Your most spectacular speaker/component failure?

[DerekTheGreat]

Hello everybody!

Looking to start a fireside chat here. What was one of your most memorable or spectacular speaker failures? Did you send woofers flying into the room or a fire? Maybe you were at a friend's party and something went overboard? Whatever it was, I want to know!


My story: Very tame & lame, I think and in my audio "infancy" as I call it. I think I've upgraded to toddler status, but back then, everything was new to me. So I had just added another Adcom GFA-555II to my arsenal, fresh from eBay. Gave it a bit of a demo, but that was it. Also just got my 128H's back in my old L150A's after a fresh recone. One amp was pretty decent, so why not two? I bridged both amps and ran one for each 150A. It was bliss, for about six minutes. Was jamming Steve Miller's version of Mercury Blues and that's when the right channel shut down on me, just after I started to see clip lights on it. Whoa, glad nothing happened... Amp didn't turn back on, found fuses were blown because they weren't the right ones for the job. Without thinking, I replaced fuses in each amp with ones spec'd for the job, hooked everything back up and then powered up the right channel.. Lots of, "SNAP-GARBLE-GARBLE-POP-POP!" for the two seconds or so the amp was on. Which was more than enough time to pucker my bunghole, notice the clip lights went on instantly for the amp and for me to see the 128H test it's fresh surround and attempt to be free of the cabinet. Felt like an eternity and the woofer ended up needed another recone, but did still work. Oops, costly mistake.

[1audiohack]

Hi Derek;

Mine was caused by a power fault. An IHBL kind of fault.

Two Crown CE2000’s and two JBL 2123H’s died in an instant. Both driven out of the magnetic gaps and one of them stuck that way. The main boards and the output stages destroyed in both amps. The CE4000’s were unscathed. They have universal voltage switching power supplies.

I don’t recall for certain but I think two 2425’s or 2426’s lost their lives as well.

Also the printed circuit board on my air compressor had traces blown off the board.

The power company said they had no record of a fault at that time. They came out and pulled my meter, tightened all the big connections, did the same to the service transformer across the street AND THEN put a data logger on my house for three days and came back and told me all was well. Interestingly they replaced that transformer four or five months later.

Nothing to see here. Go on home.

I don’t know what the IHBL rating of a CE2000 is but it’s a big number!

Barry.

[DerekTheGreat]

Hey Barry,

Whoa, I think that's going to be hard to beat. And of course, it's easier to deny responsibility than it is to accept it..

Where were you when this happened? What did it all sound like? Seems like it would be rather gnarly.

[jbl4ever]

I have broken many things through my life with audio. Early 80’s was into Mobile Fidelity albums and one of the new releases was The Power and the Majesty 004. One side was recorded with thunderstorms and the other steam locomotives. The speakers were home built 20 cuft housing 2 LE15A’s per cabinet and connected to a pair of bridged mono John Iverson Eagle 7A’s. Each produced almost 1100watts @ 8 ohms. Not knowing the recording gain structure I had it way to high as the steam locomotive came in one side of the room and out the other it took 4 - LE15A’s with it. That was a costly mistake and the service center wondered what I had done to fry them that bad. I was one of their better customers back then and miss the owner Keith Wilson. He called me the professor in my younger years as I would always bring something to him he did not believe.

[DerekTheGreat]

Man, I'm intrigued to know what that failure sounded and looked like! I had to look that amplifier up, what a monster! Already a dual mono design to begin with. "1.4 horsepower during peak musical bursts." There's one currently on eBay...

"The Professor," That's great haha.

Keep these stories coming, hoping you guys have more to share.

Side note, how do you guys get albums to play ultra loud without feedback? I've got my turntable up on a separate plinth with those little spikes and then Zorbathane feet or whatever under it's own feet. It still goes all "whoam-whoa-wooo" like whenever I try to play one past 100 dB or so.

