Found Monster cables inside my Watt Puppy 5.1's

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.

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.

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.

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.

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