Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Tweeter trouble

I’m still thinking it could be internal speaker wiring, which would be pretty simple to check with a Fluke. A short will cause tweeter failure. That would also explain why it isn’t playing as loud as it should be.

I just checked with the local Radio Shack. Unfortunately, no go with the SPL meter. Yes, there is a 5 year warranty on the Rotel. mdrew where would I get a Fluke?

I'll just add that the low 80's on the volume dial is the highest I go by far and that's rare. If I hear any distortion or I guess what I perceive as distortion I drop the volume down. I may have been pushing it there recently because it wasn't quite as loud as before since I think I may have already partially damaged the tweeter. When I isolate the speakers one definitely sounds better than the other so I guess that's the case.

I'm also wondering about my speaker wire. It's 14 ga. and longer than it needs to be. When I have a chance I'm going to shorten it up but is it possible that an extra 10 feet of wire would affect things?

Anyway I'm going to rewire my system (when my electronic minded friend gets back I'll let him look at it), buy a new tweeter and get the Rotel looked at. This may take awhile but I'll be sure and let you guys know how it went. You've gone above and beyong what I expected and I appreciate it.

I'll check back later if anyone has anything to add.

Thanks again.

That might not be enough info about that speaker wire. It's about 25 ft. long after it runs to the sub and out to the speaker. Another thing about the volume I play at. If I have the volume at the 80 level for 15-20 mins. my ears ring slightly when I'm done. I don't think I could stand that loudness for very much longer than that anyway.

just about any hardware store, or I'm sure your electrician freind has one. no respectable electrician goes without.

Hi there nscanuck.... i had a similar problem when I started out. My receiver was not getting enough ventilation. This caused excessive heat and finally shutdown after prolonged listening.

With alot of help from this board and the support at Axiom I found that every time my denon would cut out it sent a DC spike to my speakers (which is what eventually cooked my tweeters).

So my problem was I needed more cooling. My dvd player and shelf had to be moved another 8 inches off of the top of my receiver.

I placed a fan on top to also help ( which I've since removed, because the SPACE all the the Denon really needed)

Sometimes i like to play my music really loud... and now I can.

Now I'm not sure if that will help but maybe the rotel just needs a few more inches of space?

hope this helps

Thanks mdrew. Warfer, you're probably right and thanks for the info. Wid mentioned to me just last night that I need more space to let my receiver breathe. I'm going to rewire my system (thanks Wid), look into this Fluke gadget, buy a new tweeter, get more space over the receiver and then decide whether or not to get the receiver checked. It would be a pain in the ass to get that receiver checked (time/logistics) and I have to weigh opportunity costs here. If I don't get it checked I risk frying another tweeter but maybe the above will solve my problem.

It’s just a digital multi meter. Fluke is the preferred brand of electricians across the world. They set the standard that all others try to meet. Any ohm meter will do the same though. You are just looking to see if you have 0 resistance between the speaker wire conductors. If it’s anything other than 0, you have continuity ( a short ). But you will have to isolate the conductors between the binding posts and tweeters to check this. I have not torn mine apart, so I do not know for certain if they have quick disconnects, or not. They may be soldered. And I also do not know what other devises may be in line between the tweeters and binding posts. Can’t say that I’ve ever built a speaker.

But you can isolate the problem to the receiver or the speaker by swapping speakers first. If you blow another tweeter on the other speaker, you then know that it is the receiver causing the problem. I personally hate trouble shooting in this manor, but it may be your best alternative if you don’t wish to take the receiver in, or know how to check continuity.

Link to Fluke (cut and paste)…. http://us.fluke.com/usen/products/Fluke80SeriesV.htm

I use the 87V, but the 83V is more than adequate for home use.

NSC we use fluke multimeters in our automotive bay ; they are very expensive, about 500$ CND for a good quality one, Id suggest you check out EBAY, its where I got one for dirt cheap I wish you luck in finding out the problem

You are most welcome