Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions could amp be damaging my speakers?

Was wondering about something. Prior to the Axioms I just ordered (but don't have yet), 2 pairs of speakers in a row got damaged. One was a pair of Klipsch's (which I had repaired), and one was a pair of very small Polks which went bad pretty much immediately after I got them. Tweeters don't function at all anymore, and one has a wicked rattle in addition.

Prior to those 2 pairs of speakers, I'd never damaged a speaker before in my life. Old cones repaired, sure, but not "blown" speakers. I don't really know what the prob is with the Polks, and the Klipsch's...I don't recall what that exact problem was called either....just seems like a heck of a coincidence that I went through so many years never hurting a pair of speakers and now the last 2 pair: boom.
but I'm wondering if one of my amplifiers is doing some funky things where it sends spikes of speaker killing power to my speakers.
One amp is an Onkyo 100 watt per ch. (very low hours on it) and the other is a small old Sansui, one of the early 70's solid state ones which I think has about 60 watts per channel.
I don't recall any incidents with either pair of speakers where it "sounded" like anything happened (no loud noises).
And the other thing is I don't recall which amp was in use either time.

Was wondering if you'd heard of such a possibility? that an amplifier can damage speakers, even without them being cranked up all the way? I guess I'd like to try and figure this out prior to hooking up the Axioms. I did read recently with regard to the old Sansui that there is some kind of start up procedure to be followed. Turn it on with volume down/speakers switched "off" until a certain click is heard, indicating the whole integrated amp is ready to go. Then you can turn it up. I had no clue about that though. Not sure if its even important to follow that.

thx!
Aunty Em
Florida

PS after the Klipsch's were repaired they were fine til I sold them..its not like it happened repeatedly

Other than trying to drive a speaker with a distorted signal from a poor input signal, bad reference signal(poor recording) or too low wattage for the volume you are trying to achieve which results in a distorted signal, I haven't heard of an amp damaging a speaker.

Your amps appear to have a reasonable amount of power which should result in fairly loud levels without too much distortion, I would think they are OK, unless you are hearing hissing or popping noises while they are in use.

OK thank you, Jay. I will simply proceed with caution.

Aunty, if your concerned that the older Sansui "may" be to blame, why use it? I agree with Jay's comments...good luck with the new Axioms.

Hi Sirquack, the only reason would be is that it looks nice! (the Sansui, that is - very classic, vintage, retro, funky looking) Otherwise, no reason in the world that I can think of not to use the newish Onkyo plus preamp.

I like retro.

Randy

What I would do with the Sansui, if I used it at all, would be take it to a tech and have it completely gone over to insure it to be in good working order.

I love the look of the older receivers.

hi Randy and Rick, here is a pic of the little feller. As you can see it still has the blue protective tape over the metal parts - no one ever removed it. 35 year old tape! I know for sure the knobs and switches could use cleaning. And it works better the warmer it gets/the longer its on.

I think what may have happened to my speakers (at least the Polks) is that I tried using a little tiny headphone amp in line between my Mac and the aux inputs to boost the levels from 'puter. Again I don't recall any hideously loud noise, but it WAS really distorted, and I'm sure a dumb thing to do.
http://xlforum.net/photopost/data/849/medium/oldsansui.jpg

Hope the link works.

Very nice amp.

Aunty Em, I have some 25 yr old Sansui S-55 speakers in my basement to go with your amp!!