Blasting Metal Isn't As Much Fun

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Nodens

Audiophyte
I have made the thrift-shop, slap-together effort to build a system in my 20'x20' living room. I run them 2 channels at the front. When I get up to the higher volumes in the -4 dB range, the right speaker pops off for at least 50% of its volume. Even louder drops both of them completely. They try to work and then pop off again. I can deal with it, because it's loud enough without the ear-splitting, but I'm thinking speakers are in my future. I am pretty new to this stuff. Thoughts?
Specs:

Dell Inspiron 3521
Monster Ultra 6ft HDMI Cable
Yamaha RX-V377 Receiver
- 100 Watt - 8 Ohm - at 1 kHz - THD 0.9% - 5 channels
- 70 Watt - 8 Ohm - 20 - 20000 Hz - THD 0.09% - 5 channels
16 GA speaker cables - clean
Sanyo SS-540 8 OHM, 3-way speakers
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Your AVR isn't terrible powerful. Those speakers look capable but not overly capable. Their design also suggests that they are not the highest-fidelity speakers. What is your goal here, to cleanly blast metal at high volumes? If so, both a speaker upgrade and amplifier upgrade may be in order for you. What is your budget here?
 
N

Nodens

Audiophyte
Budget is slight. Paying double digits at thrift stores and making stuff work has been the attitude. The music is pretty important to me, so changes might be needed on the financing side.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
That could be the amp limits to an extent, but not sure what pop off means. They continue to play but at lower volume? The avr doesn't go into protection mode, tho? You mention 16g speaker cables "clean", what does that mean?
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Double digits, ouch. It will not be easy getting anything that can stay clean at loud levels in the double digits. You might look for used Klipsch gear in craigslist or something like that. Live sound gear can get really loud for a minimum of wattage as well. You might look at some used live sound gear from JBL, Mackie, or QSC. They ain't pretty, but they will rock pretty hard.
 
Kvn_Walker

Kvn_Walker

Audioholic Field Marshall
Your speakers are the weak link. I'm with shady, you are going to have to scour Craigslist, offerup, thrift stores etc and try to find some older Cerwin Vega, JBL's or Klipsch. 12 or 15 inch woofers so you can bring the thunder. Back in the day I used to crank some Metallica (Black Album forever!) on my JBL CF150's and it was joyous.

Anything you are considering to buy, just post here first and most likely somebody has owned it before and can give you an opinion!
 
N

Nodens

Audiophyte
That could be the amp limits to an extent, but not sure what pop off means. They continue to play but at lower volume? The avr doesn't go into protection mode, tho? You mention 16g speaker cables "clean", what does that mean?
Clean cables , as in no loose threads, or loose material/tarnish. Speaker cut out is what I am talking about. It seems that one of the right speaker components keeps playing at a much lower level. I can still hear from both sides but the right is suck when I push it.
 
N

Nodens

Audiophyte
Double digits, ouch. It will not be easy getting anything that can stay clean at loud levels in the double digits. You might look for used Klipsch gear in craigslist or something like that. Live sound gear can get really loud for a minimum of wattage as well. You might look at some used live sound gear from JBL, Mackie, or QSC. They ain't pretty, but they will rock pretty hard.
Yes, it's a crapshoot. Discovering what works is an education worth doing, even if I pay more over years instead of all at once. Feedback much appreciated. .
 
N

Nodens

Audiophyte
Anything you are considering to buy, just post here first and most likely somebody has owned it before and can give you an opinion!
That is so nice. Folks here respond pretty quickly which is nice when shopping on a budget. Black Album... How quaint.
 
blue72

blue72

Audiophyte
You can work your way up the chain with thrift store and cheap secondhand stuff. The thing that you need is patience though. It took me a couple of years to work my way from some Sony rack system floorstanding speakers that my parents had handed down to me, to Boston Acoustics speakers that I refoamed, to large Bose 10.2 floorstanders to Klipsch KG and finally Klipsch KLF floorstanders (and now to bigger things). In that time I went from one pre-HDMI Sony home theater receiver to another to a Sony HDMI home theater receiver to a THX Ultra certified Integra receiver with HDMI. The most I paid for any one thing (or pair of speakers) was $60-$100, and I sold plenty of the castoffs when a new upgrade came my way to offset the cost. Everything came from thrift stores or local online classifieds.
 

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