RTi A9 - DOA tweeter

tngilmore
tngilmore Posts: 5
edited December 2014 in Customer Service
My A9's sound amazing, but uneven.
Purchased them last month and love em, but one of them is a bit quieter
At first I thought it may just be the acoustics in my room.
I finally got to doing a pink noise and sweeping test today, and there is nothing coming out of my left tweeter.
I have played them pretty loud, but have not gone so loud to cause any clipping yet.
Using a Marantz with 125 watts to each speaker.

I sent an email to Polk support, but won't hear back from them until next week.

I've tried everything I can think of so far (switching cables, amps, bi-amping etc.) to verify this is a tweeter problem.

I just wanted to check if anyone has had to get speakers this large serviced before.
Do you have to ship it out somehow? or take it to a local shop?
I saw a video on youtube, it looks fairly simple to remove the tweeter.
I'm hoping Polk can just send me a replacement tweeter, and let me replace it while still keeping it under warranty.(from what I've seen around the web it's most likely to be the tweeter and not the crossover)

Thank You for any advice/feedback :)
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Comments

  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,533
    I finally got to doing a pink noise and sweeping test today, and there is nothing coming out of my left tweeter.

    All you have to do is stick an ear up the tweeter, it'll be obvious if it's not working.

    Call Polk on Monday. Chances are they will cover it under warranty and ship you a new tweeter.

    That said, your Marantz AVR doesn't have the balls to drive those speakers, so keep the volume level down or it will happen again.

    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • tngilmore
    tngilmore Posts: 5
    Thank you for the input, great to hear I'm likely to get well taken care of!

    I've got a dedicated Marantz amp on order.
    (Would look for a higher power amp but I have a great Marantz accommodation discount through my job)
    Going Pre out from the AVR to a Behringer DCX2496, Bi-amped into a Marantz MM7055.
    Hoping 2 140watt amps into each speaker will bring the setup a bit closer to the A9's full capacity....
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,533
    That should do the trick and welcome to Club Polk.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • tngilmore
    tngilmore Posts: 5
    Thanks for the help Sir.
    I'm kind of a newb audiophile if you couldn't tell,
    glad to be part of Club Polk!
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,533
    No problem, we'll help you spend your money B)

    The Marantz sound is very musical, a good choice to go with those speakers, which tend to be a bit bright on top.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • PolkieMan
    PolkieMan Posts: 2,446
    edited December 2014
    One of the best tweeter checkers is the empty paper towel roll this comes in handy especially when you have more than one tweeter on each speaker. F1nut is quite correct your lack of enough power plus the love of high sound levels probably is what fried your tweeter.
    POLK SDA 2.3 TLS BOUGHT NEW IN 1990, Gimpod/Sonic Caps/Mills RDO-198
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  • tngilmore
    tngilmore Posts: 5
    edited December 2014
    Polk's customer service is awesome!
    Didn't even have to explain why it might've been blown, they're sending me a new tweeter :D
    I've also decided to go with the Emotiva XPA-5 for an amp. 200 watts per channel should do quite nicely.
    The Polk rep. also recommended not using the Behringer crossover, as removing the jumpers doesn't actually take the passive crossovers in the A9's out of the circuit.
    An active crossover on top of the passive would probably cause some distortion, and I don't want to void the warranty by removing the passive from inside.

    Thanks for the help and tips guys!
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,533
    You should have bought the Marantz. Inherently bright speakers with an inherently bright amp is never a good thing.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • Thorton
    Thorton Posts: 1,324
    I believe Emo has a 30 day return policy so he can return it if the sound doesn't suit him. Just make that decision before time runs out.
    _____________________________________________________________________________________________
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  • tngilmore
    tngilmore Posts: 5
    edited December 2014
    I guess I should've said decided to AUDITION the Emotiva, the Marantz is on back order and I figured I'd try a higher powered amp with a reasonable price while I wait.
    That 30-day return policy may come in handy...

    Question for F1nut - Do you think the emotiva will be noticeably brighter than the Marantz receiver? I'm wondering in case the Marantz amp is on back order for longer than the emotiva return policy. Would you put quality order from SR7009->XPA5->MM7055 or XPA5->SR7009->MM7055 for the A9's? (apologies please for my drunkenly worded question)
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