He is not pushing the speakers too far. The smell comes from the materials used. MDF is obviously a material which is commonly used and carries on outgassing for many years. The woofer, crossover parts, wires etc all have a smell from the chemicals used. This is toxic but there is no law to protect us.
Every speaker i have bought has a chemical smell. If it's ported then obviously as you raise the volume, more airflow means more smell being released.
The worst speakers in this respect are the green mountain Audio.
They use fibreglass inside the cabinet (which is pretty unusual for a speaker) which then gets blown out through the port into your room. You would need a a particle counter to measure this because the fibres are invisible.
GMA also use car wax on the cabinet. It was a terribly strong smell enough to cause headaches. I removed it by scrubbing it off but it still took several months to go away.
Every speaker i have bought has a chemical smell. If it's ported then obviously as you raise the volume, more airflow means more smell being released.
The worst speakers in this respect are the green mountain Audio.
They use fibreglass inside the cabinet (which is pretty unusual for a speaker) which then gets blown out through the port into your room. You would need a a particle counter to measure this because the fibres are invisible.
GMA also use car wax on the cabinet. It was a terribly strong smell enough to cause headaches. I removed it by scrubbing it off but it still took several months to go away.