RTIA3 fusing

toolbelt

I'm setting up a pair of RTIA3's to replace some RTI4's that blew the tweeters and one woofer. This may have occurred slowly over time and I didn't notice until the one woofer went. Others have suggested I may have had an issue with my AV Receiver. As I typically listen at low volumes, and I'm the only one using the system, I can't recall any occurrence of sound spikes or voltage surges that would cause speaker issues, and I continue to use the receiver on a daily basis without any issues, but just to be sure, it's been suggested I put a quick-blow fuse on my wires to protect the speakers.

Would this be a simple matter of putting a quick-blow automotive style fuse on the (+) wires feeding these speakers, and if so, what value fuse would one suggest? My VSX521K is rated at 80W per channel and the RTIA3's are rated at 20-150W, or am I safe as is, seeing my speakers are rated at almost double the output of my AV Receiver?

F1nut

It is considerably easier to overdrive low powered amplification. In other words, you are more likely to send damaging clipped signals with your current receiver than with a 500wpc amp regardless of the basically useless wattage ratings of the speakers.

boston1450

If that's a Pioneer vsx521K ? that may be your weak link. Ive had 1000's of receivers in my flipping days & I once had a vintage silver face Akai. Nothing special but super clean new condition unit. This guy calls me & says he had a 2 month old 'in the box' Pioneer rec with all paperwork he wanted to trade me even for. He said he didn't like it. So I said sure. I knew I'd get 100.00 bucks for it. It was as described. I hooked it up to a pair of Paradigm Monitor 7 tower speakers I had & I couldn't believe how it sounded. I quickly unhooked it & sold it quickly... I'm not saying it's a bad unit but I wouldn't be surprised at any issues that unit would do to any speaker IMO... I've owned 40wpc Harman Kardons that had more power over that Pioneer

toolbelt

boston1450 wrote: »

If that's a Pioneer vsx521K ? that may be your weak link. Ive had 1000's of receivers in my flipping days & I once had a vintage silver face Akai. Nothing special but super clean new condition unit. This guy calls me & says he had a 2 month old 'in the box' Pioneer rec with all paperwork he wanted to trade me even for. He said he didn't like it. So I said sure. I knew I'd get 100.00 bucks for it. It was as described. I hooked it up to a pair of Paradigm Monitor 7 tower speakers I had & I couldn't believe how it sounded. I quickly unhooked it & sold it quickly... I'm not saying it's a bad unit but I wouldn't be surprised at any issues that unit would do to any speaker IMO... I've owned 40wpc Harman Kardons that had more power over that Pioneer

It was the first AV receiver for me, after running a Technics stereo receiver as a poor man's edition of surround sound. I then bought a Polk sub (2009?) and fed the fronts through the sub. I wanted a center channel and upgraded to the Pioneer which at the time (2012?), was priced fairly low. Reading the manual requires a 4 year degree in electrical engineering, and it's quite slow at decoding when switching sources. My life would be easier if my Samsung output more than just stereo through an optical cable, as I'm forced to connect my street grade IPTV box to the tv directly, as it doesn't play nice with the Pioneer receiver, which has a hard time decoding the signal if the IPTV is connected directly to it. The sound through the Pioneer sounds very clean and hasn't had any episodes of distorted sounds or volume surges. I've never driven speakers anywhere near the point of clipping, even momentarily. While I'm no audiophile, I'm very picky about things working correctly, be it a faucet or a woofer. It's possible something occurred with me out of the room which caused three drivers to pop but listening to properly working speakers now, it's entirely possible the tweeters fizzed out at different times and my center channel compensated my ears with highs, and that I didn't notice until the one woofer went, in which case my right speaker went entirely dead.

Anyways, I've hooked up the new (used) RTIA3's within the last hour but haven't really tested them or even adjusted AV settings, and my first impression is they have way more bass/midrange than my RTI4's, and clean highs. My stand-in XT15's don't even rate mentioning by comparison, although I may use them for rear channels if I ever get around to doing a full-on home theatre system. In the meantime, I was hoping maybe fusing these 3's would be cheap insurance but as F1nut alluded to, my current setup isn't well balanced, component wise.

Gardenstater

Maybe try a 2.5A fast blow. That should allow 50W into an 8Ohm load before the fuse melts, approximately. That should be quite loud enough.

Do you have kids that may have blasted the system when you were out just to see how loud it was? Maybe a mischievous cat?

toolbelt

Gardenstater wrote: »

Maybe try a 2.5A fast blow. That should allow 50W into an 8Ohm load before the fuse melts, approximately. That should be quite loud enough.

Do you have kids that may have blasted the system when you were out just to see how loud it was? Maybe a mischievous cat?

No kids in the house for a few years now. No cats, and a Labrador who prefers reading books and knitting. As for fusing, I'm familiar with in-line fuse holders and glass-type automotive fuses, but I'm using 12 Ga wire and most auto style holders are for lighter gauge wiring. Are there kits available for 12 ga wiring or specifically made for speakers, without audiophile pricing?

Gardenstater

Search on "Inline AGC Fuse Holder 12awg", or you could get a block style glass fuse holder and attach that to the back of your speakers. I would think the audio effects of that would be worse.

toolbelt

Much obliged

toolbelt

Gardenstater wrote: »

Maybe try a 2.5A fast blow. That should allow 50W into an 8Ohm load before the fuse melts, approximately. That should be quite loud enough.

Do you have kids that may have blasted the system when you were out just to see how loud it was? Maybe a mischievous cat?

I think I would like to go with ATC blade style fuses, however finding a 2.5A fast blow is not so easy. Can I up it to a 3A fast blow?

Gardenstater

I guess that might depend upon the sensitivity/efficiency of those RTiA3s. I do not know the specs. The less sensitive the speaker, the higher power you have to put through them to get them to play loudly. That puts you closer to being in danger of the fuse melting in normal usage.

I don't see those blade types being used anywhere for inline speaker use. They seem to use them for power supply to car audio amplifiers.

Another consideration might be to go with marine ones because I would think they would be less likely to have ferrous metals in their construction.

toolbelt

The RTIA3's are rated at 89 db. For regular everyday viewing volume, my receiver is set at 40 (out of 100) and it pushes 80W rms. Not sure if 40/100 volume equates to 32W being output, but I think even if I were viewing an action movie, a setting of 50/100 would be well above the point of being able to converse with somebody. As mentioned, I let my sub do most of the heavy lifting although I think I have the AV LFE crossover set at 150hz and can likely bring that down to 100hz, as these "new" speakers can handle more of the bass load.