Floor speaker pairings for SX 1050?/good audio advice?

Gonkulous89

New Member
So I've destroyed tweeters and some drivers on some freebie floor speakers at JUST past halfway volume on my Pioneer SX-1050. This is a "for dummies" kind of post. I don't know alot about the technicals of impendance and most things home audio knowledge.

The set up was:

SPEAKERS channel A: Technics SB-A55's (input, 260 watt max) Found these for pennies at a garage sale. Tweeters blown a long time ago, but the low end is sweet so kept them going.

SPEAKERS channel B: Altec Lansing 100's. (200 watt max). These got destroyed when I listened to something for an hour or two up slightly past halfway on the Pioneer. Tweeters and a driver are ruined.

I enjoy listening to music LOUD. Like, the band is playing in the room. And most records I enjoy pushing the limits of extreme metal, noise, ambient, doom, Black Sabbath type bands: overall loud albums in phono.

First off, what did I overload? Is there a better way to connect things? Also what should I look for to replace as beefier speakers under $1000 range? My connections are literally basically copper wire to one channel A. And then a seperate set of copper wire to the channel B.

Help?
 
Were you running both sets of speakers at the same time? Are they both 8Ω? Did the Protection circuit get triggered on the amp (sound clicked off momentarily, then clicked back on) at high volume?
And welcome to Audiokarma!
 
Were you running both sets of speakers at the same time? Are they both 8Ω? Did the Protection circuit get triggered on the amp (sound clicked off momentarily, then clicked back on) at high volume?
And welcome to Audiokarma!

Both sets running. Both 8 ohms. I know what you're talking about with the protection circuit, but no it doesn't. I often listen to about halfway volume. Which doesn't seem to hurt my speakers. Just past that though they can't handle it/start to distort.
 
Without knowing what failed on the speakers, it is hard to tell. Over-driving speakers will eventually destroy them. Also as I believe Mr. Floyd above was thinking: you can be clipping at the receiver and destroying the speakers with clipped peaks, especially if the impedance dips are below where the 1050 is designed to run. If the 1050 hasn't been checked out and adjusted it can be clipping easily (if bias is way off for example). DC-offset can also add heat to the woofers on some speakers, another adjustment.

Finally, the crossovers on the speakers are of unknown design and condition, this could have led to the failure.

First (if you haven't already) have your receiver serviced. If it's in good condition it is IIRC rated to put out some heavy power at 4 or 8 ohms, will drive most speakers without clipping at reasonable levels.

Second, you will need quality speakers to run at high SPLs for extended periods. If you're just looking for loud, I think that Cerwin-Vega / CV! are designed to do that, not sure of the longevity of them but that's their wheelhouse. Otherwise spend a little more for a nice pair of JBL's studio monitors, these are designed to play at hearing-damage levels pretty much indefinitely, and are installed in environments where they do just that.

I'm sure that there are other suggestions for speakers, but my suggestion is to pony up $500 or more for some quality used monitors (not just junk that says "Monitor" or "studio series" on it, do the research). They'll hurt your hearing for as long as you want.
 
You do realize the SX-1050 will put out 100% of its output well before halfway on many sources. This means that halfway on the volume control was overdriving the amp which leads to broken speakers.

Once the volume doesn't go up anymore or if the sound distorts even the slightest, you have moved the volume control too high and need to back it off a notch or two. Or just keep getting more speakers. Until you really melt something inside the speakers, I don't know if the amp will care or not.
 
If someone has disabled or bypassed the protection circuit there is easily enough power available to destroy speakers. Time to get out the troubleshooting tools and check the Receivers functionality. Once you have verified it you will come to love the power and sound!
 
Without knowing what failed on the speakers, it is hard to tell. Over-driving speakers will eventually destroy them. Also as I believe Mr. Floyd above was thinking: you can be clipping at the receiver and destroying the speakers with clipped peaks, especially if the impedance dips are below where the 1050 is designed to run. If the 1050 hasn't been checked out and adjusted it can be clipping easily (if bias is way off for example). DC-offset can also add heat to the woofers on some speakers, another adjustment.

