"Hiss" Coming from RTi 10 - Help!

Gulfstrings

Gave my RTi 10 speakers to my daughter for Christmas. Packed and shipped in original boxes and according to her, they arrived undamaged.

But she is saying ONE of the speakers is making a "hissing" noise (not the other). They have reversed the cables, etc, but the hissing persists.

I never had this experience with these speakers and it's got me stumped. She is driving them with a 40wpc Denon receiver that I'm replacing with a 100wpc Sony. I thought possibly that that particular speaker needs a bit more power (?), but still ... the speaker may have a problem.

1. Any ideas as to what may cause one of the speakers to "hiss?"
2. If necessary, is there a Polk authorized repair center in Nashville?

Thanks,

Dave

[Deleted User]

Hello Dave,
When she says "hissing" does she mean a distorted sound when the speaker is making sound? Or, a rushing/hissing sound that's there when the speaker isn't making sound. In other words, is it a sound that's on top of what the speaker is doing? Or, is it a constant background noise?
Regards, Ken

lectronicjunkie

What a nice Christmas present!

I had a similar problem but mine was a humm vs a hiss and it was in all speakers. It ended up being a ground loop problem.

Face

Have her switch the speakers side to side and see if the problem follows.

Gulfstrings

Kenneth - Yes, the "hiss" is on top of the music, not present without sound.

Face - Yes, she has reversed the speaker cables. The hiss stayed with that speaker.

Thanks

Dave

[Deleted User]

Hello Dave,
In all likelihood either a tweeter or driver has become damaged during the shipping. Sorry that happened, but we can help out. On Monday give the customer service folks a call at 1-800-377-7655 and explain what happened. Be sure and mention your Club Polk membership and I'm sure they can be of help.
To determine the specific component have someone remove the speaker's grille cover while the speaker is playing. Then use a medium sized pillow to cover up the drivers and let the tweeter remain uncovered. If the tweeter sounds okay then shift the pillow to expose a mid-range driver. This way you can determine where the distortion is coming from.
Take care, Ken

Gulfstrings

Ken -

Thanks for the input. My daughter will be back in Nashville tomorrow and will use your procedure to determine which speaker is damaged.

Thanks again,

Dave

dvran

Ok, I'm sure you guys have seen this coming:

There is a snake in your speaker, run!

Gulfstrings

dvran wrote: »

Ok, I'm sure you guys have seen this coming:

There is a snake in your speaker, run!

Ouch ...

Gulfstrings

All right, here's the update. I sent a Sony 100WPC receiver to my daughter (replacing her Denon 40WPC) and when it was hooked up to the RTi10s they performed beautifully. The 'hiss' was gone! Great news ... but still a mystery remains.

As noted above, when first learning of the 'hiss' from one speaker - and that it only occurred when the speaker was sounding, we had her switch the left/right speaker cables and confirmed the hiss stayed with the same speaker. At that point, it was assumed to be a speaker problem and she would use the 'pillow method' (thanks, Kenneth for the idea) to determine which speaker in the cabinet was faulty and go from there.

As it worked out, I asked her to install the new AVR before doing any other testing and ba boom! No hiss!

So, what the heck? I had wondered in the original post if 'underpowering' a speaker could cause such a problem and, at least from the cause/effect we have here, it appears to be the case.

But, since the same speaker did the same thing regardless of which side of the AVR was feeding it, I have to ask if there can be that much 'variance' in power requirement between individual speakers that are supposed to be exactly the same?

Could be ... or am I simply missing somethin here?

Dave

[Deleted User]

Hey Dave,
That is certainly an unusual situation. It is possible what she was hearing was caused by distortion made by over driving the receiver. Next time she hears it ask if reducing the playing volume makes any difference.
Regards, Ken

Gulfstrings

Ken -

Thanks for the followup but with the new, higher powered receiver the hiss is completely gone. The old equipment is boxed and on its way.

That hiss is 'hisstory!'

Still, it would be interesting if in fact the two RTi10s had different, minimum power requirements since only the one was sounding the distortion. Guess at this point we'll never know.

Dave

jz0h4d

Speakers don't hiss. Electronics hiss. It has nothing to do with "under powering" the speaker.

Gulfstrings

jz0h4d wrote: »

Speakers don't hiss. Electronics hiss. It has nothing to do with "under powering" the speaker.

We thought that too. Yet, when the speaker cables were reversed, the hiss stayed with the same speaker.

Strange ...

Dave

[Deleted User]

Hey Dave,
I'm glad everything sounds the way it should, no bad sounds, just good music!
Take care, Ken

treitz3

I'm still scratching my head as to what the issue was, as this was definitely not your typical issue. If I were to guess, it would be a loose connection somewhere that followed the speaker that was somehow corrected when the new receiver was put into place.

Gulfstrings

Again, thanks to all for the help. It's a bit frustrating not knowing exactly what was going on, but with my daugher and the 'problem' in Nashville and me in Florida, we were practicing remote logic - at best.

She tells me it's all good right now and I'm confident - and she's happy. What she has in place now is my old system and it was always good before the shipping and the use of her old Denon and ... guess I'll stop while we're ahead.

Thanks again. This forum is loaded with knowledge and folks to share it. That's all good too ...

Dave