yes, i forgot to clarify that i did, indeed, upgrade to a Levinson system. 383 Integrated, 39 CD Player, Transparent cabling. the protons were definitely not cutting it, and i absolutely love the sound from the levinsons. nicely detailed and laid back. :) |
btw, you have to joking about the proton intergrated.if you are actually using that, it is way underpowered.
those speakers are designed for top notch gear (ie krell, levinson, classe etc) something that can deliver clean current into a 2 ohm load.
to actually get those speakers to sound good, plan on spending at least 10k-20k on (used prices) on quality gear.
hope that helps!!!
mike
hope that helps !!
mike |
did you check the polarity of both woofers? |
Glad you confirmed John's sensible diagnosis and that your crossover isn't damaged. I thought you were kidding about the 40wpc Proton...get yourself something that can handle the current demands if you intend to play these loud (and why wouldn't you if you got Wilsons?). If money's tight, something like a used Parasound 2200 or 3500 should do the trick for the time being.
As far as the wiring goes, the internal hookup wire in most speakers is just solid core copper in a plain dielectric sheathing, pulled off a spool, nothing fancy. I'll leave the pejorative suppositions about retail Monster products for others to dispute, but I'm sure they can supply such an OEM wire as good as any other. |
you were right, johnmcelfresh! they _were_ out of phase. btw, the folks at Wilson were also very helpful, and deduced that they may be out of phase. i was able to get the speaker out (i just left it on its face for a while and tapped the back. it eventually popped out. i then switched the wires on one of the woofers, and voila! they work beautifully now. the bass seems a tad weak, but i think that is because of break in.
thanks, everyone, for your help!
h |
You probably blew them because you UNDERpowered them - the chief cause of clipping - and blown speakers. Most speaker can handle megawatts of clean power, but 50 watss of clipping will kill almost anything.
As for the bass - sounds like you may have wired the two drivers in each speaker out of phase. That would kill the bass almost completely.
I concur with the masses - have Wilson (or your local dealer) fix these before anything else happens. |
I'm sure they can be repaired. Do they have any fuses or other internal protection. It just doesn't sound as though the signal is getting to the drivers. Be sure also to check the resistors on the crossover going to the drivers if there are any. They may be bad. I have seen resistors blown completely out to where they will not pass a signal. Also make sure these are not Wilson clones. There are some out there. |
I suppose break in is necessary, but there is absolutely zero bass. almost sounds like the puppy turned into a small PC speaker. That can't be right, could it?
To be honest, I can't figure out when exactly they blew. I suppose it's possible they were damaged before I even bought them, though I like to believe that I would have heard blown woofers. Can an under powered amp cause low impedance speakers (the puppys are known to be down to 2 ohms in the bass range I believe) to blow if played too loud? I know the sound gets very ratty when played too loudly.
As far as risk/return, I hear you. But I didn't realize that Wilson themselves would take them back for repair. Plus, I don't have boxes for them. (I wonder what they would have charged me?) I got the woofers from another dealer that used to carry Wilson as a favor. They never mentioned sending it directly to Wilson, and said that I should be able to just solder them in myself. I only paid about $4k for the pair, so the risk/return wasn't quite as high. What a painful lesson though. |
Some amps, after clipping, send a huge surge of current to the drivers, which could damage them. If there is no bass with the new drivers, even without break-in, the crossover could also be damaged. To be safe, ascertain that the volume is down before powering up your system, especially if you have kids in the house.
Also, onsidering the cost of the speakers, I agree with the above post about letting Wilson repair them. Maybe while they're at it they can upgrade the wiring. |
The risk return ratio in out of wack here. I would not try to save a few hundrend bucks on a $ 10,000.00 used piece of gear. You would be better off sending the speakers to wilson to get the woofers fixed and see that no other 'tweeks" were done to these. I would think its extremely rare to blow the woofers in these. I listed to the 6.0's with 350 watt Krell Monos full blast and they ROCK ! PS the $ 100,000.00 system had Monster cable 2.4 speaker cables! |
Remember you have to break the new drivers in before they will have much bass. You did use the correct replacements didn't you? |
Actually, I ended up buying a pair of Watt Puppy 6's. The lack of bass was just too much for me to live without. Especially since I blew the woofers, I decided it was better to upgrade. However, now I'm running into some trouble with the repair. I took out the old woofers, soldered the replacements and screwed them back in. But the sound from those speakers is all wrong. There is absolutley no bass at all now?
On top of that, I can't get the speakers off now. With the blown pair, I just reached in and grabbed through the holes in the soft section that separated from the speaker. But now i have no way to grab them, and even turning the speaker on its face, I can't get it to separate. Any suggestions on how to get it off so I can take a look at what happened?
I know, I know, I should have had a professional do this, but I bought these on consignment, and the shop where I bought them went under. I figured replacing woofers would be no big deal. I must have guessed wrong. :>
h |
I've seen yellow Monster cabling inside of more than a few amps. It is probably a cable that they market to OEM's ( Original Equipment Manufacturer's ) and is sold at a discount price in bulk. As Twl mentions, the speakers were probably voiced with that cabling and changing the cabling will alter the sound ( for better or worse or maybe just "different" ). Sean
> |
Like you I thought Wilson only used Transparent cables. But a more important question is how do they sound? If you like the sound of your 5.1 then it really doesn't matter what cable they use. Hopefully you don't fell worst about the speakers because they have a Monster Cable in them. |
This has been a topic before. But the last time, there were some other more generic type of cable inside the Wilsons. It in not necessarily and indictment of the speaker or designer, because they could have been voiced with those cables, and may sound best with them. But, somehow I doubt it. This just seems to be a place where Wilson doesn't seem too anxious to put much money. Maybe he is a "wire is wire" type of guy. |
