[Glady86]

I don’t play my speakers much over 86db peaks, most of the times less than 80db. I was “informed” though that the NX line has the tweeter crossed too low and could easily blow em if I got to crazy with the volume knob plus too much distortion. Is this true?

Anyway the speakers sensitivity is 93db at one watt, so if the tweeter can handle 20 watts or so how does that translate into the equation?

[Tyson]

I run my HT with NX Oticas at reference level and no issues.  Whoever 'informed' you of it blowing is an idiot.

[mlundy57]

I’ve never blown one and have had SPLs well over 100 at peaks.

[Glady86]

It’s what I figured, but some people seem to think they know it all without first hand experience.

[Hobbsmeerkat]

We've only ever had one customer that had more than two tweeters fail, and we suspect a gear issue, like amp oscillation.
No one else has had such issues.

Even the new NX-Bravo doesn't have any issues quite playing quite loud, despite crossing at ~1000Hz, vs ~1500-1800 of the rest of the NX range.

But there are a lot of people that believe a tweeter should never cross below ~2000Hz, with most recommending 3-4Khz range, or 2x the FS of the driver. (the Neo 3 doesn't have an FS)

[nlitworld]

I have blown one, but only due to my own stupidity hooking things up wrong.  It was an embarrassing phone call to Danny and I was up and running in a week. Do not feel anxious about twisting the volume knob. Those speakers are rated to work with a metric butt ton of power to where your ears would give out before the parts should. Go have fun and invite them over to listen how good a low crossed tweeter sounds.

[Glady86]

Thanks for all the feedback. Also I have a pair of pa speakers rated at 800 watts, they can play loud but will make want to run out of the room. I think they would be okay for outdoor use though.

[Huskerbryce]

I run NX Oticas in my home theater.  Before I built them, I was concerned about how loud they are capable of.  I use high power mono block amps with virtually no limit on dynamic headroom.  I feel like if anyone is going to blow a tweeter, it will be me.  I put in ear plugs and played a live concert and I have had the oticas at levels measuring 109.  I doubt that the tweeter was that loud by itself but never the less, loud as hell.  No issues.  Be aware I dont normally listen anywhere near that level but with movies and concerts I needed to know if they could stand up.  They passed with flying colors. 

[william2001]

It's reassuring to hear that the new NX-Bravo is fine with that very low crossover point.  I did have that question in the back of my mind.  I don't push my system that hard, but it's still nice to know I won't have to baby it when I'm in the mood to rock out a little.. 

[DannyBadorine]

I blew one up when I was running them active and I accidentally turned the amplifier on from the power strip and it popped.  The tweeter had actual smoke coming out of it.  My wife walked in at that moment and I said "Do you smell that burning?" She said "yes."  I said "that's $100 burning."  It was not my brightest moment of DIY speaker development.  The only reason this happened is because there was no passive filter in front of it.  This means that it got the whole signal (all the way down to 20Hz) into it.  These tweeters do really well even when they're crossed at 1Khz.  I have pushed them hard and never had another problem.  I doubt you would ever have a problem with that in one of Danny's designs.  He likes to cross tweeters low but they're still well protected.  I would imagine that you will run into the limits of the woofer long before the tweeter.

[Huskerbryce]

I wanted to follow up about importance of crossover parts.  Also design.  I am not a speaker designer.  I have built many speakers from other designers.  I feel some have been poor designs in that the mid circuit uses a ton of resistance to bring the levels down.  Bad pairing of drivers and sensitivity etc.  I have destroyed (by accident) a couple speakers on a bad button press.  Inadvertently switching to an input not intended.  I built the crossovers for my Oticas from Ultra premium parts.  They are from a different planet than anything I have ever built before.   Probably way beyond anything necessary.  I am on my seventh home built iteration of awesome.  I wanted this build (Otica) to be on a cost no object approach…. Within reason.  I have literally melted/burnt open some mills and some dayton wire wound resistors in the past with high power amps.  Usually smoke on the mid circuit.  Never from abuse, usually a mistake of a dropped tone arm or I feel bad speaker designs.  I started to parallel 5-6 mills resistors together to get the value/power handling and better heat dissipation.   Obviously lessor or inferior designs to Dannys.  With the Otica , out of over abundance of caution and conservatism, I ran 3 resistors in parallel on the inline mid.  They never get even luke warm.  Always room temperature even at long duration of movies or music at high volumes.  Danny, Hobbs and everyone else involved at GR designed these very well. You should have no issue with the tweeters.

