Shorting Speakers ?

[Mike Jones]

I have a pair of front main speakers (Infinity w/12" woofer and Emit tweeter) that may or may not have a short....

I first noticed this when the receiver shut off during the pod race scene from SW:Episode 1.

The receiver also shut off during Jurassic Park III when the "Mercernaries" test fire the .BIG gun at the plane at the first part of the movie.

The dealer from where I purchased the head unit said it could possibly be a short in the speakers voice coil or that there could possibly be something wrong w/the receiver (Yamaha RX-V596).

The Lobby explosion scene in the Matrix bottoms out the speakers but doesn't shut down the receiver...

The question that I have...

Is there a way to verify the existence of a short in the speaker? For normal listening I've never had a problem...only during the two scenes mentioned above...

I plan on taking the receiver in for an examination...but would like to be able to maybe verify if it's the speakers before losing the receiver to the dealer for a week.

Anyway, thanks for any and all advice.

M.

 

[tomcat]

If the speakers were shorting then they would not work. Sounds to me more like the speakers are presenting a very awkward and complex load to the amp on those passages which the amps o/load protection senses and shuts down untill normal load returns. If you keep using the system this way you run the very real risk of blowing the amp and or the speakers. The danger here may be that the manufacturer of your amp may not cover this under it's warranty as it was caused by an external source!
tomcat

 

[Super]

I would agree. It sounds like an impedance/capacitance problem, similar to what can occur with braided/high cap cables. When the fuses went on my monoblocks when I changed the cables, they would shut off precisely at a certain loud passage in a song, every time, or if I exceeded a certain volume. I'm pretty sure that it's your receiver, but you could try adding a small zobel network at the terminals of your speakers to try and control the imp/cap issue. It may work, it may not, just an idea (works for the cables).

 

[Mike Jones]

a possible solution?

Thanks to both of you for your advice/feedback.

After running though a couple of various combinations of having the mains run as a "small" speaker and tweaking the dynamic range setting on the receiver I was able to keep the unit from shutting down by setting the mains to small and sending the LF output to a sub (which I don't currently have...waiting on the Shiva from Adire Audio)

Anyway, I also noticed that I had all of my excess speaker cable coiled up in a nice bundle...so I undid the wrap and positioned the cable in a random loops...reset all the receiver's settings back to the original settings...played the passage three times...and no shutoff...wrapped the cable back up....and the unit would shut down. When the unit was turned back on...there was a message "check sp wires"...

Anyway, so as weird as it seems...it almost seems like having the cable bundled up may have been the cause?

Since the receiver is still under warranty, I plan on taking the unit in tomorrow to have it checked just in case...

Thanks again for the feedback.

M.

 

[Super]

Yes, this is could have very well been the problem, and occurs often in cables which are braided. Interactions can cause the capacitance in the cable to rise, therefore causing your receiver to shut down. I would also suggest keeping your speaker cables as short as possible. Not only can it improve the sound, but it can prevent future problems with your amplifier oscillating.

 

[AudioFreak]

as Super suggested ... if the speaker cables are more than a foot too long cut off the extra an put a new connector on the end of it... odds are that the sound will improve and the amp will thank you for it.