Newbie question re: Blown satellite in Micra 6

[Kinketsu]

I have an Athena Micra 6 system in a budget HT 5.1 setup. Somewhere along the line I managed to blow one of the satellites in this system.

In storage, I happen to have a pair of Mission bookshelf speakers (can't remember the model, manufactured roughly 1988 IIRC).

So, my thought is I might use the Missions somewhere in this setup. For instance, I might use the Missions as fronts, and redeploy the 3 working Micra satellites as side surround and rear center in a 6.1 setup. The amp is a Yamaha RX-V650, which I gather supports 6.1.

So my simple question(s): will that work? will it sound ok? will it burst into flames? ... any better configurations?

Thanks,
K

 

[TLS Guy]

I have an Athena Micra 6 system in a budget HT 5.1 setup. Somewhere along the line I managed to blow one of the satellites in this system.

In storage, I happen to have a pair of Mission bookshelf speakers (can't remember the model, manufactured roughly 1988 IIRC).

So, my thought is I might use the Missions somewhere in this setup. For instance, I might use the Missions as fronts, and redeploy the 3 working Micra satellites as side surround and rear center in a 6.1 setup. The amp is a Yamaha RX-V650, which I gather supports 6.1.

So my simple question(s): will that work? will it sound ok? will it burst into flames? ... any better configurations?

Thanks,
K

The Mission speakers will be a big upgrade and outshine the Athena junk.

 

[PHANofPHUNK]

Well, that should work just fine. Make sure the ohms are the same, in there not I dont know what you could do about it. Sorry.

You'll need to adjust the individual speaker volume to match your missions, in a surround setup. I'm guessing that the sensitivity is much different on the two.

 

[Kinketsu]

The Mission speakers will be a big upgrade and outshine the Athena junk.

Thanks for response. I'll assume by that you believe it'll work technically, as well.

In their defense, I think the Athena's are quite nice for the very modest price I paid some years ago (about half of list). At the time they were the Audioholics recommendation for a budget setup such as mine, and in retrospect I think the recommendation was justified.

Well, that should work just fine. Make sure the ohms are the same, in there not I dont know what you could do about it. Sorry.

You'll need to adjust the individual speaker volume to match your missions, in a surround setup. I'm guessing that the sensitivity is much different on the two.

Thanks for this. I wish I could remember the model number of the ones I'm planning to use ... they're stored somewhere I can't get at them for another month or so. A quick search reveals that similar, recent Missions tend to be 8 ohms, and that the Athenas are, as well. Similar Missions today also say sensitivity 89 dB, same as the Athenas. It may also help that the Yamaha amp has YPAO to tweak the volume levels.

I'm out of my depth even asking this question, but I guess what I was concerned about was whether there was some issue that basically the Missions probably weren't designed with a subwoofer in mind. Does it mess things up at all that one is present? Or does all that just magically get taken care of by the amp?

Thanks again for your assistance ...

K

 

[Kinketsu]

The Mission speakers will be a big upgrade and outshine the Athena junk.

Thanks for response. I'll assume by that you believe it'll work technically, as well.

In their defense, I think the Athenas are quite nice for the very modest price I paid some years ago (about half of list). At the time they were the Audioholics recommendation for a budget setup such as mine, and in retrospect I think the recommendation was justified.

Well, that should work just fine. Make sure the ohms are the same, in there not I dont know what you could do about it. Sorry.

You'll need to adjust the individual speaker volume to match your missions, in a surround setup. I'm guessing that the sensitivity is much different on the two.

Thanks for this. I wish I could remember the model number of the ones I'm planning to use ... they're stored somewhere I can't get at them for another month or so. A quick search reveals that similar, recent Missions tend to be 8 ohms, and that the Athenas are, as well. Similar Missions today also say sensitivity 89 dB, same as the Athenas. It may also help that the Yamaha amp has YPAO to tweak the volume levels.

I'm out of my depth even asking this question, but I guess what I was concerned about was whether there was some issue that basically the Missions probably weren't designed with a subwoofer in mind. Does it mess things up at all that one is present? Or does all that just magically get taken care of by the amp?

