blown woofer?

Airplay355

i have pol rti100s and my the powered subwoofer in one of them is buzzing, i have never had this problem before, what could this be and what should i do? i think i blew the speaker but it only buzzes sometimes, its not the volume i have it relatively low and it still buzzes, im positive its coming from the subwoofer. please helllllp me

VR3

When a woofer is blown, 0 good sound comes out of it. It all goes snap crackle pop. Trust me, I know! lol!

Airplay355

heres a funny thing, its fine now.....listened to the same song and everything, even turned it up louder and listened to a song with deeper heavier bass......oh well who knows.....anyone wanna try to explain this lol

pjdami

Airplay,

Turn the power off to your speakers and remove the grill covers and gently push in the driver with your hand using your fingers to go around the circumference of the driver. Push the driver in like a 1/2 inch or so (mimic the driver playing) and feel if something is "scratching" or rubbing. Let go and repeat several times. Then try the same thing on a driver that you feel is not blown. Do they feel the same or different??

Usually a blown driver will have the scratching feel to it (and you can even hear it sometimes just pushing it in).

Another thing that may have happened is the magnetic shielding on the driver may have come loose and is rattling. Remove the suspect driver and check it out. I had this happen to me on a RT35i once.

Good luck,
Paul

pjdami

Cool deal bud. If the problem is intermittent then it could be the magnetic shielding is loose. When I had this problem it would only buzz sometimes. Hopefully, everything is fine.

P.

Airplay355

i dotn know how to remove the drive and cant touch it, the rti100s are down firing so ive never even seen the woofer, and im afraid to take them apart, would calling polk help me?

RuSsMaN

I wouldn't push 1/2", I doubt the drivers xmax is that high.

But yes, a truely 'blown' woofer won't make any sound, it is possible (as mentioned above) that the voicecoil is rubbing on the driver in question. Not only should you hear it, but feel it also (as you gently move the cone on the woofer).

As far as getting to the woof on the 100's, I'm guessing through the plate amp, if you feel like doing that.

How loud (and long) were you playing them when the speaker started making the noise? Can a copper vc 'expand' under heat? (and return once cooled)? I had the same thing happen with my SDA's just ONCE, and it's never returned.

Cheers,
Russ

Airplay355

they had been on for a while with some very bass heavy music on and the volume 3/4 up on the woofer, the reciever was turned up about half way when i first heard the noise. i havent heard it again since that day but im still worried that something is wrong and i dont want to make a problem worse

RuSsMaN

Jammin, weren't ya? 3/4 on the plate amp, rec HALF way?

Turn it down or find other ways to clean up, and augment the bass to your satisfaction. Ie: move to a better amp, and look at seperate subs.

Cheers,
Russ

Airplay355

yes im gettina a new amp, currently its an aiwa avd57 im going to get a harmon kardon, i've never had a problem with it at 3/4 the way up b4 tho so it was just weird, since then i have turned it down but sometimes you just gotta have bass lol thanks for the help ill be sure to keep an eye on the woofers

MxStYlEpOlKmAn

As Troy once said: TURN IT DOWN! lol!

Look into Pioneer Elite, Yamaha (you would love Yammer, very loud bass response from yamaha receivers), Harmon Kardon, Onkyo, Denon. and many more, don't limit yourself to harmon kardon! lol!

nadnerb5

I had the same sorta problem with the MW8100s in my LS70 towers. I just got the setup from a guy that I work with, powered by a 100x2 Adcom amp and an Adcom preamp hooked into my laptop via crappy headphone into RCA.

Anyhow, one of the speakers had a buzz/rattle at low volumes, on certain bass notes. After talking to a few of my friends that are into stereos, one recommended supergluing the cone to the Voicecoil (i decided that was my issue)

I tried it because I was so upset that the rattle was there and now it works great. At some bass notes, at high volume levels, I have this feeling that I hear some sort of static buzz, but it could be my imagination (I'm sure we all know how that can go...)

It might not have been the most cooth thing to do, but it did save me some money right now, because when you have nothing to lose, um... you have er nothing to lose. right.

Airplay355

good news the woofer is fine, it was my receiver clipping and the clipped signal was getting amplified by the apm in the polk towers. oh well **** happens, hasn't happened again since though I am worried that it will lol. guess ill have to wait for a nicer receiver before i turn it up that loud again.

jaster

Pull the sub out and look to see if the spider has pulled apart from the basket. That's where my buzzing/rattling was coming from on ALL of my drivers.

Here's some pictures.
http://www.hesterinc.com/polkaudio/

F1nut

jaster,

Man, you're hard on speakers.;)

So, did you contact Polk? If so, what did they say? What model and power rating is your Denon? Do you keep the tone controls flat? Give us somemore details.

jaster

I just got an email back from Polk telling me to send them in for evaluation. We'll see if they want to back up their products.

Denon AVR 3300
105 watts per channel, into 8 ohms, <.05%THD, 20Hz-20kHz • 5 Channel Stereo

Controls are completely flat.

The DB10 subwoofer in my car was run at 200 watts RMS @ 4 ohms 12 volts off an Apline amp. The MB Quart component speakers in my car are fine. They were run off a separate Alpine amp.

My CS350-LS center channel and LS/fx surround speakers are fine too. I always listen to it in surround mode, not stereo.

I have no idea why everything came apart. I've had my own jam sessions every once in a while, but nothing to do this. I have never blown any of my speakers. I don't get it.

F1nut

Well, let us know what they say.

Just curious, but how high have you had the volume on the Denon, more than half way?

jaster

Less than half way.

I guess it's from 5 years of constant use. I thought Polk products would hold up better.

F1nut

Yeah, they are suppose to. I know of plenty of 20 year old Polk's that still sing like the day they were born. Keep us posted.

JediCowboy

Originally posted by jaster
I just got an email back from Polk telling me to send them in for evaluation. We'll see if they want to back up their products.

Polk does and they will.

I blew the drivers on my CSi40 a little while ago; it was my own darn fault but Polk Customer Service said that wasn't a problem and replaced both for free under warranty, no questions asked.

I just got the replacemetns today and am looking forward to restoring my system to its full glory tonight.

jaster

I'm just outside the 5 year warranty so I hope I'm as lucky as you. It will be a great feeling to have mine all put back together someday.
Happy jams tonight.

rs159

Jeez - were you running your mains on full range or something? My theory is that you protected your tiny little center and surrounds by running them small, but you thought the mains were capable of 20hz at 115dB. Then you listened to effin Methods of Mayhem at like 120dB. Poof - Cheech and Chong couldn't smoke that much.

The subs - were you trying to make ricers jealous from 5 blocks away? You're going to need more than one 10" sub for that.

VR3

rice speakers cool! Dont be cutting down on them rice cones! They are pretty effin hard to kill. The rice cones vs. Cheese burger cones - the rice cones will last longer....

rs159

Once again, Trey, I will have to ask "what the hell are you talking about?"

VR3

RS....no clue...cheese burger cones are american cones...