Can you smell your speakers when youre rockin out?


Lol, I know this a funny question, but whenever I'm listening at loud volumes, I can smell my speakers. It's always the same smell no matter what speakers I've had. It's not a burning smell, more like the insulation used in the boxes. Is it the air blowing through the insulation and then out the port, or cooked voicecoils? Like I said, it doesn't smell like burning electronics but I 'm not sure what it is. It kind of smells good; like new rubber in a bike shop or race gas smells to me. It's the association of good times :-)
b_limo
The scent I was smelling was the insulation / batting, glue, wood, stain, (new electronics?) etc.

My last setup was in a smaller bedroom, sealed pretty well also.

The smell is of new speakers, like a new magazine, car or home.  The smell goes away after time or after the environments smells take over, just like your new car or new home smell goes away after awhile.

If you have sealed cabs then you probably wont smell what I'm talking about.  I think that the air moving through the cabinet, over and through the insulation and out the port is what I was smelling.

interesting though that no one else has smelled this on this thread.
b_limo, I experienced exactly what you did with a pair of ported speakers I had at one time. One day after letting them settle in for a few days I goosed the volume a bit and got the air flowing through the port and my large 22x20 room filled with the smell of the finish on the speakers. It was very interesting and, honestly, pretty cool. Those ports were certainly getting used.

Cheers,

Scott
So b_limo, what's your new setup like? You need to update that system page.
b_limo, i agree with several other members that you are probably pushing your speakers too hard.
My understanding is that voice coils are very inefficient in converting electrical energy into mechanical (pistonic) motion energy - we are talking 2-4% efficient - hence voice coils can get hot pretty quickly.
I also am wondering whether the speaker is not manuf totally correctly in that there isn’t sufficient clearance between the insulation materials inside & the voice coil magnet so that when the voice coil is getting hot, it’s touching the insulation material & that material is outgassing....
I've had B&W ported speakers myself & a family member has ported Green Mountain Audio speakers + I've heard my friends' ported speakers (such as ATC, Von Schweikert, Star Sound Caravelle, etc) & never smelt the speaker when we were rocking.