Never damaged a speaker...

[Philbo King]

I regularly see blown speakers on forums and FB groups, and realized in my 40 years + of audio, never damaged a speaker. You? I have had the volume up to ear splitting levels countless times, well above what would be recommend for hearing damage as a dumb 20 something and all, never blew a speaker. Had parties where loud music played all night, etc, not blown a driver. What are people doing to damage their speakers ? I know distortion is what causes damage most of the time.

I did see an unusual event while mixing sound for a live band. A Crown DC300 amp fried and dumped its +Vcc across a 15" speaker coil, which blew out of the speaker, through the grille cloth, and left a hole in the wall on the other side of the room. Pretty exciting...

 

[MattHooper]

Never.

I’ve had tons of speakers in my room and never damaged a speaker.

Wait, that’s not true. I just remembered that one of my right channel Home theatre speakers developed and intermittent crackle on really low, loud bass hits. Or maybe that’s just the driver bottoming out I’m not sure.

Aside from that, I don’t listen very loud when I’m in the sweet spot, but I do turn up the music if I’m listening from another room.

 

[Talisman]

I have had myriads of speakers alternating with myriads of amplifiers, even cheap junk of the worst kind, but it only happened to me once that a woofer of a pair of Mission LX2s emitted crackling in the bass, but I had never pushed them excessively with the volume, I simply assume a defective driver that manifested itself after a while

 

[EJ3]

Never.

I’ve had tons of speakers in my room and never damaged a speaker.

Wait, that’s not true. I just remembered that one of my right channel Home theatre speakers developed and intermittent crackle on really low, loud bass hits. Or maybe that’s just the driver bottoming out I’m not sure.

Aside from that, I don’t listen very loud when I’m in the sweet spot, but I do turn up the music if I’m listening from another room.

I typically listen from other rooms (or even from outside the house). As a consequence, I have the volume up a bit more than most.

 

[valerianf]

Music listening did not damage my speakers but Wife did.
She placed a stack of books above the remote control.
When they ripped the volume button was pushed to max until ma Yamaha AVR current protection was triggered.
It seems that the tweeters were damaged.

 

[Frank Dernie]

One channel of the 4-channel Yamaha amplifier I bought along with the DSP1 surround processor failed and fried one of the Wharfedale 708 speakers I used it with.
I suspect amp problems and handling problems are more likely to damage well designed drivers than music.

 

[JohnnyNG]

In the late 80's I threw a party and melted the crossover on a cheap passive sub (from the DAC catalog!) which then took out my cheap Pioneer receiver. I think my Bose 301s survived, though.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I, too, wonder. In my 60+ years in audio, I have had one speaker blown and that was due to a power amp that was defective out of the box! Nothing before or since, even when I let others use the system.

And, to pile on, I did have an experience where I should have blown a speaker and didn't:
I bought a used Meridian 201 preamp which seemed to be working fine in my week-end system and I came to rely on it as I generally left the system on 24/7. One night, we were startled from our sleep by what sounded like a rave and I ran to through the house to the system. It was so loud that I felt it physically and getting to the system itself seemed like the strenuous effort of swimming against a strong current. When I got there, I pulled the plug on the power amp and my ears rang for minutes. Diagnosis was that something in the Meridian was faulty and that it had, spontaneously, switched to MAX output into the 200-400wpc amp (cannot recall model). I feared for the worst with the relatively unremarkable Paradigm speakers but they were fine and continued to serve me well for years.

Of course, DC output would have been a different story (as above).

 

[amper42]

Tweeters usually blow before the woofer. However, if you keep a speaker long enough (20+ years) the surround can dry out and crack. This happened on a 15" subwoofer I had. You wouldn't notice it until it goes for a really low note and the cone starts vibrating while trying to separate from the frame. It was a simple fix with a replacement surround. At first, I didn't realize what was making the unusual sound. I thought it was the Kraken. NOPE!

 

[Ken1951]

Way back in the day when I worked for a NoVA audio chain there wasn't a week that went by without stores sending in to the shop Advents of both sizes and ESS AMT-1s with blown tweeters. Others for sure, but those were the ones we saw constantly.

 

[Esprit]

You?

The tweeters from my first Infinitys, in the late 70s, but fortunately they were under warranty.

