Proac Ribbon Tweeters Damaged


Hi all - this is my first submission, so looking forward to your responses...

I own 2.5 year old Proac D48 R speakers, powered by a Parasound Halo A21 amp (about 8 years old). When listening the other day I thought the speakers sounded dull, muddy. It appears both of my ribbon tweeters have gone out and I am at a loss to understand why.  The amp is certainly not under powered to cause clipping damage and I never play my unit abnormally loud  - maybe 1/4 to 1/3 total volume.

As you can imagine, my repair/driver replacement will not be covered by warranty as this is not considered a manufacturer defect. I am told the tweeters run $399 per.

Worst thing I can do is have these repaired and then have it happen again. HELP!
gnoworyta
@gnoworyta,I use the same amp with my D48R and after your thread I am getting a bit worried. Did you try the amp with another set of speakers, if you have them? Did you switch off the complete system, wait for a few minutes (maybe an hour, etc), unplug the cables and connect back everything and try again? I am suggesting based on the good points that Erik is asking you.
Another possibility, in addition to those that have been mentioned (especially the possibility of an ultrasonic oscillation), is that a fault in the amp is causing a large but very brief transient at turnoff. (I assume, btw, that you are turning the components on and off in the proper sequence -- amp on last and off first).

I once had a high powered solid state amp, in that case a Threshold S-300, which developed a problem that caused it to put out what seemed like nearly a full power transient for a fraction of a second, about 20 or 30 seconds or so after it was turned off. In that case the transient was clearly audible, and produced visible movement of the woofers, but if such a transient is brief enough it might not be audible and might have sufficient high frequency content (corresponding to the rapid change in amplitude) to damage tweeters.

Also, what preamp and what phono stage are you using?

Regards,
-- Al
You may want to check for any DC offset at the amp speaker outputs.
Wondering, are the ribbon tweeters fuse protected? 
My MG 3.5’s have the ribbons fused. Additionally as others have mentioned, the ribbons are  fragile  and can be damaged by excessive air bursts from external sources. Could it be that someone has vacuumed cleaned the speakers? 
Again, thanks to all for your comments thus far.

I am using a Parasound Halo JC2 preamp and Musical Surroundings Phonomena phono amp.However, if I recall correctly, I was not using my turntable when I noticed the problem. Just spinning CD's.

I am unaware of any speaker fuse(s) in the Proacs.

My woofer/midrange drivers appear to be fine.

Unfortunately, I have no other speakers on hand to connect to my amp in question. I did power all down and then re-try, but my tweeters were still not functional. I can't be sure as they are covered by a wire mesh, but the foil ribbons may actually be a bit discolored in spots.

My takeaways thus far:

1. No one appears to believe the speakers themselves could be at fault.
2. "Testing" my amp would be prudent, although I have no idea how to do this (I'm by no means an electronics expert LOL). Who would be able to perform a check on the unit? The dealer I purchased the amp from is no longer in business.
 3.The speaker crossover problem mentioned - could this itself have caused the tweeters to fail or would that problem, if it does exist, have been ultimately related to the amp as well?

Forgot to mention - no vacuuming of the tweeters. I am very careful with my equipment - that's why this is so frustrating.