. I think we are for a pile of hurt with these tin whiskers as they are called. Everything in the EEC had to be made with lead free solder starting July 2006. So be warned, expect failure.

 

[mtrycrafts]

My AVR is an ONKYO TX SR875, and I bought it last September, and I haven't even pushed it to 3/4 Max at this point. I don't think I could handle being in the room at that level, to tell you the truth. What I did do, was call Onkyo about a month ago, because I was able to turn it all the way up on a few movies (Crank, and others), and the volume was so poor, that my sister and I could have a full blown conversation (elevating our voices of course) while the movie was playing.(forgot to mention that we had had a power failure a week before) Please keep in mind though, that during playback of ANY CD, I wouldn't and couldn't, dare to turn it up past half or so, because my ears would literally bleed. Anyway, Onkyo told me to go into the Speaker set-up menu, and select calibration, and then push the DB settings on all of the speakers up. I was told to set the Front L&R's to +10, the Center to +11.5, and then the rears at +8.5, and the surrounds at +6.5 , and finally the Sub at +2. (which I turned down to -0-). Well after that, every movie since, can't go up much past -15 on the master volume display. What have I done wrong? Thanks all. Joe B.

Do you gave an SPL meter to properly calibrate the channels? Maybe even a test DVD?
That is what is needed, not these random recommendations from Onkyo. As was indicated, those trim pot settings are abnormal.