[Glady86]

Well my amps are 200 watts per channel, probably would only need a fraction of that to achieve ear damaging levels. I don’t recall ever seeing a maximum power rating for the NX Oticas.

[Tyson]

In general, you're more likely to damage a driver (and an amp) from using too little power than too much power. 

[Glady86]

I run my HT with NX Oticas at reference level and no issues.  Whoever 'informed' you of it blowing is an idiot.

Well it’s a member at that science forum, they have a thread dedicated to complaining about anything GR. I got  kicked off the thread cause I guess I’m not smart enough or just a “fanboy”

[Glady86]

In general, you're more likely to damage a driver (and an amp) from using too little power than too much power.

Yes, I am aware of that. But since there’s no max power recommendation for the speakers, some might question the power handling capabilities.

[Tyson]

Well it’s a member at that science forum, they have a thread dedicated to complaining about anything GR. I got  kicked off the thread cause I guess I’m not smart enough or just a “fanboy”

Normally I'd say something snarky.  But, in the interest of civility, I'll note that the Neo3 tweeter normally should not be crossed over at less than 2k.  Without a waveguide, it's a bad idea.  But, WITH a waveguide, it's fine.  Better than fine, it's great.

[Glady86]

Normally I'd say something snarky.  But, in the interest of civility, I'll note that the Neo3 tweeter normally should not be crossed over at less than 2k.  Without a waveguide, it's a bad idea.  But, WITH a waveguide, it's fine.  Better than fine, it's great.

I said something similar in a thread there, and was told I was wrong and it only aligns the acoustic centers. And using the NEO tweeter in OB is a bad idea to start. Anyway, it’s the sound I care most about, the technical aspects are interesting but confusing when people can’t even agree with what’s correct.

Anyway, from now on when I visit, I’ll just ignore the bashing threads posts and just read threads I think I can learn from.

[Tyson]

I said something similar in a thread there, and was told I was wrong and it only aligns the acoustic centers. And using the NEO tweeter in OB is a bad idea to start.

LOL, the Neo3 was specifically designed to be used in an OB application. 

In fact, it's FAR better than any other driver out there in OB applications because it has the exact same radiation pattern forwards as well as backwards.  Same with the Neo8 and Neo10's.  Identical dispersion patterns forwards and backwards make them the best OB drivers in the world. 

[Hobbsmeerkat]

Thankfully, the Neo 3's design also makes it a really versatile tweeter. You can't say that about 99% of drivers on the market.
Many don't pay nicely with waveguides/horns without having issues with throat cancellations

Granted, you gotta spend some time prototyping and testing the design and seeing what does & doesn't work, which can take weeks, or months, of work depending on the amount of time you can put towards it.
(Which is why we don't supply the primary NX-series kits without flatpacks, or at least front baffles, even small changes to the design can make a big difference)

The deepest I can make the current waveguide is 1" deep (current is roughly .85" deep)
Any larger/deeper and I'll need to make a new design with a larger mounting area.

the trick right now is i have a couple looking to get the 3" horn we prototyped but im struggling to make a stand/mount that will look good, beyond just basic functionality.

[Early B.]

the trick right now is i have a couple looking to get the 3" horn we prototyped but im struggling to make a stand/mount that will look good, beyond just basic functionality.

I'll bet if you started a thread here on AC, you may get lots of good ideas, especially from the folks who are proficient in woodworking and design.