[grumpy]

Close the turntable lid (record can act like a diaphragm, so can the dust cover... so it might help or make things worse)
Isolate the turntable base (you have a start at it, if it all resonates at a troublesome frequency you can actually make things worse)
Use a sub-sonic filter.

So... Turn down the LF gain or attenuate/isolate/dampen the conductive vibration paths that get back to the needle/arm.
Problem can be direct vibration of the chassis or via air causing things to resonate.

... at least that's where I'd be looking.

[RMC]

I can confirm jbl4ever comment about The Power and the Majesty 004 (1978), having a copy since late 70s or early 80s. As the train approaches the recorder's location you MUST turn down the volume otherwise the feeling is as the train passes right in the house, very noisy, but what a feeling!

As i recall there was a warning about dynamics and amp gain , i cant see it now as i write this. The LP came with 2 pages of notes from the producers on yellow paper, which i also have, maybe the warning is in those notes. I've never blown a speaker with the MFL nor with Direct-to-Disc though.

Richard

[RMC]

To Derek

You might want to try one of those felt? turntable mats on top of the original one (see pics). I have one for a long time but never use it as i don't need it (not trying to sell it), since the Bellari phono pre 20 hz rumble filter does the job, as well as running the TT with balanced lines, etc, along with other things Grumpy previously mentioned.

Richard

[Robh3606]

I have never had one thanks goodness! Worst for me was moving a cabinet and not shutting the amp down first. Pulled a cable and blew a midrange. Never made that mistake again.

Rob

[turnitdown]

Having cocktails while diagnosing a Pioneer Elite receiver. I took the cover off, found and fixed the problem. While it was playing nicely, I attempted tp put the cover back on. In the process, I shorted it to death. R.I.P.

[Mr. Widget]

Having cocktails while diagnosing a Pioneer Elite receiver. I took the cover off, found and fixed the problem. While it was playing nicely, I attempted tp put the cover back on. In the process, I shorted it to death. R.I.P.

When I was in college I once brought an integrated amp back to life that had died during an "Animal House" party where someone vomited into the top of the amp.

I must have felt somehow implicated... for the life of me I can't figure out why I volunteered to clean and repair the mess.


Widget

[DerekTheGreat]

I can confirm jbl4ever comment about The Power and the Majesty 004 (1978), having a copy since late 70s or early 80s. As the train approaches the recorder's location you MUST turn down the volume otherwise the feeling is as the train passes right in the house, very noisy, but what a feeling!

As i recall there was a warning about dynamics and amp gain , i cant see it now as i write this. The LP came with 2 pages of notes from the producers on yellow paper, which i also have, maybe the warning is in those notes. I've never blown a speaker with the MFL nor with Direct-to-Disc though.

Richard

Jeez, that kind of dynamics with vinyl? That recording seems to have a following like that cartoon, Fritz the Cat.

To Derek

You might want to try one of those felt? turntable mats on top of the original one (see pics). I have one for a long time but never use it as i don't need it (not trying to sell it), since the Bellari phono pre 20 hz rumble filter does the job, as well as running the TT with balanced lines, etc, along with other things Grumpy previously mentioned.

Richard

There's an idea. I do employ the rumble filter. To be fair, I haven't tried playing a record loud like that since I've had the UREI's. Don't think I will, I'm convinced that compared to digital, playing vinyl is like throwing a blanket over your speakers.

Having cocktails while diagnosing a Pioneer Elite receiver. I took the cover off, found and fixed the problem. While it was playing nicely, I attempted tp put the cover back on. In the process, I shorted it to death. R.I.P.

When I was in college I once brought an integrated amp back to life that had died during an "Animal House" party where someone vomited into the top of the amp.

I must have felt somehow implicated... for the life of me I can't figure out why I volunteered to clean and repair the mess.


Widget

Oh wow, great stories. On the integrated amp, was it a spectacular show or did it just poop out silently? As for Animal House, great movie, and ugh. Perhaps someone gave you the proper incentive to clean and repair it? Of all places to vomit, why the tunes? Perhaps the Bay City Rollers or the Bee Gees were playing...