TheSeanis

The only amp I own that is working is the old Pioneer amp.. So, it has to be the mule. It's all good. I don't plan on cranking it up, just want to make sure the tweeters ARE the issue. The woofers seem okay, in my opinion, but then again I haven't hooked them up into anything since to test them so it's hard to be sure. I did look at the old tweeters and I was pretty surprised to see they were in pretty good shape. I think the coils took some heat, but otherwise, they were in OK shape. Not great, but definitely not bad, atleast to my eyes. I called Bob this morning to get a quote but I think he turns the phone off during the weekends so that might have to wait until Monday. I'm not too worried about the wiring as there's only a couple of capacitors back there and frankly it seems a little hard to mess up. I could be wrong, and in that case feel free to call me a moron

What do you think, teaman? Should I order the repair kit from Crites or just piece it together myself?

Alright, well... Here's the weekend update. Crites replacements were installed. I made sure the power on and shutdown sequence was respected when testing and the audio is still muffled. So I guess there's two things left: Either the amplifier took some damage or the caps in the speaker took some damage or both I guess. I do not trust this amplifier now and will be using a vintage pioneer amp until the old Tandberg is resurrected.

SIGN ME UP!!

Good idea, I will do that. I've already got another amp apart at the moment but my weekend is now looking to consist of a few stout beers whilst getting my audio gear up to snuff!

I had not checked there. I ordered some replacement diaphragms just to be sure so when I get in there and take a look at the tweeters I will definitely have a look-see. Thank you for the suggestion!

You are still concerned about the tweeters as if they were the problem. The tweeters blowing was likely the result of the problem. I've been on this board for about 3 years and this is the first I've heard of anyone blowing KG tweeters although I'm sure that happens. Granted the KG's are not a current model, but there are plenty of them out there and this is the first post I can remember of anyone asking for help with blown KG tweeters. I would be more concerned about how your vintage preamp and amp handle transients because that is more likely the cause of the problem. Vintage gear needs upgrading and older caps replaced to keep them within spec. If you like older gear (and a LOT of people here do) then maintenance is just part of the cost of doing business. You are right to be concerned about the true problem and trying to find the answer so this expensive problem doesn't happen again. Part of that comes from me not fully grasping the situation, but I'm trying. At first people were suggesting the amp went into clipping and I did not understand how that was possible since the amp wasn't anywhere near max volume and was only near halfway. It does make sense that 50% volume != 50% amp power but as far as I know (and I could be completely wrong) the amp is only driven to clipping when the drawing power from the speakers is exceeding what the amp can put out. At that point, my only assumption I could make was that the tweeters could not handle the power, and I don't really know. The specs on the KG4 say it can handle 100w continuous power (does continues = RMS?) in any regard, it made sense to me that maybe I had driven them too hard. Some people in here had said that they had blown their tweeters on less power. Please bear with me while I try to make sense of this stuff, it is very new to me. I'm having a lot of fun experimenting but sadly the cost will be a new set of tweeters. Now, this amp I know probably isn't considered high fidelity (or is it?) and I didn't want to invest too much into it because at the time, it seemed reliable. I received it as a gift from a friend, who's grandfather bought it brand new back in the day. I realize that most kenwood components are cheap and unforgiving but I know this man very well and although he doesn't have the audiophile ear he is generally a very discerning purchaser. Knowing him, and I may be wrong as I can't find much literature on it, he usually buys top of the line stuff. Although it may not be top of the line compared to better brands of it's era it was probably the top of the line kenwood. I know, I know, it could simply mean it's the lord of the dipshits, so to speak, but I possibly erroneously assumed that even though it might be bad or perhaps just decent that IF it was the top of the line Kenwood from its time it still may have been dependable or reliable. Especially considering it's condition, which is quite nice. He took good care of his stuff. You are right, though, it probably does need to be gone through. I guess a good question to ask at this point is: Is it worth it to work on this Kenwood amp? I have a much more highly respected amp in my posession right now that I'm working on and hopefully with some luck and elbow grease will be up to snuff soon: The Tandberg TR 2080 which is a considerably nicer and albeit expensive amplifier. My concern has shifted, I really, really do not want to damage the Tandberg or drive it into clipping. It is not mine to disrespect or destroy at this time. Maybe another question worth asking is what is is a good amp or good qualities of an amp to drive these speakers at high SPL's. Maybe I'm asking too much of these speakers. I have a lot of questions and a lot of learning to do and I really appreciate you guys taking the time to help me out so far. You guys are tremendous, thank you!

