Tweeter trouble, help!!

Merle · « **on:** 1 May 2005, 08:45 pm »

I have a new pair of Totem Rainmakers. Everything seemed to be fine. I swapped speaker cables. Once the new cables were in, I turned the stereo on. Dull sound. Checked all the connections. Everything fine. Dull sound. Finally I realized both of my tweeters were silent!! No sound from the tweeters. Re-hooked up everything, still no sound from the tweeters!! What the hell is going on? Any suggestions anyone???

Tweaker · « **Reply #1 on:** 1 May 2005, 09:20 pm »

I checked the Totem website and it says they are equipped with a twin pair of gold terminals (for bi-wiring). You must have disconnected the straps that connect the tweeters to the woofer or if there is a switch you've got it in the wrong position.
I can't imagine what else it could be especially since they were fine until the cable changeover.

Merle · « **Reply #2 on:** 1 May 2005, 11:22 pm »

Nope, the speakers are wired correctly. I just took a KEF QCompact from my bedroom system and hooked it into the system where the Totems are. Tweeter works fine. I took one of the Totems to the bedroom system, hooked it up, no tweeter!!! I think they are blown but I have no idea what could have happened to them. Of course, right after I bought them, I promply threw the box away.

Tweaker · « **Reply #3 on:** 2 May 2005, 12:34 am »

The only other thing I can think of is that the tweeters might be fused. Can you take the woofers out and see if there is a fuse at the crossover? I doubt it but it doesn't make sense that both tweeters would fry unless you drove an amplifier to clipping and it over loaded the tweeters. More easily done with a receiver that does not have a beefy power supply and distorts easily at high volumes. Had it happen to a couple pair of AR loudspeakers, back in the seventies, when they were driven too loud with a high watt/low amp receiver.
Anyway taking the woofers out will allow you to also test the tweeters by connecting directly to them.

Music Maven · « **Reply #4 on:** 2 May 2005, 04:23 am »

When you switched speaker cables did you have every component in the system powered off and ideally everything unplugged from the wall? The last part might not be absolutely necessary but I prefer to do it. If everything was powered down, I find it hard to believe switching the cables would blow the tweeters. Was there any sort of "smell" at the speaker just after you noticed there was no tweeter playing? I'm not sure if there would be...but just trying to look for symptoms.

Have you ever had any difficulties from the second set of cables before?

Merle · « **Reply #5 on:** 2 May 2005, 12:09 pm »

The power amp is a Parasound. It was plugged into the wall but was turned off. Although "turned off", the amp would still have been in standby mode. My tweeter are shot, I feel sick.

bundee1 · « **Reply #6 on:** 2 May 2005, 12:26 pm »

How do you know they werent defective? Take them back. Maybe they werent soldered properly to the crossovers or were knocked loose in transport.

mcgsxr · « **Reply #7 on:** 2 May 2005, 12:40 pm »

Merle - are they new or used?

Merle · « **Reply #8 on:** 2 May 2005, 01:13 pm »

The Totems are new, bought around a week ago. I am starting to have suspicions about the dealer where I purchased them. I bought a Rega turntable from them awhile back. While attempting to install the cartridge, the green lead just pulled off in my hand. I mean I think it was damaged out of the box. I took it back to them, wanting to exchange it. They wouldn't do it. All they offered was to send the arm to Ca. to be rewired, at a cost of $160 to me. I ended up sending the arm out for the Incognito upgrade at $199. Now with the Totems, one week and both tweeters seem to be dead. I'm wondering if this store is selling "B" stock or refurb's as new gear? I also threw away the box the Totems came in. [not smart I know but who has room to permanatly store boxes?] The fact that I don't have the boxes and my last experiance with this dealer doesn't leave me with too good of a feeling. I am going to take the speakers apart and see if I see anything obvious like lose connections or something. In the mean time, I've got a thousand dollar pair of useless speakers sitting in my room. I am going to call the dealer today but don't have much faith in them. I only bought them from them because they are the closest Totem dealer to me, although they are about 60 miles from my home. At this point, I would rather deal with Totem directly.

skrivis · « **Reply #9 on:** 2 May 2005, 01:34 pm »

Quote from: Merle

The Totems are new, bought around a week ago. I am starting to have suspicions about the dealer where I purchased them. I bought a Rega turntable from them awhile back. While attempting to install the cartridge, the green lead just pulled off in my hand. I mean I think it was damaged out of the box. I took it back to them, wanting to exchange it. They wouldn't do it. All they offered was to send the arm to Ca. to be rewired, at a cost of $160 to me. I ended up sending the arm out for the Incognito upgrade a ...

Contact the dealer and give them a chance to make good on it. If they can't or won't help, then contact the manufacturer.

It's still possible that something in the bi-wiring setup went wrong, so it could just be a bad connection and not toasted tweeters. (You'd probably have heard the tweeters going if they're blown. It's not usually a silent failure.)

I try to keep boxes around for a month or so, and I try to keep speaker boxes as long as I can. (Just in case I need to return them or decide to sell them, the original boxes work better than generic packing stuff.)

WerTicus · « **Reply #10 on:** 2 May 2005, 04:26 pm »

even if the tweeters are stuffed its nothing that cant be fixed! so relax!

its very wierd though :-\

i would say on standby mode it would have been safe to switch the cables.

but its interesting its at the time you switched them that they died... i would have had the amp off off not standby off - did any sound come from the speakers at all when you changed cables?