Thanks again for your assistance ...

K

 

[zieglj01]

Check the surrounds on the Mission woofers - if they are foam surrounds,
then you may be out of luck.

 

[Kinketsu]

Check the surrounds on the Mission woofers - if they are foam surrounds,
then you may be out of luck.

I would appreciate if you could elaborate a bit on what this would mean ...

 

[zieglj01]

I would appreciate if you could elaborate a bit on what this would mean ...

Look!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s4cTvxcZps&feature=related

 

[Kinketsu]

Look!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s4cTvxcZps&feature=related

Ah. I guess the title of my note suggested that I intended to repair the Athena satellite. That really wasn't the direction I was headed ... but interesting to see this, anyway.

Pursuing that line of thought, though, there's no visible damage. I'm not quite how it happened but I remember the day. I used the word 'blown' but that might be inaccurate... 'burned' might be more appropriate ... some sort of electrical screw up, the speaker buzzed very loud, and nasty burned-electrical smell. It baffles me to this day that whatever happened, it only affected the one satellite, since I was working at the time with the connection between the amp and source, not amp to speaker.

It responds to input, but only with a hiss, now. Perhaps the satellite is fixable but I have neither the knowledge nor the time.

K

 

[TLS Guy]

Ah. I guess the title of my note suggested that I intended to repair the Athena satellite. That really wasn't the direction I was headed ... but interesting to see this, anyway.

Pursuing that line of thought, though, there's no visible damage. I'm not quite how it happened but I remember the day. I used the word 'blown' but that might be inaccurate... 'burned' might be more appropriate ... some sort of electrical screw up, the speaker buzzed very loud, and nasty burned-electrical smell. It baffles me to this day that whatever happened, it only affected the one satellite, since I was working at the time with the connection between the amp and source, not amp to speaker.

It responds to input, but only with a hiss, now. Perhaps the satellite is fixable but I have neither the knowledge nor the time.

K

Sounds to me that you blew your receiver not the speaker. You had better see if that speaker works on another channel, and if that channel works with another speaker.

This has been covered many times before. NEVER WORK WITH CONNECTIONS WITH EQUIPMENT POWERED ON. If you do serious damage is likely to result. In your case I think it has.

 

[Kinketsu]

Sounds to me that you blew your receiver not the speaker. You had better see if that speaker works on another channel, and if that channel works with another speaker.

First thing I did. Receiver is fine, speaker seems hosed.

This has been covered many times before. NEVER WORK WITH CONNECTIONS WITH EQUIPMENT POWERED ON. If you do serious damage is likely to result. In your case I think it has.

Ya, and I knew this at the time. It was an unfortunate mistake of attention with distractions involved. In the grand scheme of mistakes made in life, this one is annoying but minor. I recognize that this one could have been worse.

K

 

[zieglj01]

Ah. I guess the title of my note suggested that I intended to repair the Athena satellite. That really wasn't the direction I was headed ... but interesting to see this, anyway.

I was talking about your Mission speakers in storage.

 

[Kinketsu]

I was talking about your Mission speakers in storage.

So far as I know, those speakers are healthy. I'm guessing what you mean is that I should expect otherwise ... I guess I'll find out.

K

 

[zieglj01]

So far as I know, those speakers are healthy. I'm guessing what you mean is that I should expect otherwise ... I guess I'll find out.

K

Only if the speaker surround is made from foam.

 

[Kinketsu]

Only if the speaker surround is made from foam.

OK. I'm reading between the lines here ... is what you mean that the foam naturally decays over time e.g. dries out and flakes away, or whatever?

 

[zieglj01]

OK. I'm reading between the lines here ... is what you mean that the foam naturally decays over time e.g. dries out and flakes away, or whatever?

Yes it does.

 

[TLS Guy]

Only if the speaker surround is made from foam.

I'm pretty sure all Mission speakers have rolled rubber surrounds and not foam.

However even if ti is foam and the foam is rotted repair is fairly straightforward.