Finally, the crossovers on the speakers are of unknown design and condition, this could have led to the failure.

First (if you haven't already) have your receiver serviced. If it's in good condition it is IIRC rated to put out some heavy power at 4 or 8 ohms, will drive most speakers without clipping at reasonable levels.

Second, you will need quality speakers to run at high SPLs for extended periods. If you're just looking for loud, I think that Cerwin-Vega / CV! are designed to do that, not sure of the longevity of them but that's their wheelhouse. Otherwise spend a little more for a nice pair of JBL's studio monitors, these are designed to play at hearing-damage levels pretty much indefinitely, and are installed in environments where they do just that.

I'm sure that there are other suggestions for speakers, but my suggestion is to pony up $500 or more for some quality used monitors (not just junk that says "Monitor" or "studio series" on it, do the research). They'll hurt your hearing for as long as you want.

I have not had this reciever professionally reserviced. It will sometimes on rare occasion do these electrical sounding LOUD pops randomly (no volume or channel matters in this scenerio) . And then it won't for a while. No wires are being crossed or touching where they shouldn't be. etc...I don't know alot of terms...but I recently took the shell off just to see and i think all the caps and transformers? Transmitters? The big black cylinder shapes are original. This thing was a little gritty when I first recieved it off ebay maybe 6-8 years ago for a steal of $400. The biggest black cylinder appears to have a white pimple looking bump rising out of it on the top. Like something is slowly bursting or blowing? That's probably a sign?
 
IMG_20180806_083242683.jpg
Just under three and a half and I'm almost at full power on most quality recordings the maximum I would ever go is a solid 4 maybe 4.1......
There should be no need to get anywhere near 5 on any receiver or amplifier with over a hundred Watts per channel. ..
You could easily be clipping the amplifier by 4.5
 
So I've destroyed tweeters and some drivers on some freebie floor speakers at JUST past halfway volume on my Pioneer SX-1050. This is a "for dummies" kind of post. I don't know alot about the technicals of impendance and most things home audio knowledge.

The set up was:

SPEAKERS channel A: Technics SB-A55's (input, 260 watt max) Found these for pennies at a garage sale. Tweeters blown a long time ago, but the low end is sweet so kept them going.

SPEAKERS channel B: Altec Lansing 100's. (200 watt max). These got destroyed when I listened to something for an hour or two up slightly past halfway on the Pioneer. Tweeters and a driver are ruined.

I enjoy listening to music LOUD. Like, the band is playing in the room. And most records I enjoy pushing the limits of extreme metal, noise, ambient, doom, Black Sabbath type bands: overall loud albums in phono.

First off, what did I overload? Is there a better way to connect things? Also what should I look for to replace as beefier speakers under $1000 range? My connections are literally basically copper wire to one channel A. And then a seperate set of copper wire to the channel B.

Help?
Try a pair of Cerwin Vegas with a minimum 10 inch woofers preferably 12 inch woofers like the 300 SE or PD6 or D7 or AT12 series, because they're all very efficient and they will play rock and roll and club music and rap music better than most other loudspeakers.
They are highly efficient and you won't need to turn the dial up to 5 for concert level reproduction
..
 
SEseries4 (1).jpg
SEseries2 (2).jpg
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gDeJi68.jpg
IMG_0151.jpg
Cerwin Vega Brochure_3_zpspnqirfy8.jpg
Just get something big and bad go with a 15in woofer efficiency over 97 DB at 1 watt 1 at one meter rating
 
I have not had this reciever professionally reserviced. It will sometimes on rare occasion do these electrical sounding LOUD pops randomly (no volume or channel matters in this scenerio) . And then it won't for a while. No wires are being crossed or touching where they shouldn't be. etc...I don't know alot of terms...but I recently took the shell off just to see and i think all the caps and transformers? Transmitters? The big black cylinder shapes are original. This thing was a little gritty when I first recieved it off ebay maybe 6-8 years ago for a steal of $400. The biggest black cylinder appears to have a white pimple looking bump rising out of it on the top. Like something is slowly bursting or blowing? That's probably a sign?

