Emotiva XPA5 blew out my Emotiva ERM6.3 & ERD speakers!

[herbu]

Perhaps it would be prudent to take a moment and lower the "Max Volume" in your AVR Settings before a party, if the system will be accessible to guests.

 

[Nestor]

So I took apart the three speakers today and took the 6 midrange drivers that were not working, along with all the electronics. They tested all the drivers and they were working fine, no damage. However, there was damage to some transistors, capacitors, etc. I do think at some point a certain partygoer decided to see if they could take the volume to "11!" A Spinal Tap fan no doubt! The good news is, it's only going to be around $50/speaker to repair the electronics. The ipod was connected via USB to the front of the Onkyo. I had the receiver set to all channel stereo. It was played at a pretty high volume for an extended period. From all the responses here, along with all the responses on the Emotiva Lounge, I feel it was probably not the fault of the speakers or amp, but a poor source played at a high volume for an extended period. I like the suggestion of getting a new receiver, or dedicated pre/pro, I just haven't been able to convince my wife of that! The take-away for me in all this is simple, turn it down!

If alcohol was involved at the party, it probably contributed to an increase tolerance in volume.

 

[3db]

I guess every dark cloud as a silver lining. Good luck on your new speaker purchase and have fun auditioning.

 

[agarwalro]

If you regularly throw parties, to save your new home theater speakers, you can use the AVR Zone 2 connected to PA setup. These are designed for high volume and extended listening period. For example, http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/B212D and http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/B1500DPRO

 

[markw]

When a speaker is rated for a certain wattage, it's for all speakers and the crossover, not any individual component. And, even then, it may well be for a brief burst as opposed to continious.

As another said, woofers are the mosrt rugerd and can withstamd much more power than mids or tweets. It may only take a handfull of watts to blow out a tweeter in a 500 watt system if that's the only thing being played, and being played loud.

Not being there, my $$ is that a very compressed piece of music was being played very loud and, if there was a LOT of activity in the midrange (which would add punch), then it's possible that, like a magnifying glass can focus sunlight, a heckuva lot of pure midrange power wound up being directed right at that poor midrange and perhaps the tweeters as well.

It may bot beclippping in the traditional sense, but most likely more than enough concentrated power for the drivers to shuck their mortal coils (pun intended).

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Perhaps it would be prudent to take a moment and lower the "Max Volume" in your AVR Settings before a party, if the system will be accessible to guests.

Yeah, I do that regardless of party. Make sure some idiots don't try to turn the volume way up. So I set my Volume limit to -10.0.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Maybe next time, just use an AVR, instead of an external amp. And just set the volume limit to -10.0.

 

[agarwalro]

Re: Emotiva XPA5 blew out my Emotiva ERM6.3 & ERD speakers!

Yeah, I do that regardless of party. Make sure some idiots don't try to turn the volume way up. So I set my Volume limit to -10.0.

Maybe next time, just use an AVR, instead of an external amp. And just set the volume limit to -10.0.

You're talking to yourself again .

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

You're talking to yourself again .

Or just too lazy to edit/combine posts.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I appreciate very much all the insight! I also posted this on Emotiva's site. Most attributed the failure to a poor signal coming from the ipod, possibly magnified by the receiver. I spoke with a friend of mine who is a customer installer and av expert, who also suspected it was the ipod. To be honest, I never really liked those speakers too much. Don't tell my wife, but I'm kind of glad it happened, now I can get new speakers!!!

Well, I am not convinced it is the ipod's fault. What is bad signal from an ipod? Apparently the receiver operated to the point of speaker failure. Loud is subjective and it seems that the speakers were over driven, especially in all stereo mode.
Expensive learning lesson about consumer speakers and parties combined. I had a similar experience while testing my hearing frequency ability at above 16 kHz and amp not showing a lot of power at all. No more testing like that for me, too expensive.

 

[mtrycrafts]

..

What surround mode did you use? Subwoofers? XO?

. I had the receiver set to all stereo.