Blown woofers

[Rilands]

Originally Posted by braid11

I did not buy them new. I've had them for about 2 years. I guess my dealer will let me know, but I doubt it.

This doesn't look promising. Better take your check book.
http://www.wilsonaudio.com/pdf/warranty.pdf

[Charles]

braid11, IMO I would never leave a direct coupled amp running 24/7. If you think you need to do this to achieve the best sound from your amp, you need to get another amp. You have already had one disaster. Are you leaving your Audio Research tube preamp on all the time also? Most amps and preamps have a standby mode. Doesn't Plinius amps have a standby mode? If you ask the manufacturer if its OK to leave them on they will tell you it is OK. Would you really expect them to say: "Absolutely not, it might fail and blow up your speakers." ?

Also unless my memory fails me, when I owned Krell amps there was a warranty disclaimer stating that the use of a tubed preamp that generated DC current voided the warranty. Krell amps were simply not setup to handle significant amounts of DC at the input. They recommended solid state. It is certainly possible that your ARC preamp if it is in the process of blowing a tube or frank failure, contributed to the Plinius failure.

You simply don't run into these types of problems with McIntosh. Mac tube equipment does not generate DC and cannot transmit it to solid state amps. Mac amps employ autoformers. In case of catastrophic failure the current is shunted into the autoformer. Mac amps have generous power supplies but the McIntosh design philosophy is such that speakers are totally protected from catastrophic amp failure. If you take a high power direct coupled amp with a huge power supply and it fails catastrophically while you are at the grocery store, I fear what might happen.

[Formerly YB-2]

Originally Posted by braid11

The ARC preamp tubes are failing: snap, crackle, pop. That started the very night this happened, when I first powered up the system. I wonder if that contributed to this.
Tom

Possibly. Re-tubing the preamp would be cheap insurance.

[Coppy]

Those screws holding the speakers in are set with a specific torque. If you aren't going to have Wilson do the repair, you'll want to check with them about all aspects of the installation.