denon 3801 turns off; caused by blown woofer? (1 Viewer)

[WilliamLord]

I just hooked up a Denon 3801; it has been turning itself off and going into safe mode. I checked wiring, etc. -- it's not getting hot.

My old EPI 1100 speakers are in the front, Polk csi400 center, polk m3 rears. No sub yet nor second set surrounds.

The right front epi sounded "scratchy" already--lo and behold, the 10" speaker had blown a hole at the outer edge!
Could this be affecting the signal to the receiver, causing it to cut off?

Secondly, does anyone know if these speakers may have compatibility issues with the denon anyway? I can buy a replacement woofer (or two) from Human Speakers for $54- apiece.

This is the first time I'm trying to set up HT; I really appreciate your input--thanks for the forum.

 

[John Garcia]

A blown driver can definitely cause your recevier to shut down, though a hole does not constitute a blown driver. "Scratchy" to me would tend to indicate a burned voice coil though. Not a good idea to keep trying to drive this speaker until you replace the driver.

 

[WilliamLord]

I've got the speaker offline. Thanks.

 

[Adam Smasher]

I attempted to remove my left main spaeker wire while a cd was playing, I know dumb, anyway the cable slipped out of my hand and instantly turned off my 4802. Something else to watch for,
If you are using the binding post with bare wire then maybe one or two strands are touching the other post. Not easily seen with naked eye. Adam

 

[John S]

I went and looked at a recent install I had done, doing the very same thing as you describe.

They had moved everything, and their supposed know everything about Audio and HT nephew move / disconnect / reconnect everything. He had no idea how to connect to binding posts, he simply twisted the wire and inserted it in the end of the Banana plug!! UUUHHGG AARRHHGGG

I reconnected properly and viola, crackle problem eaisly solved. (Well of course not easily, I had to spend 2+ hours on the fix, as there was no access to the rear of the AVR where they had moved it to)

 

[WilliamLord]

Thanks for the follow-up, John. I disconnected everything and started over one component at a time; the constant seems to be the front speakers. I'm going to borrow another set of fronts and run the system with them; then I'll try the old epi speakers one at a time.

After hooking the epi's up to my old receiver and testing them, I actually found the sound I was hearing was the paper from the hole at the outer edge of the 10" woofer vibrating . . . that, as was pointed out, would probably not cause a signal problem with the receiver.

Again, I'm wondering if there is just some kind of compatibility issue with the denon 3801 and those old speakers. Is it possible?

 

[John Garcia]

If you have the problem every time you hook these guys up, I'd have to recommend you consider some new speakers. Generally, you do not have a specific "compatibility" issue with a particular speaker and a receiver, however a speaker that is low impedance (4 Ohm would be low for home speakers, but even 6 Ohm could cause a problem with some receivers) can cause difficulty for a receiver/amp that cannot operate under low impedance conditions. I'm not familiar with your speakers, but if you look on the back somewhere, they may tell you what their nominal impedance is.

Your thought to try just one at a time is a good plan, because if the problem only occurs with one of them, then there is a good possibility that there is some kind of damage in that speaker. If the problem only happens when they are both connected, it could be an impedance issue.