Have I damaged my new Dali speakers?

Klaesashford12

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Hi everyone,

My apologies up front - this is a really stupid situation. I recently purchased a set of Dali Oberon 5s with a Oberon Vokal centre, and I’m afraid I may have damaged them. I’m a total noob when it comes to AV stuff so please bear with me.

Essentially, I had been using a Logitech X540 system prior to this hooked up to my TV, with the outputs for the speakers coming from/integrated into the sub.

Obviously these Dali speakers are a massive upgrade, but because I was using that Logitech system, I didn’t actually have a receiver.
So when I got the Dali speakers home, I hooked them up to the Logitech X540 sub and its outputs, and played it.
It sounded good, but a bit more restrained/muffled than it did in the store.

What I’ve now realized is that the amp in this tiny Sub is likely not close to enough to power 2 Oberon 5s and a Oberon vokal centre. The X540 system is rated for 70 watts RMS. The oberons are rated at 20 watts minimum suggested for an amp.

I have read about how low power amps can clip an damage speakers if they don’t provide enough wattage. What I am worried about now is whether I have managed to damage my tweeters/another part of the speaker by driving these Dali’s with a crap tiny amp in the Logitech x540 sub. I only really listened to music for maybe 5-10 minutes total, at a low-moderate volume in my condo. I’m really not sure if I could hear any “distortion”, but I did notice the sound was more “muffled” than when I demoed it at the dealer, for lack of a better word.

I’ve been super stressed about this ever since. I am obviously now purchasing a good receiver to go along with this setup; but I am worried I’ve already fried my tweeters or otherwise damaged the speakers that I jsut got. If anyone can provide any advice or guidance, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks so much everyone.
 
I think it highly unlikely you have damaged them. The Logitech is tuned to work with its own speakers, which is why it sounded odd with the Dalis.

You would have heard the clipping and distortion quite clearly and a few minutes running at low volume is about as safe as you can get.

Most of the horror stories you hear with people blowing up their speakers involve parties and extended running with high levels of audible distortion. You don't fall into this category!
 
The built in amp in the logitech sub isn't ideal and the wattage is meaningless without knowing at what ohms, THD, etc.

A cheap avr will be much better.

If they're new speakers, hope you're not blasting them.
 
What's the power rating of the Dali speakers? Is it comfortably above the 70W of your amplifier?

On the clipping, it may be that a badly clipped signal a little bit below the power limit of your speakers is more harmful than a clean signal a little over but any signal considerably below the speakers' limit is unlikely to damage them. If you had damaged them in this way then it would probably have sounded pretty loud and nasty rather than just muffled. So, I doubt that you have damaged them but you might need a better amp.

Do you know someone with a decent system who you could visit and bring the speakers?
 
What's the power rating of the Dali speakers? Is it comfortably above the 70W of your amplifier?
That's really not important because of this:

On the clipping, it may be that a badly clipped signal a little bit below the power limit of your speakers is more harmful than a clean signal a little over but any signal considerably below the speakers' limit is unlikely to damage them.
Yep, a low powered amp.is.much more likely to kill high power speakers than the other way around. However, this mostly affects tweeters. Frying a pair of Oberon 5 completely should be very unlikely with the Logitech amp.

If you had damaged them in this way then it would probably have sounded pretty loud and nasty rather than just muffled. So, I doubt that you have damaged them but you might need a better amp.
Unless the tweeters have actually been grilled. Not likely, but not entirely impossible.

Do you know someone with a decent system who you could visit and bring the speakers?
Good idea in any case.
 
You need to run your new speakers in for a good 10-12 hours, you will definitely notice a difference between new out the box and what you have demo'd in store. Leave it on low while you are at work or over night and they will relax and start opening up and sound alot tighter too.
 
i received my Oberon 5s today and thought that the high notes were too dominant on one side. I shuffled my seating position to try and improve it. I thought the sound was a bit muffled. Anyway.....30 minutes later the tweeter on one speaker fell inside the cabinet! When I had a look through the hole where the tweeter should be there was a plastic mount, the tweeter membrane and two wires - but no magnet/coil. It must have dropped off and fall inside the cabinet. No wonder my setup didn't sound correct.

Richersounds to their credit are sending me a replacement pair of Oberon 5's today.

Check your tweeters are working in case there is a build quality issue.

I can't wait to hear what two of them sound like as 1 fully working and 1 faulty still sounds amazing! (running cambridge audio cxa81 amp).
 

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