Hi,

I picked up a few pairs of T2 In Wall speakers a month ago to use in my new "Whole House" audio system. Just hooked them up to my new amp (Leviton 50 watt * 6 zone AE6MC) and immediately I find they distort quite a bit at medium to high volumes.

The first thing I thought was to blame was the amp - so I connected the speakers I bought for the deck. Axiom Outdoor M3's. No distortion there, sounds great - nice and clear.

Anyone else with T2s / M2s experience the same distortion? And if so any suggestions?

Thanks-

Not something I've ever heard from the 2's since I've been on the forums, but I've never owned the 2's. Their specs are not that much different than the 3's, so something seems strange.

Are you sending a lot of lowwwww frequencies to them? Did you hook the m3's up to the same exact speakers wires the 2's were on?

Wiring is a possibility. What are you using to control the volume?

Thanks guys;

- Yes, exact same speaker wires. Admittedly 18 gage, but it was only a few feet for testing. I'm using 14 Gage in the house.

- A decent bass line, a bit of Avril Lavigne and some Buddha Bar. I'm 42 and eclectic.

- Volume control is thru a little device which connects to the amp via Cat5. It's a whole house unit, with six hard wired remote controllers. Nice package.

It seems strange - especially after reading the reviews on the T2/M2 etc. Amp is only 50 watts and the speakers can take 150.

Weird.

Welcome PSpee,

It could be possible that you are pushing your receiver into clipping which is causing the distortion. How do they sound at lower volumes, is there any distortion?

Good luck!

Peter, although speakers, especially small ones, will typically exhibit distortion before amplifiers which have adequate capacity(which yours appears to have)will audibly distort, this certainly shouldn't appear at a "medium" volume. If you connected the M3s in exactly the same way that you had the T2s connected, and didn't get similar distortion, it would indicate a defect in the T2s. Do both(all?)T2s exhibit the problem if you try them one at a time?

Incidentally, the 150 watt maximum power rating doesn't mean that the very loud sound level with that input would be delivered with low distortion, but that the speakers wouldn't suffer permanent damage with that input. At the medium level you mention(were you able to measure it with an SPL meter?), the T2s might be using 1-2 watts.

Lower volumes are fine. And perhaps Medium is a bad term. I would say "Room Filling Volume" is when distortion starts.

I haven't tried all the T2's - I haven't even unpacked them! I probably should tho given my initial experience.

Thanks guys - let me do a bit more testing and revert.

Hi PSpee,
What size is your room including the adjacent rooms which are opened ? The T2 speaker is the equivalent of a small bookshelf, the M2v2 so the output is limited. To fill a room it needs a lot of power and was probably taxing your amplifier.

Thanks JC.

If it was taxing the amp, the outdoor M3s should have taxed it as well? They did not seem to.

Room I did the testing in was a dining room - about 10 feet by 14 feet.

Tomorrow I'm going to check the T2s on my old Sony ES amp (120 watts) to see if the same thing happens.

Iam using a pair of M2s as centers and they are always cristal clear. I demoed them to my brother for 2 chanel and we listened at fairly loud levels with no distortion.

Your room is not that big.

Are they installed? If not, is it just the "uninstalled" mount hardware that's rattling or, if they are, something in the wall?

I wouldn't expect M2s to really crank, but if you are connecting M3s with the exact same setup and volume and they're doing fine, something is up. I'm guessing it's not the drivers themselves, because the odds of you getting two faulty speakers is really low......

Do the M3's/Outdoor M3's have a higher sensitivity rating than the M2's/T2's? The M3's might need less movement on the dial to be "as loud" as T2's.

In looking at the specs on the product page, your only talking about a 1dB difference in efficiency, not noticable. Also, the difference in power rating is insignificant. For FR your talking 60hz versus 70hz, which should not be a huge difference in low end distortion.

Peter, I agree with you, JC's comments would also apply to the M3's in a large space, but your not talking about a very large room and excessive levels.

Good idea about switching up the amps. You will know for sure then if there is something wrong with your speakers or not.

Good Luck!

Hi PSpee,

I checked the specs on the Leviton amp and they look OK. Be sure you try the M3s with the "little volume device" CAT5 thing in the circuit. I'm suspicious of that. Or did you already try the M3s with the volume device connected?

Normally, the T2s will play quite loud--of course not as loud as a floorstanding speaker or one with more drivers-- with surprisingly decent bass output. It could be a defective driver, but as Mark pointed out, most unlikely you'd get two drivers at fault.

Regards,

Alan

Any update on your situation PSpee?