toasted a tweeter - reasons?

[TomO]

just plugged up my NAD M25 power amp to my AV system ( been waiting on RCA's to connect it up).

have given it a high volume listen and almost straight away i lost one of the tweeters on my B&W CM4's. The amp wasnt distorting ( well not so that it was obvious audibly) and it also has soft clipping protection which didnt cut in.

i can only assume the amp actually killed the tweeter by overpowering it? amp is rated at 160W per channel RMS at 0.03% THD. speakers rated to 150 RMS. didnt think the extra 10W was likely to kill it although i know NAD ratings are generally conservative!

any other possible reasons i am missing? got to get the speaker fixed now and dont want to do it again straight after i put the working speaker back in!

 

[Ste]

Were they new speakers? Could've just been a defective tweeter. When we bought our missions one of the tweeters blew within a couple of days, apparently isn't that unusual.

Are the amp/speakers both rated at the same resistance? An amp rated at 160wpc into 8ohms would be more likely to kill speakers rated at 150wpc into 6ohms, for example. (Actually it may be the other way around, but you get the point )

 

[TomO]

both rated at 8 ohms. i have had speakers for a year +

toasted another tweeter - i have no right hand side tweeters now!


need to get some beefier speakers!

 

[Maelstrom2160]

DP

 

[badbob]

Sounds more like output op-amps are running into distortion, not because of speaker problems, perhaps faulty? I would get the amp tested.

Running a your poweramp into those speakers isn't a problem

 

[DRZ]

B&W Tweeters are seemingly known for this amongst my circle of friends. The crossover design is to blame by the looks of things, they offer little protection.

At high loads sometimes the heat in the cabinet from the crossover can distort the baffle behind the tweeter, also causing failure. I have watched this happen on some older B&Ws, quite shocking really!