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Anybody blow a ceramic woofer with an OTL amp?

I would appreciate anybody's experience with transients (such as a tube blowing) in an OTL amp that results in breaking the ceramic driver in a Kharma 3.2. I just had this happen to me - a driver tube blew, terrible noise from the woofer and it broke. The Kharma distributor said this was only the second he had heard of with an Atma-Sphere amp, but that it was much more likely with an OTL amp because of the lack of transformer. Ralph is interested in the frequency with which this occurs, as he feels it only happens with ceramic woofers, which are much more likely to blow than non-ceramics. Have any other OTL owners had this happen to Kharmas? I guess the lesson is to keep testing tubes or keep a careful eye on them to prevent this happening, but I would like to know if this was a freak happening or more common than has been generally accepted? Judging from the number of Tenor-Kharma combos out there, it should be more common than I thought if the combination of OTL and ceramic woofers is a problematic one.
springbok10
howie
230 posts
 
Tim. Ya I know. I'm simply saying that ceramic drivers aren't exactly fragile in the strictest sense. That if the same thing occurred with another speaker driver, it would most likely still be damaged. Either way, this is indeed unfortunate and very worrying.

Lowrider over at AA had his speakers damaged by his Bryston amps (yes I know this is quite a different scenario). But Bryston agreed to cover the speaker damage as well. Since the amp is at fault here, perhaps Atma-Sphere would be willing to pay for the damages?
springbok10 OP
711 posts
 
Ralph has had enough trouble, financially, without my compounding it! But I appreciate your concern and comments, Howie. We Atma-Sphere owners are blinded by the sheer brilliance of the design and sound, and will go to any lengths to keep them and not blame the designer:)I would rather change speakers than amp, if push came to shove. Hopefully, by checking all my tubes regularly, which Andy at Vintage Tubes will do, this won't happen again. All I need do now is replace the driver without burning it during soldering. I would rather just put a crocodile clamp on it but doubt the contact will be good enough (see thread under speakers)
bpwalsh
1,202 posts
 
Tireguy is right. It can be easier to damage a speaker with a 20 watt amp than it is with a 400 watt one. On the other hand, it's true the ceramic drivers are more fragile - damage most often occurs in transit.

Ralph is doing well, and sales are way up in the past month or so.
tireguy
1,964 posts
 
Springbok10- Don't worry about the driver replacement it really is very easy to do. If you have little to no experience soldering ask a friend to help you, if you can't find that practice on some scrap wire until you get the hang of it. Have a friend hold the driver and you solder it, should take less then 15 minutes, even if you work really slow.
howie
230 posts
 
Springbok10. I hope you keep us up to date on the repair process. I for one remember my work with a soldering iron *shivers* I do believe that there are some things that are worth the effort in dealing with the inconveniences and music is one of them.
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