 

[Anton S]

The T33 tweeters in my old KEF 104/2 speakers were weak and had a propensity to die quietly at quite reasonable listening levels. No audible distress. Perfectly sweet and clear one moment, and then suddenly completely silent forever. I replaced my T33's thee times with new ones, but I had had it with their unreliability by time they croaked again. I replaced them with Morel MDT29-4 units, which have been performing perfectly for the past 20 years.

 

[mhardy6647]

The direct coupled solid state (usually) power amplifiers do, with age, have a distressing tendency to fail in such a way as to dump (relatively) high voltage DC (up to and often at the rail voltage) to the XO and/or to the voice coil(s) of the hapless loudspeaker load(s) connected to them. So-called protection circuits... well... sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't.
I managed to fry two dump find, cannon fodder loudspeakers with an amplifier (of similar provenance -- of course) in the above-mentioned state. The test speakers were single-driver sans any XO, so the poor drivers had no chance. They are electromagnets, but they're not designed to operate full time in the way of those things they use in scrap metal yards. Life for a voice coil asked to deal with continuous DC of substantial voltage (and current -- the DC resistance of the voice coil is typically pretty low) is typically nasty, brutish, and short.
The good news is that after the aforementioned debacle, I got into the habit of checking for DC at the outputs of foundling amplifiers prior to risking even cannon fodder loudspeakers on them.
Anything that doesn't kill one makes one stronger.

I did actually manage to destroy one poor loudspeaker by carelessness with a properly functioning amplifier. I hooked my then-new Yamaha CA-610II to our old EV Wolverine fullrangers and played some symphonic thing rather loudly. The EV LS12 twincone is not made for high power applications; it's a very sensitive driver and does not require much power to produce high SPL. EV rated them for "25 watts", but that's sanguine. At any rate - things were sounding very good -- until one channel simply fell silent. Oops.

I still have that poor LS12 with its open voice coil in its original box in the basement. A memento mori of sorts, you know?


A pair of LS12 drivers, sans baffles, connected to an "Amp Camp Amplifier".

 

[nerdstrike]

I haven't damaged any Infinity speakers, but I did damage a clarinet once. Reeds come and go, but it takes real talent to bend the keywork.

 

[kyuu]

And, to pile on, I did have an experience where I should have blown a speaker and didn't:
I bought a used Meridian 201 preamp which seemed to be working fine in my week-end system and I came to rely on it as I generally left the system on 24/7. One night, we were startled from our sleep by what sounded like a rave and I ran to through the house to the system. It was so loud that I felt it physically and getting to the system itself seemed like the strenuous effort of swimming against a strong current. When I got there, I pulled the plug on the power amp and my ears rang for minutes. Diagnosis was that something in the Meridian was faulty and that it had, spontaneously, switched to MAX output into the 200-400wpc amp (cannot recall model). I feared for the worst with the relatively unremarkable Paradigm speakers but they were fine and continued to serve me well for years.

Of course, DC output would have been a different story (as above).

That's bizarre. How was any content playing? I would assume all you would hear is the noise floor of the amp in that situation.

 

[amper42]

I haven't damaged any Infinity speakers, but I did damage a clarinet once. Reeds come and go, but it takes real talent to bend the keywork.

Typically, you need to be in marching band to bend the keys. Perhaps you run into the Trombone player next to you or smash the clarinet while doing a cheer in the stands. Running into someone accidentally on the field is possible as well.

 

[amper42]

The only speaker I owned that could easily be damage was the 1985 Ohm F. It was a 12" inverted omnidirectional cone speaker. Hook it up to a Phase Linear 400 and play some heavy bass lines for a few days and eventually the lower portion of the cone may detach from the surround near the top of the walnut cabinet. Ohm spent some time trying to reinforce the design. Those speakers were definitely a kick. The 360 degree dispersion was a fun experience.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

That's bizarre. How was any content playing? I would assume all you would hear is the noise floor of the amp in that situation.

The preamp was at its minimum (no output) setting but still connected to a live stream from an FM tuner.

 

[Petrushka]

Power supply filter caps failed on a Citation 16, powering Bose 901s. Was on for several minutes. No damage.

 

[DWPress]

I will humbly admit frying a couple of speakers but it was totally my fault. Active crossover signal routings are not to be trifled with when you're a little buzzed it seems - never a good idea to send full range signals through a tweeter at volume...