I'm a happy owner of Focus 140 and I'm really satisfied by the performance. But lately I have noticed very strange noises coming from the right speaker at high volumes. I'm using Rotel 1072 int. as amplification and at around 11h of the volume knob, and at certain low frequencies the mid driver produces really strange boomy and resonant sound. I don't know how to explain it in english but it feels like a broken loudspeaker. I'm very dissapointed by this behaviour of the speaker, altough I have to admit that it only happens on really high volumes, so the sound quality at normal,reasonable volume levels is not compromised and the sound is as excellent as one would expect. My problem is that the loudspeakers are bought outside of my home country so I don't have an authorised service near by. What do you think about this ? Is it the speaker, is maybe the amp., or the cables maybe ?
I would really appreciate your advise on this before I make the next complicated step on taking the speaker at another country for repair.
Nuck, The same speaker different channel... That is way I'm really concerned I'm aware that the logic says that it's probably the speaker but I wanted some second opinion and hopefully some other solution ... There is only one thing left to do and that is to try to change the terminals maybe (from A to B) and check for any loose connectors (though I don't see the logic behind it)...
Sounds to me like something's wrong with that speaker. Sorry Zoran! One thing to check is whether the main drive unit has any screws loose. If they need tightening this could easily cause the problem.
If you push the drive unit in and out with your fingertips, do you feel friction, like a rubbing in the unit? If you do, then the drive unit is fried and the speaker needs to be fixed. If you feel that rubbing, check the other speaker too.
Thank you Frank ! Your advice was very helpful. It seems that the driver is actually fried, because I feel some really, really small friction. Act. not feeling on my fingertips but I can hear it if I put my ear on the driver while pushing it. Its really small friction and that is probably why the speaker works excellent on reasonable volume level. I guess ? Anyway, I owned some speakers in the past but I'm far from expert and as a matter of fact I never did break any of them. So Frank, my question is what next ? Do you think the whole driver must be replaced or there is some way that can be repared, easier than replacement ?
If you can hear it that's not a small amount of friction and you should be able to feel it. Are you sure it's rubbing and you're not imagining it? It's very difficult to describe so a misunderstanding could easily happen. Have you checked it against the 2nd speaker? Does it do the same thing? If so, then it's likely OK because the other one isn't fried (we think).
If it is fried, there is only one way to fix it. Painful as this sounds, it would have to have the driver replaced by your Dynaudio dealer, or by sending it back to Dynaudio. A Dynaudio dealer can replace the drive unit easily. It's possible that another HiFi dealer may be able to help you too. Although not a Dynaudio dealer, they may be able to get the replacement unit and replace it for you.
If it is fried, this will almost certainly have been due to distortion. If the amp was working cleanly at high volume, you would have heard a pop when the driver hit its end-stops. This would not have damaged the speaker if you stopped doing that relatively quickly, sinc the driver would not have been made to change shape. On the other hand if the amp was distorting, the waveform being reproduced by the driver is very weird and far more dangerous since it tries to make the driver act in a non-pistonic fashion (which it's not designed to do). So in that case the driver can break its suspension. Having said all that, the 1072 is a pretty powerful amplifier. You'd have to be driving it really quite hard to make it distort. I've never heard one do this and I've driven them pretty hard before now! As the speakers are so new you could suggest to Dynaudio that there may have been a manufacturing fault? It's unlikely since their drive units are beautifully made and very robust too. You could try calling them in Germany if it's not too expensive.
Frank, is it not more likely that Zoran would have heard the tweeter in distress before the bass driver? Agreed that at high volumes things can get a bit hairy, but I would expect the high driver to cry 'Uncle' before the bass unit.
Nuck: No oddities with the treble, as a matter of fact as I told you, not troubles at all with the speakers at normal volume level (I'm listening to music just right now) The problem is visible and extreme at high volumes. At the beginning when I noticed this I thought that it might be just too loud and the speaker simply does not take it any more. But as soon as I read everything about Dyn's I realized that its strange that such a robust speaker will behave like this at high volumes. Knowing how gently I handle these babies since there are new, I believe that Frank is right and it might be that there is some manifacturing fault ...
Frank: Tried again and I really can not feel any friction and I carefully compared to the other speaker.I can only hear it... I've never actually put the speakers to the limits, I'm very careful and I only listen to normal volumes. Anyway the replacement of the driver is the last solution. In the mean time I will give the speaker to an authorised service (not Dynaudio unfortunately, but still a professional HIFI service dealing with B&W, Canton, JBL ...) We'll see what they have to say, and if there is no solution than I will order a new driver at any cost..
I'm really sad about this, I feel like my own child is sick ...
Well, Zoran, if you never have had any treble issues, it seems like you do indeed have a defect in materials/wormanship(warranty terms). How very unlike such high quality speakers. I hope you get it sorted, and thankfully the speakers are useful in the meantime.
