[KurtusCFlush]

Just wondering what types of music have you played with you Sapphires, and what has been your experiences.

[Mr. Big]

All, from the 1930s till todays over-processed compressed sound of recordings.

[catluck]

Mostly 50's era jazz with an increasing frequency to new players.  It's simply amazing to sit in the IT Club, in 1958, hear the audience's glasses tinkling with background chatter while Monk plays.  Or, the amazing incomparable fidelity of Ted Nash's alto sax.  The tone/timbre of Jimmy Guiffre is simply amazing to hear. The rich burnished tones of Joe Lovano, Ben Webster, Chris Cheek, Coltrane, Esaie Cid, Konitz, etc., are just unspeakably ravishing with these speakers. I go to bed at night looking forward to waking up so I can fire up the rig and revel.

[forky]

I have a fairly large CD collection and although I have some records (and have had many for 35+ years), with the new stereo I have been in a vinyl buying spree. Wife "is that ANOTHER record?" every time UPS pulls up. Anyway, I'm now buying as much for the quality of the recording as the music itself. This doesn't mean I'm buying stuff I don't like of course but have been buying more jazz than I normally would.

I would say I'm 50% rock, 25% electronic (Thievery, DJ Krush, K&D, Tosca, DJ Shadow etc.), 15% hard rock, 8% jazz blues and 2% classical. However jazz and classical are moving up some (was 2% and 0% before the M3s). Oh and throw a little bit of rap in there. I bought the MoFi Run DMC, Raising Hell and it sounds incredible. One of the ones I listened to the last time the wife left for a few hours (loud) and I had a grin on my face the entire time  . I have a rather extensive collection of early-to-mid 80s rap (and go-go, I'm close to DC) records from when I was a kid that I kept - including an original Raising Hell. NONE of them are hifi and I doubt I'll be listening to them anytime soon but may at some point.

[KurtusCFlush]

The reason I'm asking is because I have the M5 Sapphires.... and I've blown/damaged 3 different tweeters, and it happened while playing music with heavy electronic bass (one song by a band called OSI, two different Kendrick Lamar Songs). The volume was loud but far from speaker blowing loud. I'm starting to think a crossover-less tweeter design is bad, or maybe just not for my listening habits. Very frustrating to say the least.

[sockpit]

I have the same, but have not had problems. Occasionally I'll play them very loudly, but not for long.

Mine are the early variety without the cap and outboard crossover.  The cap was added to protect the tweeter.  What vintage are yours?

[KurtusCFlush]

The same as yours. One tweeter was completely blown without the cap, got it replaced, added the caps in line, blew another, damaged another.

[mresseguie]

Kurtus,

What amplifier are you using? Can you estimate what your listening levels are (in dB)?

[KurtusCFlush]

NAD M33. I don't know the exact dB, but I do know that I can use my Spatial M4s at similar volume settings on the NAD M33 without issues, and have been for several years (I had another NAD Amp previous to the M33 with comparable output).

[Tyson]

Just download an SPL meter app on your phone & it will be able to give you a reasonably accurate idea of how loud things are.

[KurtusCFlush]

About 85-86 dB

[Tyson]

That’s not crazy volumes at all.

[mresseguie]

That’s not crazy volumes at all.

Agreed. Unless you’re playing music with wildly dynamic bursts of power, I would not expect a tweeter to blow at 86dB. Something is amiss.

[geerock]

Remember those speakers are rated at 4 ohms and can probably dip on occasion to 2 ohms or less during dynamic swings.  This puts your 200 watt amp into around 360 to 380 watt at 4 ohms and who knows what during dips.  From what you're saying this is probably the times you are cooking the tweeters.  Those m100 tweets are pretty stiff and the design of the crossover is almost as if you are wired direct to amp.  It's a very minimalist design.

[KurtusCFlush]

They are 8 ohm speakers, not 4. I also disassembled the 2 that blew to see what was happening. The very beginning of the voice coil wire was broken on each one. The damaged one still plays, but crackles at certain frequencies. I don't know what the hell is going on.

[Mr. Big]

For tweeter to keep blowing there has to be a system issue, I've not had an issue and a few times I really pushed the speakers and I have no heard anyone talk about this issue over and over. I hope you find out what is frying your tweeter, must be something passing through your system that you might not hear but is causing damage. sign wave oscillation comes to mind. DC passing through, the amp is distorting, hope you can find the issue, best of luck.