Mystery problem

[cafe latte]

I put mt hifi on this evening, amp and preamp and a horrible high pitched noise came through one speaker!! I turned off the pre and then the amp but it was too late and the tweeter on that side was toast . I checked all connections in and out and tried again and all was good apart the tweeter being dead. The missus did her house clean yesterday, I am pointing no fingers but am thinking the duster got a bit cattied away round my leads . Anyway happy thoughts . This is the second time I have lost a tweeter coil to a lead ( at least i think this time was a lead). I am good with amps, but is there a good way to fuse a tweeter as I dont want this expensive situation again.
Grumble grumble, women, grumble...
Regards
CL

[Ldg]

Hi CL. That's bad luck. Not sure I'd advocate it, but there are self healing fuses with relatively small current ratings, might be worth checking out to sit in series with the hf unit which doesn't do much power in normal programme material anyway. But avoidance is probably the best bet. You can get locking RCAs, or use XLRs if it's home brew ? If it happens often, perhaps there is an intermittent dodgy connection, might or might not be in the external cables, or could be internal ?

HTH !

[Hanuman]

Might give you that excuse for the Brisbane driving trip, CL, to pick up the tweeter. With a van this time ...

[cafe latte]

Hi CL. That's bad luck. Not sure I'd advocate it, but there are self healing fuses with relatively small current ratings, might be worth checking out to sit in series with the hf unit which doesn't do much power in normal programme material anyway. But avoidance is probably the best bet. You can get locking RCAs, or use XLRs if it's home brew ? If it happens often, perhaps there is an intermittent dodgy connection, might or might not be in the external cables, or could be internal ?

HTH !

I would not mind a fuse that blows and have to replace it, but will it sonically mess with things? Also what value if not do I need? I dont have any loose connections but it as amazing how strong a feather duster can be it seems
I do have some locking Rcas and I will install them on the amp pre amp link in the mean time as IMO this was the problem connection.
Regads
CL

[analogaudio]

Tweeters, even ATC, use little power, probably an amp or two will cover it, you want the quick blow type, you can experiment with a range of values, 0.5A, 1A, 2A, that tweeter voice coil wire is pretty fine gauge stuff. These are actives aren't they? You could call ATC and get their advice about fuse ratings.

Ted

[cafe latte]

Are we talking a 250v fuse? as if so would not 1amp be a lot? Watts= Volts X Amps
Also will the fuse cause any other issues?
Regards
CL

[bpbutler]

The 250V rating just means it's rated for use in a 250V system. The voltage drop across the fuse should be much less than 250V.

[cafe latte]

The 250V rating just means it's rated for use in a 250V system. The voltage drop across the fuse should be much less than 250V.

No what I mean is is the fuse will not blow with 250v and 1 amp, that means that it will carry 250watts IMO, but say 60 volts at one amp is only 60 watts. It is the power I am worred about as I want the fuse to blow before the tweeter.
Regards
CL

[aardvarkash10]

no, 1 amp is 1 amp is 1 amp regardless of the rated supply voltage.

As bp points out, its the voltage developed across the fuse at 1 amp current that is of concern, and that is independent of the supply voltage.

FWIW, a lot of automotive fuses are available at low current ratings too...

[Ldg]

...I want the fuse to blow before the tweeter.....

reminds me of the wise ancient saying "semiconductors blow to protect fuses"

BTW, fuse voltage rating only comes into play after the fuse has blown, it is the max voltage the fuse will interrupt without arcing over. In this case, more or less anything will do, it's low voltage stuff.

I'd check out the self healing type, because IIRC they can be quite fast.....or any ultra fast type with a rating of about half an amp, i think. But still not sure I'd advocate it for protection !

[cafe latte]

...I want the fuse to blow before the tweeter.....

reminds me of the wise ancient saying "semiconductors blow to protect fuses"

BTW, fuse voltage rating only comes into play after the fuse has blown, it is the max voltage the fuse will interrupt without arcing over. In this case, more or less anything will do, it's low voltage stuff.

I'd check out the self healing type, because IIRC they can be quite fast.....or any ultra fast type with a rating of about half an amp, i think. But still not sure I'd advocate it for protection !

Probably a daft question, but why?
Also were would you put the fuse?
Regards
CL

[Ldg]

Hi CL. In series with the hf driver leads. I'm not sure it will be fast enough in the event of gross-out.......depending on driver type they really don't like overload...........

[jake]

I've a friend who lost his Ampzilla to a housekeeper's cleaning, very similar story. The housekeeper even had instructions never to touch any of those wires back there, but one time she could not resist "straightening" out the wires and dusting them. Blew the amp up before he could realize. Then he spent 2 years trying to get it fixed, now he keeps it tied up in a closet, something I would not do, a constant reminder of a painful interlude.

[paul401]

Hi,
have a couple of high powered Yamaha power amps, come with very detailed hand book/manual, covers lots of topics! In the notes on speaker protection, don't advocate fuses for this purpose as ones with a low enough rating to protect the tweeter will blow on musical peaks and higher ones will offer no protection.
True this is in regard to a PA / Studio situation, but pretty much the same at home.

Regarding the above, a friend and I both have Gale 401 speakers, these come with fuses for mid and treble, (general opinion is to remove them at once!). He used his as monitors in his home studio, treble fuse kept blowing, removed and hard wired the connection, speakers used for many more years (and still going) no problems.

Paul