Amps that have fried your speakers and other exciting adventures in hifi

[struth]

Guess its up to me then Ive already had the thought it so the game's a bogey anyway. Not fried a driver as of yet. touch wood

[Haselsh1]

I remember back around 1979/80 having a Naim NAC42/NAP110 pre/power combo that blew one of the bass drivers in my QLN Mk1's due to large heavy thumps on switch off that was only cured by the purchase of a SNAPS power supply that no one bothered telling me about at the time of purchase. What I thought was a bargain of a Naim became quite expensive at the time. Live and learn I guess.

[nonuffin]

who's going to tempt fate and say it's never happened to them?

I have never fried any speakers or amps for that matter, although I bought a PS Audio HCA2 power amp that exploded when I plugged it in. It was a 110 volt unit but the shit bag seller had ripped all the labels off the unit including the box so I had no idea what voltage it was.

[Yomanze]

Guess its up to me then Ive already had the thought it so the game's a bogey anyway. Not fried a driver as of yet. touch wood

Touch wood, me neither, but I think the speaker output 'quick blow' fuses would go first.

[Pharos]

My experience of a Naim 250 with a pre, was that some of the earthing arrangements were rather odd.

[goraman]

It happened to me once with a Sansui A3000 receiver it simply fried both speakers at power up with the volume down, I was told it had gone to DC but have no idea why an amp would do this?
Could someone explain this ?

[nonuffin]

It happened to me once with a Sansui A3000 receiver it simply fried both speakers at power up with the volume down, I was told it had gone to DC but have no idea why an amp would do this?
Could someone explain this ?

An amp's power output is derived from DC supplied by the power supply by the music signal modulating that DC power via the output transistors/chip/valves/transformer into an AC waveform which is then fed to the loudspeakers.

At power up, there can be a huge inrush of current to the reservoir capacitors and in effect that is a partial AC waveform which is passed on to the output stages. Different parts of the driver and output stages react at different speeds, so at one point a DC component appears aat the output and passed on to the speakers, which we hear as a loud thump.

[Sherwood]

At least most forum members don't have to worry about power surges. I was working in Bangladesh in the mid 90s when a lightning strike on an electricity sub-station next to our office caused a sizeable explosion and a power surge that "killed" several pc's. I was working on a laptop and lost the entire hard drive and several weeks work, It took me about two weeks to imperfectly re enter info from my handwritten notes. It taught me two lessons, don't leave equipment plugged in during storms, and to email myself working files at regular intervals to avoid data loss.

The problem is getting worse in Bangladesh for several reasons. One possible explanation is that the high degree of particulate pollution in the air makes ground strikes more likely. In any event, this years death toll has been particularly high.

https://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...200-in-75-days

[ianlenco]

I've not had speakers blow up but quite recently I had an amp emit sparks and smoke when a friend connected it up to his speakers - I'll say no more to prevent any embarrassment apart from the amp, a Wyred 4 Sound MiNT is well and truly fried.

[Bamby]

Oh dear, this brings up very bad memories! ...

Went for a Belles 150A and thought it would be my ultimate.
It blew up 4 speaker units in total.
Then importer/Dealer gave no support. He blamed me.
Took about 5 months to get the part for the amp.
Took me 11 months to get the speeks fixed.

Ah ... what (epensive) memories!