surround sound

sd'sker

sd'sker

Banned
i think i may have blown my front left speaker of my surround sound, but i am worried it may be the receiver. any advice on how to fix this or how to determine the culprit?

 
Easy solution is swap the wire to the right speaker. If you get sound, its the speaker, if not its either the wire or the receiver. And the wire can be tested the same way.

 
re-cut the wire but it was the speaker. can you blow out a surround sound speaker? i mean, why would they let you have the volume at a higher level than it should be and also they do not have much bass so what would go out? this particularly speaker did fall a couple of times. i think i am going to try to find two new, nicer front speakers.

thanks for your advice, strigori.

 
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sd said:
re-cut the wire but it was the speaker. can you blow out a surround sound speaker? i mean, why would they let you have the volume at a higher level than it should be and also they do not have much bass so what would go out? this particularly speaker did fall a couple of times. i think i am going to try to find two new, nicer front speakers.

thanks for your advice, strigori.
Click to expand...

You can blow any speaker, generally one of two ways. You can drive the speaker to absolute failure, with way to much power, and the voice coils etc get driven beyond their ability to work, this happens rarely. Or you can over drive the amp, triggering "clipping" thus causing failure, this one is the cause of the vast majority of speaker failures. All amps "clip" once they hit their max output, what this does, as the output exceeds the amps ability to produce, is chops the top off the incoming transient. This protects the amp circuit from over driving itself, causing failure, but it also causes the amp to output hi frequency noise. This noise is very damaging to a speaker, and its cross over, but mainly to the tweeters. The tweeter will heat up and finally fail. Woofers (subs etc) can take a lot more pounding, but clipping can cause failure here as well, but you must drive it a lot harder and for longer than a tweeter. Generally you need to be aware of any sort of distortion, if your music or audio sounds off you are driving your amps to hard. The problem is most people are used to hearing distortion at high levels, as the vast majority of amps do not have enough power, and we hear it all the time. Once you hear loud music, clearly, you will never go back.

The reason why you can drive an amp this way comes down to dynamics in music. In some classical passages the pianist will play a note and hold it a very long time, letting it slowly die. This pianissimo possibile ("softest possible"), with a decrescendo (gradually becoming quieter) can last a long time, and until very recently the only way to hear it, was to crank the volume. You might be using 99% of your amps output but you're barely hearing the result. You need to be fast as that note melts into blackness, and the crowd explodes into applause, or they go into a fortissimo possibile ("loudest possible"), to get the volume down.

If you dont mind what is your $ range on speakers? I am a two channel nut, and love helping people find something great.

 
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Canttakeitanymore said:
sd said:
re-cut the wire but it was the speaker. can you blow out a surround sound speaker? i mean, why would they let you have the volume at a higher level than it should be and also they do not have much bass so what would go out? this particularly speaker did fall a couple of times. i think i am going to try to find two new, nicer front speakers.

thanks for your advice, strigori.
Click to expand...

You can blow any speaker, generally one of two ways. You can drive the speaker to absolute failure, with way to much power, and the voice coils etc get driven beyond their ability to work, this happens rarely. Or you can over drive the amp, triggering "clipping" thus causing failure, this one is the cause of the vast majority of speaker failures. All amps "clip" once they hit their max output, what this does, as the output exceeds the amps ability to produce, is chops the top off the incoming transient. This protects the amp circuit from over driving itself, causing failure, but it also causes the amp to output hi frequency noise. This noise is very damaging to a speaker, and its cross over, but mainly to the tweeters. The tweeter will heat up and finally fail. Woofers (subs etc) can take a lot more pounding, but clipping can cause failure here as well, but you must drive it a lot harder and for longer than a tweeter. Generally you need to be aware of any sort of distortion, if your music or audio sounds off you are driving your amps to hard. The problem is most people are used to hearing distortion at high levels, as the vast majority of amps do not have enough power, and we hear it all the time. Once you hear loud music, clearly, you will never go back.

The reason why you can drive an amp this way comes down to dynamics in music. In some classical passages the pianist will play a note and hold it a very long time, letting it slowly die. This pianissimo possibile ("softest possible"), with a decrescendo (gradually becoming quieter) can last a long time, and until very recently the only way to hear it, was to crank the volume. You might be using 99% of your amps output but you're barely hearing the result. You need to be fast as that note melts into blackness, and the crowd explodes into applause, or they go into a fortissimo possibile ("loudest possible"), to get the volume down.

