right front LSi25 speaker running warm

pmckeealaska

Hello,

I have a pair of LSi25's that are powrered by a Rotel 1080 2 channel amp. The right speaker has always run warmer than the left channel, but this past weekend, I watched a movie at high volume for 2 hours and then tried watching a DVD music video at high volume as well. After a short while, the amp went into protection mode and the right side of the amp was hot, much warmer than it has been in the past. This is the first time I have run into this problem, even though the right channel has always been warmer. I called the rotel dealer who sold me the amp and he said it might be a problem with my speakers. He says, the right channel might be running lower than 4 ohms impedence, causing a much larger load on the amp. The speaker itself feels warmer than the left speaker. The dealer that I bought the speakers from in Anchorage Alaska is no longer in business and I'm hoping I can get any work that might need to get done up here in Alaska, rather than having to ship it down to Sand Diego (I think that is the right location) for service.

Please advise. I ran the speakers yesterday at lower volumes and the amp was warm as usual, but nowhere close to protection mode. Hope you can help. I miss being able to crank my speakers! Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Deleted User]

Hello,
Thanks for posting. Are you referring to the bass amplifier on the speaker, or the right channel of the Rotel?
Regards, Ken

pmckeealaska

Well, the right channel of the rotel amp is getting hot, but I suspect the probelm lies with the right speaker. The bass amplifer on the speaker is much warmer than it is on the left channel speaker. As I said before, it may be that the right channel is getting lower than 4 ohms impedence, thus causing a heavier load on the amplifier and causing it to go into protection mode. As I said before, the right speaker has always run warmer than the amp, but it has never caused the amplifier to go into protection mode like it did this past weekend. I can onloy suspect that the speaker is the culprit, but am not sure how to check this out. I hope you can give some direction in terms of diagnostics. Thanks.

dorokusai

Easy...swap the speakers....what happens?

[Deleted User]

Hello,
Keep in mind the bass amplifier, on the speaker itself, isn't part of the load impedance the amplifier is seeing. In other words, whatever is causing the right channel of the Rotel to become hot isn't being caused by the bass amplifier of the speaker. I am assuming you are using a line level signal feeding the bass amplifier on the speaker, correct? If so, have you removed the two binding post jumper plates, on the back of the speaker? The second thing to consider is that the impedance of the LSi25 can be less than 4 Ohms at certain lower frequencies. At higher playing volumes the Rotel is going to produce quite a bit of current, which will cause the amplifier to become warm.
I agree, a good thing to try would be swapping the two speaker connecting wires and see if the other Rotel channel becomes warm, or not.
Regards, Ken

pmckeealaska

No, I have not removed the jumper plates. Is this hurting the speakers by having them connected? Could that be the problem? If so, I will remove them when I get home this evening (I'm on my lunch break right now). My NAD T763 reviever has 2 subwoofer audio pre-outs. So, let me make sure I have this right. I should remove the binding post plates, and run the subwoofer cables from the "subwoofer in" of the speaker to the audio pre-out of the reciever? If so, what is the "line level out" on the speakers subwoofer for? I'm not sure if my recievers subwoofer outputs are "unfiltered" or not.

Sorry for the obviously stupid questions. Hope you can provide me with clarity. Thanks.

pmckeealaska

I should add that the subwoofer section of the right speaker tends to be warmer than the subwoofer of the left speaker. Thats why I think the problem is the speaker and not the amplifier.

aaharvel

if the speakers are putting out great sound, then I wouldn't worry about it. I believe someone else had this problem as well, it might just be normal.

Sthrndream

I was the one who had this problem with a Sunfire Cinema Grand 7 and Polk LSI 25s.

The amp was running hot. Why, because your amp is taking on a greater load than 4 Ohms. What does all of this mean???? Your left channel is playing fine. Swap out the drivers (all but the sub) from left to right. See if your amp calms down. If it does, the drivers are your culprit.

The culprit for mine was the CROSSOVERS. Both were fried. You could visually inspect them and see the cracks and discoloration as well as a slight ever so slight burning smell when they played. My amp is 400 watts/channel 4 Ohm, so you can imagine. I was playing a Fleetwood Mac concert louder than normal because it was recorded lower. Long story short: I sent them back to Polk and they replaced them under the 5 year warranty. Installed the new ones, the amp doesnt heat up anymore.

The drivers played with the bad crossover, however, there was about a 10db loss in sound. THe speakers stoll played fine.

I got to know more about my LSI 25s than I wanted to at the time, but Im glad I went through this experience!

Hope this helps!

pmckeealaska

So when you sent them back to polk...did you have the original receipt from when you bought them, because I dont think I have it anymore .

Sthrndream

Talk to Ken Swauger, he will help you!

pmckeealaska

Thanks...I just sent him a private message. Thanks for your quick responses!