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RR Copland CD speaker killer?

I am wondering if someone with some know-how would like to guess what my technical problem is. I have Aerial Model 6's. When I play the Fanfare for the Common Man from the RR Copland CD the field drum makes my speakers crackle (that's the best word to describe the sound, which seems to come from the tweeter?!). This phenomena happened while the speakers were being driven by my old 300 watt amp (McIntosh) and still my new Rowland Concentra (the 100 watt version). So is it the amp clipping or is the speaker taking in too much power to try to reproduce the drum, even from the Concentra? (I am not sure what kind of peaks it can produce). As a test I did listen to my disk with headphones, and it does not crackle. At lower levels it also does not crackle on the speakers. I am talking normal listening levels here, as well; nothing ear splitting by any means. So are the speakers wimpy or what? This is the ONLY recording (out of many "heavy duty spectacular" types)I have that can make these speakers do this...any ideas?
jimmy2615
mejames
986 posts
 
the speakers cones are bottoming out
twl
3,251 posts
 
Jimmy, I just checked the specs on Aeriel 6's and they are only 85db efficient. This low efficiencly will send a lot of amps into clipping trying to achieve high volume peaks. Briefly, you have to double the power for every 3db volume increase you want, so you'll roughly need 128 watts for 106db peaks. Your amp would probably do this, but the speaker also has a 4ohm impedance dip that may limit the amp's headroom. If you are trying to reproduce a peak louder than that, you are into at least 256watts. And that's at 3ft from the speaker. Significantly less loud at the listening chair. So, if you're cruising along at 100db and along comes the bass drum with a dynamic peak that's more than 6db higher than average - you're toast(clipping).
dweller's avatar
dweller
2,152 posts
 
Could be a manufacturing defect of some kind. An Ace-of-Base CD I owned made a sound like a sliding patio door slamming shut (on the "all that she wants" cut...). The Best Buy agent couldn't hear it on the boom box he tried (can't imagine why) but took my word and let me return it.
This happen to anyone else?
jimmy2615 OP
232 posts
 
Thanks TWL for the informative response - it puts it into perpective for me. But note though that even when connected to my MC300 (300 w/ch) at the 4 ohm tap I still got the same sound (I presume these would clip well beyond where the Rowland woud clip). But I realize you were just pointing out a reference point with the numbers, not knowing how loud it actually was registering. I will have to put the disk back in and see at what decibel level it starts to clip.
stehno
1,453 posts
 
Definitely the speaker. I've listened to the Aerial 6's and played a classical piece that had a gunshot type sound at the beginning. At about 1/3 volume it, the woofers quickly overextended themselves. There is no bottom end whatsoever in the 6's.

I really enjoy Aerial's as I own the 10T's. I also own the Copland "Fanfare for the Common Man". You are probably talking about track 2. There is no way the aerial 6's could handle that. IMO.
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