I have been using an older Carver TFM-22 amp to drive my M 60's I started to notice a "rattle" from the left (tweeter) speaker- especially audible while playing female choral selections. I removed the amp and wired it directly into my Denon 1909. Problem solved. My question is what is likely wrong with the amp and would it be an easy fix? The Denon does a fine job and I'm not likely to use the amp again, but I would like to sell it if this is a minor issue. Thanks for any advice.

Hi larlane,

I am not sure what could contribute a "rattle" type sound to the speaker when using the carver amp. Is the left channel cutting in and out causing any distortion?

The channel does not cut out, but there is distortion on certain notes from the tweeter.

Do you hear distortion from the tweeter on several/all recordings or is the distortion isolated to just a few recordings?

One troubleshooting measure you could try is hooking the carver amp back up and swap the left speaker with the right (and vice-versa) and see if the "rattle" or distortion follows with that left channel. If it does than there is something wrong with the amp. If it does not follow then there might be something wrong with the tweeter itself in the left speaker which will be still evident even hooked up to the right channel.

Hook the amp up again just to see if the problem comes back. I can’t count how many times I’ve fixed aircraft problems by simply pulling a cannon plug and reseeding it.

If it does come back swap the speakers if you can just to make sure it doesn’t follow the speaker.

And also make sure it’s really the tweeter. I had an M22 that started making a rattling sound on certain notes of just one song. I thought it was coming from the tweeter until I put my finger on the dust cap of the top midrange and it went away. Turned out the dust cap had partly come unglued so Axiom shipped me a driver the next day.

Darn should have taken those typing lessons.

Great point on making sure to double check where the rattle is coming from the speaker.