Thank you for that explanation it really helped out. Do you happen to know if the crites replacements are built a little more robust? I just don't like the idea of constantly worrying I'm going to fry the tweeters.

So the tweeters clipped but not the woofers? Am I understanding this right? Also, there's no surefire to way prevent tweeter clipping?

Thank you for that. I wasn't listening to anything crazy really. Relaxing to some Eagles while doing dishes. I think the pop may have come from a sequencing error on my part, I believe I turned the pre-amp off before I turned off the power amp. I Know that the general rule of thumb for the power amp is last on/first off and I did not know that until today. I have a backup amp that I'm working on. My father has had a lot of really great components over the years and I'm working on a Tandberg TR 2080 receiver that I screwed up in my teenage years to repay the favor. My fear now is that maybe that Tandberg amp would clip because of the lower RMS rating -- I definitely do not want to damage his amplifier or damage my speakers any further. I figured that if the wattage was higher, like the 150w RMS on the Kenwood amp the Klipsch would be good to go. Is it safe to assume there wasn't any clipping occuring? It was only at 50% volume. I know those Klipsch speakers are pretty efficient but I figure that @ 50% volume it can't be drawing all 150w out of the amp and therefore would not have clipped. I could be totally off base here... I'm thinking my shut-down sequencing error might have blown the tweeters.

Thank you for your reply. This might be a dumb question, but what can I do to prevent or avoid this from happening? Do I even know that there was clipping happening? The speakers were playing fine and sounded lovely. It wasnt until I turned them on again that I heard the strange garble sound and then nothing from the tweeters.

Does anyone know the rms rating for the KG4 speakers?

I ordered some repair kits from crites because of the way people on here and audiokarma raved about them. Do you think those will hold up a little better? How do I know when I'm pushing too much into a speaker? Everything sounded great, and nothing broke until after I powered it back on. Like I mentioned before, it was pretty loud so I turned it down when I went downstairs. It played at a lower volume fine for a minute or so before I decided to power the system off and it was only when I turned it back on that there were issues, and is it common for both to go at the same time like that? Thank you for all your input by the way!

It was loud, maybe I'm naive.. I don't know how much wattage those speakers can handle..? I figured they could handle 150w no problemo.

Hey guys, I'm new here! Long time lurker and I could really use some help from the guru's I've been using my old Kenwood km-209 power amp paired with the kc-209 amp controller to drive my vintage KG4's. The kenwood is rated at 150w although the specifications say 155+155 for both channels and says 'Music Power' Is 310w. Here's the specs: http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/kenwood/km-209.shtml I ran the volume at about 50% for about 30-35 minutes until I came downstairs to lower the volume for about 30-60 seconds and then powered the system off. When I turned the system off, I heard a pop go through the speakers. It wasn't blaringly loud, but it was loud, and concerned me. I noticed the amp was pretty warm at that time, too. After letting it cool off for about ten minutes I turned the system back on and heard a strange garbled sound coming from the speakers. When I played music through them, the tweeters weren't putting out any sound. I plugged in my EPI's to test, and their tweeters worked, so, I'm pretty sure something happened to my KG4's. Now, I'm a little concerned.. Can't these KG4's handle some juice? I was very skeptical that I might have damaged them with this system. I am also an idiot when it comes to audio equipment so please forgive me, I'm learning. Does anyone find it peculiar that both tweeters would blow exactly at the same time, AFTER I turn the system back on at a low volume? So weird to me. Thank you for your help! Sean