If you dont mind what is your $ range on speakers? I am a two channel nut, and love helping people find something great.
Click to expand...
here is my system: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007PU2X76/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

i am really kicking myself for not going bigger (more wattage) when i got this and not getting thicker gauge speaker wire (how much does that matter?). with they way the set up is, it would be extremely burdensome to replace the receiver or the wires. at the time, i really like how the receiver was set up and a friend convinced me 600w would be more than enough.

as far as replacement speakers, this would be nice, but probably too much: http://www.qvc.com/qvc.product.E166573.html?item=E166573&ref=AMZ&tpl=detail&cm_ven=AMAZONPRODUCTADS&cm_cat=Electronics&cm_pla=Blu-ray%20%26%20DVD%20Players&cm_ite=E166573

i really do not have a price range in mind and really do not have much of a clue for what i am doing. any help is appreciated, thanks.

 
Read. A lot. It is the only way to learn about this stuff. Dotn worry about watts, you need to look deeper, into how it is measured. Some compaies say 500 watts, but that is into one channel at 15kHz. Once all channels are driven that number gets much much lower.

Anyway, larger cables are an OK idea if the cable run is past 25 feet or so. This will help the amp in damping the speaker (a form of controlling unwanted movements). This is a measurable effect, do not be sucked into the cable scam, Monster and the like are just over priced crap. For the most part any cable with solid connectors is OK to use, mono price is a good place to start for that.

Help me out for the speakers. Your surrounds are still working fine, but you think you might like a new set of Front left/right. Is this a computer system, or hooked to your TV. Do you play mainly games, music, or movies through it? Is your sub something you want to keep? You have many options at the $500 price level, if you wnat jst the front left/right. Just fill in some detail, and I hope I can steer you in the right direction.

 
Canttakeitanymore said:
Help me out for the speakers. Your surrounds are still working fine, but you think you might like a new set of Front left/right. Is this a computer system, or hooked to your TV. Do you play mainly games, music, or movies through it? Is your sub something you want to keep? You have many options at the $500 price level, if you wnat jst the front left/right. Just fill in some detail, and I hope I can steer you in the right direction.
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just the front two if i could. i like the bass and i think the speakers produce pretty good sound. the speakers are used for everything. i play games, watch sports and movies, and use it for music. they are for my home entertainment center.

 
You can probably find the two speakers you want either on Amazon or eBay, no need to replace all the rest. You might even beable to fire an email off to the manufacturer and see about ordering just the damaged speaker from them. Even if its a few years old, there are decent odds they have some sitting around a warehouse.

 
Here are some. They are more suited as a satellite, but I think in your current set up they would be fine. A friend of mine has the powered ones of these and they are awesome. Two great things about audio engine: great reviews, and a thirty day return policy. Cant really beat it.

http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Audioengine-P4

Also check out Definitive Technologies, and Sonus Faber. Both have speakers in the 4-500 range, Definitive can be bought on Amazon.

 
Canttakeitanymore said:
Here are some. They are more suited as a satellite, but I think in your current set up they would be fine. A friend of mine has the powered ones of these and they are awesome. Two great things about audio engine: great reviews, and a thirty day return policy. Cant really beat it.

http://audioengineus.../Audioengine-P4

Also check out Definitive Technologies, and Sonus Faber. Both have speakers in the 4-500 range, Definitive can be bought on Amazon.
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thanks. so, with the p4's you linked, i would not have to worry about them being compatible with my receiver? i know nothing about home entertainment centers.

strigori said:
You can probably find the two speakers you want either on Amazon or eBay, no need to replace all the rest. You might even beable to fire an email off to the manufacturer and see about ordering just the damaged speaker from them. Even if its a few years old, there are decent odds they have some sitting around a warehouse.
Click to expand...
that's a good idea as well.

 
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You will need to look in your manual for the "crossover point, or crossover frequency" This is where the receiver sends the low frequency to the sub. As long as your new speakers range is lower than this number (say your new ones range is 20hz-20kHz, and your receiver crossover at 25Hz you are ok) you will be able to use them. Pay attention to your current speakers as well. Your cross over should be set to cover the highest frequency. ie New ones 20hz, current 30hz, crossover will need to be above 30hz. I hope i am not confusing you, it really is simple.

I just googled your set up and it says you has 9 selectable frequencies. Just check out what those are and you will be fine.

 
just out of curiosity, do you have any recommendations for a new center speaker or do you think that the one that came with the system is good enough?

also, any recommendations for cheaper front speakers? or would the quality dramatically drop from the audioengines?

 
I don't know offhand how yours sounded to begin with. But if you were happy with them before, just getting a replacement should be fine. I have an Onkyo system and I don't feel any reason to upgrade. To be honest, unless you are really an audiophile you probably would not notice much of a difference.

 
strigori said:
I don't know offhand how yours sounded to begin with. But if you were happy with them before, just getting a replacement should be fine. I have an Onkyo system and I don't feel any reason to upgrade. To be honest, unless you are really an audiophile you probably would not notice much of a difference.
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i do like them a lot. i think i might just try to contact yamaha and see if they could send me a replacement.

 
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