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Did I damage my speakers?

Group,
Need your expertise: I own a pair of Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Baby Grand SE's.

I recently paired them with a new-to-me set of Bel Canto REF600M monos, which replace a Bel Canto REF500S dual mono stereo amp. My preamp is a Bel Canto Pre3VB with the battery power unit.

This weekend the tweeters and upper mids, vocals (mostly female), piano,  sound hazy, at times somewhat distorted, grainy. My listening level is typically between 60-75db. I don't push these speakers hard, but I'm also getting acquainted with an amp now giving 100wpc more than I'm used to. Recently I may have pushed these speakers a bit too hard, getting up into the 80db range a few times. Could I have over-driven the tweeters with this more powerful amplifier?

I've owned the REF600M's for about two months; until this weekend, never heard this kind of distortion/congestion at the top end. Doesn't happen on everything I play (mostly CD's). Before this weekend the sound has been wonderful.

I've had these speakers for almost 7 years and have never noticed something like this before.

Wondering how to troubleshoot this.

Thanks in advance for your insight/perspective.

J


arcamguy
sounds_real_audio
942 posts
 
I think they damage you...
jeffrey75's avatar
jeffrey75
107 posts
 
No, speakers pushed to hard blow their woofers, tweeters blow when the amp starts clipping because it, the amp, is being pushed to hard.  Your speaker crossovers may of heated up, 90db is not a hard load to drive, if they were being pushed real hard for long periods of time, this can make the sound coming out as you described as a little grainy or slightly distorted on top.  But this usually reverts itself back to normal after letting speakers sit unused for couple of hours. OP please post if you come to a conclusion of what you are experiencing.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
tsugury
247 posts
 
Hi, since it's been like 2 weeks from your last post I was wondering if you found the problem?
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Tweeters may be toast.
arcamguy OP
83 posts
 
Hello group,
Apologies for the delay in communicating; I sent the Bel Canto preamp and battery unit off to get checked at Bel Canto and they returned with a clean bill of health yesterday.

Put it back in the system and it sounds the same: not quite the "body" to the sound I'm used to; highs are still a bit etched. However, the system has been off for a couple weeks so I'm letting it run in. 

Next option is to get the REF600M's checked. Again, as those of you with much more experience have said, speaker damage, given my listening levels would be unlikely. However, I'm not ruling that out.

I will be switching out components this weekend: I will slide in another pair of speakers to see if the sound is different.  

I appreciate your feedback, folks. Thanks much.

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