Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Tweeter trouble

I'm kind of a newbie but let's see if I can explain my problem. Bought a new pair of M60's 16 months ago to hook up to a new Rotel 1050 amp. Well I'm playing some tunes pretty loud for awhile when the amp cuts out. Start over again, same thing happens. I call a buddy over to look at things and he discovers that the tweeter in one speaker is not working. My tin ears couldn't tell until he pointed it out.
Speaker goes back, new one comes in, everything's fine. Fast forward up to about 2 months ago. Out of the blue my amp shuts down again. Well the first thing I check is the tweeters and sure enough one tweeter has died. Pull the tweeter out, ship it back, install the new one, everything is fine. Well, not too long afterwards I'm cranking the tunes and the amp cuts out again! I listen to the new tweeter and there is sound coming from it so maybe it was just something else. Anyway, I was just now playing music again and the amp just cut out so there is something definitely not right here. When I compare the sound coming from each tweeter it really seems like the sound coming from this new tweeter is subdued. Is this possible? The tweeter isn't dead it just doesn't seem anywhere near as bright as the other one.

Am I doing something wrong here or is this my normal miserable luck? I've done a search on here for tweeters and have found nothing resembling my trouble. The only thing that's different from the two speakers is that the one I'm having trouble with is roughly 14 inches away from a 32" CRT TV.

Anyone have any suggestions? Do I ship this tweeter back again?

Thanks.

Me, I'd be looking at sending back that Rotel. Geez... have you checked your speaker wires to make sure there's not a stray strand or something like that?

You might want to read the amplifier thread here. There is a pretty good discussion on overdriving tweeters and some excellent technical links. It could be that you are just blowing the tweeters.

Just a thought or two.

The Rat.

NSC, welcome. First, the odds that you got three defective tweeters in a row are so low as to be negligible. The M60s are rather easy to drive and a 1050 in good condition should drive them to unbearably loud levels and still have power to spare. My thought would be that the one channel of the 1050 involved with the two blown and one damaged(?) tweeter may be defective and not putting out the full power that the other channel is, possibly resulting in clipping which damaged the tweeters. Have the 1050 checked.

Perhaps a hairline heat fissure in a trace on the PCB or a stray bit of solder that's doing it.

Though Axiom have gone far and beyond the call of duty by sending out new drivers each time - bouquet to them!

Bren R.

I forget where I read it but there were a few stories of amps which went into some kind of ultrasonic oscillation when the thermal protection circuitry was "almost" triggered, resulting in some tweeter-frying excitement.

I can't find a link or anything though...

I guess the other question is whether the amp should be going into thermal shutdown under the conditions you are operating it under. Does it seem to be getting pretty warm before it cuts out ?

As others have said it is extremely unlikely that you are getting a run of bad tweeters. More than extremely, in fact

Hey, thanks for the quick replies. I should add that my sub is hooked inline (proper term?) with my speakers. Speaker wires run from the amp to the sub and out to the speakers. Sub is a HSU VTF-something... can't remember the number off-hand. I also should add that my speaker wire is just the basic stuff. I thought quality of speaker wire was just a sound issue and I would never hear the difference so that's why I bought the basic wire. If I thought there was a possibility that cheap wire would cause equipment damage I would have certainly ponied up the extra $'s.

Yes, the amp gets super hot before it cuts out. Regardless, I'm hoping it's not the amp because I'm not sure where I could get it checked out. Don't know if this additional info helps out...

With all those speaker wire connections, I would double and triple check for some stray strands of speaker wire and correct connections.
As far as getting your amp checked, I would call Rotel and see what/where to get it checked.
I drive my M60s to VERY HIGH volumes at times and have had ZERO troubles with my speakers or amp (Denon 2805).
I posted a similar problem with a friends Paradigms on some other boards and we've narrowed it down to his amp.
Good Luck.

plus Axiom has second to none customer service, but there is a point where I would think they would say enough is enough.

In reply to:

---

Yes, the amp gets super hot before it cuts out.

---

I think that's your indicator right there.