It sounds like your receiver should be serviced, for the long-term reliability of the receiver, as well as for your speakers. Whether the current condition of the receiver led to the demise of the speakers I don't know.

Regarding the large black cylinder, that is a transformer. It shouldn't have anything rising or growing from it, but a photo would be interesting. The smaller two black cylinders are the main filter caps. If they were failing you would most likely hear a power hum with no input, but there are worse failure modes that are more catastrophic.

More failures can occur within the unit, in the power supply and in the power amplifier are where the biggies occur. Usually the protection circuit will shut down the output to protect the unit, but not always, an output transistor (or pair) can short and "rail" the power to the speakers, or simply blow a fuse, or the amp boards can slowly overheat and damage components.

Your 1050 has appreciated to over $1,000 for a nice example in proper condition, well worth having it serviced so that it doesn't fail. It is always easier (and much cheaper) to service a working unit than it is to first troubleshoot and repair a non-working unit. I did this as a tech back when your 1050 was a new-ish unit, and equipment that came in non-working (although I liked the challenge) went into a repair stack (un-known hours and parts) where service units were generally going to get a basic shop minimum to clean and adjust. Yours is currently in the easy repair stack if it runs, ... could quickly change.

It was made to do what you're doing: run hard and loud. Get it serviced and buy a pair of speakers (I'd suggest one pair for the room) that are designed / marketed for the same type of use, the CV! speakers above are those speakers for less $$ than a comparable JBL Monitor. Another option might be the Pioneer HPM-100B (the 200Watt HPM-100) which would pair well with your system, will play lots of loud un-clipped music, and make a great collection. More expensive to buy and repair though, ... comes down to budget.
 
View attachment 1418429
Just under three and a half and I'm almost at full power on most quality recordings the maximum I would ever go is a solid 4 maybe 4.1......
There should be no need to get anywhere near 5 on any receiver or amplifier with over a hundred Watts per channel. ..
You could easily be clipping the amplifier by 4.5

The SX-1050 volume control goes from ∞-70---to 0 and saying 4 to the OP is saying wide damn open. You should use a picture appropriate for the volume control or just leave it generic for proper information flow. Not that the OP was going to go to 4 to see if that solved his problems.

Here is a chunk of the unit that Dave in VA posted on TH:
SX-1050 Volume Control.jpg
 
The SX-1050 volume control goes from ∞-70---to 0 and saying 4 to the OP is saying wide damn open. You should use a picture appropriate for the volume control or just leave it generic for proper information flow. Not that the OP was going to go to 4 to see if that solved his problems.

Here is a chunk of the unit that Dave in VA posted on TH:
View attachment 1419807
Nice picture...
Now I know why my Pioneer Elite at 20 db on the volume control is the maximum volume that I have ever used.

But now I have an Onkyo that starts out at zero and goes to 92 ...& The max volume I am comfortable using is 59
 
Interesting. Aside from getting the receiver checked out, I'd agree with others here who suggest Cerwin Vega speakers - maybe D9s or AT15s. With an SPL over 100, these were called eviction speakers for a reason. The speakers you list probably have a much lower SPL. Couldn't find out much about the Altecs except they aren't real Altecs. They are rebadged and made by Sparkomatic?? A real Altec would often contain a horn driver and have an efficiency rating over 100. Same with Klipsch which would be another consideration for you. A Forte model or anything from their heritage line would probably work for you too.
 
I bought a pair of Infinity Column II speakers to go with my SX-1050 when I bought it new, and they would play as loud as I wanted with never a problem. I did have to change the speaker fuse to a slow-blow. I would love to find a second pair . . . Some years later I added a pair of Infinity Qbs for the living room. They worked great also!
 
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