Dynaudio Confidence C1 broken & Cap question


Last night we sat down to listen to some music. I quickly noticed something was amiss. Sound was tilted toward one side and figured I had a cable or tube issue. After about 20 minutes of swapping cables and tubes and generally getting paranoid that my Pass Labs 350.5 amp was broken I swapped speaker placement and discovered that one of the midrange drivers was dead. That was somewhat of a relief.

Having purchased these used I took the offending speaker apart. After unsoldering the driver from the cross over board I checked the driver with a 9 volt battery and noted no cone movement. The wires are still secure but something is definitely wrong here. I called Dynaudio this morning and got the impression that because I don't have a receipt, other than AG, they are not going to help me. I'm waiting to hear from tech support. Anyone have any experience with used, broken, expensive equipment and refused support?

If in fact they do and I don't end up with a mono system, I was wondering about the Solen caps on the x-over and a possible upgrade to platinums. Any thoughts on this?
128x128desalvo55
I meant to say that you can buy OEM drivers directly from Dynaudio.

When I purchased a cheap pair of Dynaudio DM standmount for my GF, I called Dynaudio NA and asked if I could purchase the OEM drivers from Dynaudio NA just in case my local dealers did not service my speakers and they said yes.

Could your wife listening habit be a contributing factor here? Dynaudio drivers are known for being tough & dynamic but that does not mean that you can expect them to work really hard day in day out without being burned out. After all the C1 woofers are fairly small and when they have to move much more air above and beyond their limit, accidents happen....

As you said, it does not make sense if the driver went dead over night.

The C1 sports fairly small drivers and the task of handling most of the lower frequencies should be handed to your JL subwoofers.

In this tough economic time the most reputable companies with the most generous customer service policies would have to cut back on freebies on repairs for customers to keep their doors open.

Hopefully you can get a reasonable bill from Dynaudio
The driver is burned. I am responsible for the damage so there will be no retribution.

There wasn't an "event" that took the driver out, nothing I can point to so that I can feel comfortable with these speakers in the future. Maybe it was simply US playing the wrong style of music. Do we play loud at times? Answer is yes. My wife really likes it loud but not unreasonably so IMHO.

We have the LS6's back in place. They are sold and are being stored until the new owner finds a place for them.

With the improvements in our system I don't know of a speaker that will perform much better than the LS6's. We are regretting BIG TIME selling these speakers. We can't keep the C1's for obvious reasons such as "be careful of that volume control honey, you know what can happen". So we are back in the market for speakers. Something close to the level of the LS6's.

Last night the sound coming from our living room was so amazing I couldn't sleep last night. We finished with Elton John self titled SACD. Stunning. I shook his hand, thanked the orchestra and went to bed. Unbelievable. Effin incredible. Porcupine Tree? Dinner was ready but I was glued to the couch. I had dropped in some Magic II balanced interconnects between Pass and Cary thinking "this is gonna sound like crap" as they are new cables. Not only did they smoke my current set right off the bat, they got better and better and better through the evening. The dynamics and shadings and subtle nuances were just laid bare. It was a mesmerizing 3D experience. I ate half a dinner and jumped right back into it.

Now the line arrays are sold. Where to go.
Why not another pair of line arrays then?

Those dyns should not fry under normal use though. They were not new and you do not know the history before you acquired them, right? It's possible they had a problem prior and you just pushed them over. Used equipment can be risky. You can never be totally sure where its been.

Assuming you will repair the Dyns, you might just use the sub to take the load off them if you like it loud. Thats usually a best practice for smaller speakers in any case.
Mapman, You're right on both accounts however my feeling is that these speakers were well cared for. I've been in contact with the former owner who's offered to help in any way he can.

Speaking with the Dynaudio folks, they mentioned that driving these speakers with a lot of bass information can overheat the bass driver. Anotherwards, don't play it loud enough to put the driver in harms way.

Again, it might be that Shiny Toy Guns, B-Tribe, Bryan Ferry, Porcupine Tree, Depeche Mode type of groups/music aren't friendly to these speakers.

Using an outboard active cross over is another solution and one that was in agreement with the Dynaudio folks. Limiting low bass to these speakers would probably cure any future mishaps.

But why would I want to spend another 3K dollars in x-over and all the associated cabling to protect these speakers from burning? I might as well buy some Wilsons and call it a day (and a credit card payment - NOT).

Now obviously folks here aren't burning up their C1's.
We did and we couldn't stomach another failure.

The speakers are (or will be when the new driver arrives)in pristine condition and do sound wonderful. Maybe just not for us.
Maybe you can persuade the new owner of the LS6's to sell them back to you. Even if it costs you a little, sounds like it will be worth it.