Did I somehow ruin my speakers?

[highfigh]

I may not know exactly what I'm doing here, but connecting wires from an amp to a speaker isn't rocket science. Nothing happened with the cones at all when doing the battery test.

It could very well be that a fuse blew on my amp, but if that were the case...would any sound come out at all?

Either way, I'll be contacting the Marantz as well to look into that aspect as well.

Was this amp new, or a refurbished model?

 

[Nate S]

Unless Marantz uses some weird circuitry, the A and B speaker terminals are parallel, through the selector switch, as you pointed out. In theory, the protection circuit should have prevented any damage to the speakers or amp- I have seen woofers blow because of too much power, but not from a short across the speaker terminals on an amp.

Since this happened when a turntable was being used, I'll ask what nobody else has- was the needle dropped (or the turntable bumped) when the amp turned on? What about volume and tone control settings? If the volume and bass were turned up when the amp turned on and the record had strong bass response and possibly a warp, it could have killed the woofers.

These speakers have 5" mid/woofers- speaker manufacturers need to stop putting two sets of terminals on speakers that won't handle a boatload of bass or power.

Not to belabor the point, but using two sets of wire and connecting them to either one or two sets of terminals that are coming from the same amplifier channels only serves to move the location of that gold strap. It might add a tiny bit of resistance, but it still accomplishes the same thing and the effect will be negligible, if it exists at all.

Have you pressed on the mid/woofer cones, yet? You could gently press with your fingers evenly spaced on the cone, near the center. If you hear anything crunchy, this happened quickly and it should have made some kind of sound, even if Direct Current came from the amplifier. If that had happened, the cone would move in or out but it wouldn't have remained still.

I can't exactly recall if the table was bumped or not. But seeing as how I was looking around the system while it was playing, this is a possibility. Volume was not high when the turntable was on as it was unlistenable. However, I was playing with the volume when the iPhone was connected. That being said, I don't feel that I was cranking it past a responsible level.

Pressing on the cones sounded like someone was walking in windpants...so, they are definitely blown.

I recently went up to the ol' attic and unearthed my cheap "theater-in-a-box" onkyo speakers to test and see if there is any issue with the amp. They actually sound better than I remember (guessing the amp has something to do with that ). If for some reason these guys blow, it won't be that big of a deal as they would have eventually made their way to Goodwill anyhow. Plan for now is to continue to play these and see what happens. They've survived a couple of Aphex Twin tracks (Flim is so good btw) so far...

 

[Nate S]

Well spotted Seth! My apologies for not checking every piece of equipment the OP owned. So he had a receiver, and could not have bi-amped. So he bi-wired via the A & B terminals.

I'm now at the point where I can't trust any post!

Leaving the jumpers on by itself would not have caused this, as having A & B speakers selected just connects the terminals in parallel.

I have to conclude that either he had an out of phase condition in a cable to at least one speaker. This would cause a short and trigger protection which happened. However a short would not blow up the speakers as even if there were DC off set it would damage the amp with the speaker protected by the short. Also unless he had an out of phase condition to both speakers, only one amp would have been damaged.

Somehow both speakers got damaged.

I think it most likely that he mixed up a left and right cable pair. This would have connected the two power amps together, and caused catastrophic damage, and explain two blown woofers at the same time, and damage two power amps, that could cause both to have DC offset.

I suspect the protection circuit was damaged in the first shut down and then failed.

My money is on a mix up with a left right cable pair while the jumpers were connected.

Sorry for answering this post twice, but the first time I checked this post only your post appeared and not my reply. Now I see my original post has belatedly turned up.

Big thanks for all of the explanations TLS....it's obviously a working progress with me here on what exactly I've done, but thanks for bearing with me. If anything, this has sparked a new interest with me! Sure my wife and bank account are going to be pissed if I take this too far.

For the wiring, however, I was extremely careful in ensuring that all of the wires were in the correct corresponding connections. The "A" section from the picture I sent earlier were connected to the top posts on the speakers (+ and - in the right spot for both) and the "B" section went to the bottom posts for both speakers (+ and - correct again).

I just mentioned above that I'm trying out some old speakers I had and everything is going fine...for now. I'm not ruling out my own ignorance being the problem here, but maybe I got a pair of lemons?

 

[TLS Guy]

Big thanks for all of the explanations TLS....it's obviously a working progress with me here on what exactly I've done, but thanks for bearing with me. If anything, this has sparked a new interest with me! Sure my wife and bank account are going to be pissed if I take this too far.

For the wiring, however, I was extremely careful in ensuring that all of the wires were in the correct corresponding connections. The "A" section from the picture I sent earlier were connected to the top posts on the speakers (+ and - in the right spot for both) and the "B" section went to the bottom posts for both speakers (+ and - correct again).

I just mentioned above that I'm trying out some old speakers I had and everything is going fine...for now. I'm not ruling out my own ignorance being the problem here, but maybe I got a pair of lemons?

If you are absolutely certain of your connections, then the lemons are not the speakers, but the amp.

If the speakers are as you say, they have been subjected to the entire amp rail voltage.

This amp has to be replaced if you are absolutely certain you did not make a wiring mistake. To be honest I find it hard do believe you didn't. It is easy to do on the back of the amp. If you got two left right terminals mixed at the back of the amp, when the jumpers were in place that would explain what happened perfectly. I remain skeptical that everything was kosher.

However either way that amp will do it again as soon as you connect it to a good pair of speakers. I can't stress enough that that amp has to go after an event like this.

 

[sterling shoote]

O.K. so it's working now with spare speakers, right? And, you bi-wired it, this time removing the shorting bars? If you're answering yes, then, your amp may be alright. BTW, what brand speakers did you possibly destroy? If you did not bi-wire the old pair of speakers then you still have the shorting bars in and are using speaker terminal A I guess. If this is the case you might want to re-set using terminal B and see if things still work. If speakers blow you know what needs fixing.

 

[Nate S]

O.K. so it's working now with spare speakers, right? And, you bi-wired it, this time removing the shorting bars? If you're answering yes, then, your amp may be alright. BTW, what brand speakers did you possibly destroy? If you did not bi-wire the old pair of speakers then you still have the shorting bars in and are using speaker terminal A I guess. If this is the case you might want to re-set using terminal B and see if things still work. If speakers blow you know what needs fixing.

Spares are working fine, and have been constantly playing for a bit over 2 hours. I've been "pushing" them as well with heavy bass and louder volume levels. Still no issues. These are just single wired, as there are just 2 connections on the back of the speaker.

 

[sterling shoote]

Now you might want to go from "Speakers A" to "B" and see if your spare speaks blow.

 

[macddmac]

I'm glad I run Dynaudios.. they don't give you a bi anything option- two posts per speaker, no snake oil.
To the OP: I hope Wharfdale hooks you up!
Cheer, Mac