Were My Speakers Damaged ?

This is interesting because of a few things. A 20dB difference may not be that much if it was say in the range of 50>70 or 60>80. A lot depends on the amp, as some may clip much sooner than others, even in the mid to upper 80's which could cause some damage. Also, the AR's may be old enough to have previously unnoticed surround damage, but that too depends on their vintage & if any repair work had been done. Same thing applies to the crossovers (age wise). Those original pots were pretty crappy & could also be a problem, as they developed "dead spots" because they usually stayed in the same position for years.

OK, things to check. With everything turned off & no ambient noise, gently press the woofer cones in to see if you can hear any scraping noise. Play something you are familiar with & use a piece of cardboard big enough to cover up the other drivers while you listen to one at a time. Does it sound like it should? Not a scientific test but it should give you enough info to get started on making some decisions. Change the spkrs. from left to right (unless you have a mono switch) to see if you can tell any differences.

You could also play the speakers on a different system to test them.

The easiest way to check the woofers and midranges is to gently touch them while they are playing to see if they move in and out. The woofers should be obvious just by looking at them while the speakers are playing.

AR speakers are very robust, however, while they are playing very softly put your ear up against the grill cloth next to each driver and listen for anything untoward....no sound coming from them, or garbled sound coming from them

An overheated voice coil can cause the thin varnish on the wire coil to bubble and fill the gap between the coil and the magnet and bind. Woofers can be checked by carefully pushing the cone in and out, taking care to push evenly on both sides of the dust cap while feeling/listening for a scraping sound or a rough place in the cone movement. A woofer with restricted movement can sound thin.

parisphoto,

Unfortunately I have experienced the same event. I keep my source equipment and preamp in a closet out of view. I like to do my listening in very dark conditions and I inadvertently turned up the volume when I thought I was turning it down. I often turn the volume down before I start playing a disc. The music came on extremely loud and I quickly turned down. The sound since this occurred has been whispy or zingy. My dealer changed tweeter but that did not fix the problem. We suspect that I have damaged some transistors in the crossover and they need to be replaced. This has not happened yet.

I too thought that the difference in sound was in my head but it has been confirmed by others. There was no sign of physical damage. You need to contact your dealer