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So I own a pair of Magneplanar SMGa's. They're totally awesome. I live in a college dorm. I've had lots of fun scaring all the residents with loud, continuous 12,000hz tones. Today I did this again. But this time the speakers made little crackling noises and smoke came out of them.Being a college student I can't really afford to replace these, they were a gift. They don't sound any different to me since the smoking but I'm concerned nonetheless.
Can anyone explain to me why they would have smoked like they did? Did I just ruin the nicest pair of speakers I've ever owned?
Follow Ups:
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Scotch tape IMO would be like putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound. But what the heck; if it works...Keep in mind trying to remove it later would probally do more damage to the mylar.
As far as pushin' em too hard; I won't be so hard; you're in college, enjoy life, nothing's promised in life. Good luck.
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The mylar is ripped. I've heard scotch tape and super 77 glue can be used to fix minor rips. I counted six rips total.
What I find most disturbing is that your original post stated, "They don't sound any different to me since the smoking but I'm concerned nonetheless." How is *that* possible? Perhaps all those 12,000hz tones have induced tinnitus!
nt
It's usually not appreciated, not the way that something is valued if one has to pay for it. We are tremendously blessed to have one of the world's greatest clothes horses donating boys clothing to us for our sons, some with tags still on them, never worn.
Our one son absolutely does not value it; he'll wear a new pair of sweat pants and put holes in the knees, a new pair of shoes to cut the grass, etc. We're making him pay for replacement clothes now. He will have a RUDE awakening when he's independent and hard pressed to keep himself in his fancy clothes.
In all sincerity, you could learn a truly valuable lesson here; if your education is being paid for by someone else, ie. parents, do NOT let it go up in smoke spending too much time smoking your Maggies. If you're paying your way through, then you just were a bit overzealous with "dorm scare tactics".
I'm not trying to be a killjoy, but there can be a truly valuable lesson here. Tremendous gifts must be valued and treated properly. It's often much more painful to say, "I should have appreciated it more..." People often say that after losing out for job advancement, or after a divorce. The repair/cost of some speakers can be a very cheap price to pay for such an important life lesson.
Now, a thought about checking the speakers. Take a flashlight and you should be able to peer beyond the fabric to see the condition of the mylar; if there's burn marks, holes etc. you should be able to see them. Why not call Magnepan's number as well and let them diagnose: 1-800-474-1646
You're all absolutely right. Without a doubt I abused a wonderful gift. I want everyone to know these speakers have had a lot more than just destructive tones piped through them. They provide hours of beautifully clear entertainment every night for my whole floor. I really do appreciate having these things around.I quickly gave one of them a look over with a flashlight this morning, couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Tonight I've got a lot of free time so I plan on using it to diagnose exactly what happened. This'll probably involve me disassembling at least one of them. From googling around I think I've got a basic understanding of how these work, and what I can do myself to fix them.
Also from my research I've discovered my receiver is not at all designed to drive these. It's a Technics SA-DX750, rated for 6-8ohms. As soon as I'm satisfied my maggies are in working order I'm going to see what I can do about getting a proper amplifier for them.
Thanks for everyone's help so far, I'll keep you all updated and post some pictures if I find anything interesting during disassembly.
...if that's all you do with your Maggies...
Seriously, if it's not the capacitor, it could have been the tweeter coil heating up enough to start melting and burning the glue, holding it to the mylar diaphragm. If that happened, you were really lucky that this didn't also melt a hole into the mylar.
Go scare others with a cheap piezo-horn-driver in the future...
Loud, continuous tones can't be good for your speakers (or your amp). Having said that, I don't think the actual panels would smoke, even if you cooked the wires (in which case they would be rather quiet right now). The most likely component for emitting smoke would be the capacitor. Perhaps you've given yourself a good excuse to do a crossover upgrade - even if that's limited to just the capacitors.Stop abusing those gems. If you hate them that much, sell them to me so I'll have a pair to send to PG for his awesome upgrades!
all electronic devices are made of compressed smoke. once you let the smoke out there is really no way to fix it. i suggest you go buy some better quality smoke. that usually makes everything better.but seriously, you probably popped a capacitor in the crossover. if you look, it's the skinny burnt looking one. if you can still read the printing on it, go down to radio shack and get a new one of the same value.
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loud, continuous 12,000hz tones, ya think?
Henry
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