[b5pt9]

Pretty basic mistake led to ruining my FB1 bass drivers on Friday morning.  I have (had) a Musical Fidelity X10 tube buffer connected between my preamp and poweramp.  I had a brain fart and powered up the tube buffer with the amp on.  Unpleasant sounds and a few seconds later both FB1 bass drivers were toast.  I think the XO's and tweeters are still OK.

I put the X10 back in between the source and preamp.  It doesn't have as pronounced a tube effect here, but it should be safer in that the startup noise isn't being fed full-gain through the poweramp.

Thanks James/Cam and others at Bryston for the advice and quick ordering of parts.  I have the FB1+ kit coming together with new bass drivers.  Hopefully the lingering burnt smell is gone from the cabinets by the time I put these back together!

[gooberdude]

A good friend of mine fried 2 Adcom 555 amps (in mono) with the X-10 tube buffer...that's a dangerous little toy!     The circuit breaker tripped while his girl was at home...right when she flipped the breaker smoke came out of both chassis.   

[b5pt9]

Hmm, sounds like the same configuration, ie: tube buffer output connected directly into the amps?  I won't be doing this again, in fact probably got off lucky in that my amp seems fine. 

[gooberdude]

yeah, i'm fairly certain his cdp plugged into the preamp and the x-10 was inbetween the pre and amp.  There is a dire warning in the X-10 owners manual (if memory serves me) about turning on other gear before turning the X-10 on - or is it the other way?    Anyways, i've read of a few folks ruining components with that intrepid little box.   You are the 1st I've heard of that damaged speakers....so sorry for your loss.

After I sold my X-10 i bought an AES tubed preamp.  When that didn't work due to compatibility issues I bought a TVC preamp.   Now I have the tube sound i wanted without any tube gear.

i'll never forget the bass with the x-10 in place...but peace of mind is much more important to me.