Does my Pass amp dislike my Meridian preamp?

Things just got a little more complicated. The center channel, which is hooked up to the Meridian G68, but not to the Pass Labs amp, has developed a problem. It has distortion that was not previously there. It sounds almost like a bad driver, except it is coming out of all the drivers (I tested this by unplugging the various drivers).

The distortion is not coming from upstream components, because I swapped out every upstream component, and the problem still persists. Therefore, I believe that the crossover in the center channel has been damaged.

Perhaps this is a coincidence, but that seems a bit unlikely. It seems more likely that, whatever is wrong with the G68, it has caused damage to the crossover in the center channel.

Does anyone have an idea about what can damage a speaker's crossover?

Bryoncunningham, its almost impossible to damage a crossover without also damaging the drivers. If there is indeed a crossover failure and the drivers OK, you can be assured that the problem was just in there waiting to happen and it has nothing to do with the amp or preamp.

How do you know that the amp driving the speaker is OK? Did you try it on a different speaker or the speaker on a different amp?

Atmasphere - I don't know whether the drivers are ok. I can only say that the distortion I am hearing is coming out of all the drivers. It was on the basis of that that I concluded that the crossover was damaged. But the drivers may very well be damaged as well.

The amp driving the speaker seems ok, as I have run it to a different speaker and do not hear the distortion. I also tried the problematic speaker with a different amp, and the distortion was present. So it seems like it's the speaker that has the problem.

My larger concern is that whatever has been causing the G68 to freeze up and to make "popping" noises through the speakers is also damaging the speakers. The center channel was the first to show it, but I'm afraid that the FR and FL are next.

Bryon

Atmasphere,
I agree 'almost completely', which is to say--like lightning damage, virtually anything can happen--but, as usual, you're a fountain of really, really good information.
As to the original question...it's obvious from here in Louisville, some several hundred miles from the problem, lol, that the Meridian is the problem.
'Problems' between amps and preamps are like marital problems, they're usually solved by a third party, which is to say a therapist (or nosey neighbor or friend at a bar) or a lover, (a technician who can 'fix the problem' with a few tweaks--define tweaks however you will in this context,lol)

Larry

After hearing about my damaged center channel, my Meridian dealer has returned to his theory that the cause of the problem is some kind of "leakage" out of the Pass Labs amp.

I have a multimeter. Are there measurements I can take at the amp's inputs to see if there is some kind of "leakage"?