It was clearly my mistake, I should have stopped the system at the first sign, I don’t know what was on my mind, especially that I take good care of my gear.
I’ve overrated the 250 capabilities, as party mode stated in the user manual is likely more just marketing. I’m aware I was not able to sustain a whole night party with this kind of equipment, I just used higher volume for 15-20 min.
NC 250 is 190 wpc in 4 ohms, SF 90dB, recommended amplifier: 50-300W
Sorry, I don’t understand, could you please elaborate.
Still, I have to wait for service check, in order to see if there is any problem with the 250. As for dealer testing advice, would be a good thing, but here the dealers are rather just resellers and they don’t really support they customer, they just take the unit and send it to the service.
100W RMS into 90dB/W speakers gives 110dB at 1m from each speaker, which is extremely loud, and with two speakers over 95dB anywhere in a 5x7m room, and although if lots of bodies in the room making much reduced at the back. in fact into the SF’s 4Ω the 250 is rated at 190W RMS, (almost 3dB louder), and for an RMS rating the amp should be happy running indefinitely at that level indefinitely, however at 1% distortion is getting significant so better backed off to just 100W…
yes, the inverter will be generating AC and if you are on batteries and PV and any generated power will dilute the DC or climate it altogether if this brought in from outside.
Thank you for the explanation. So I may exclude DC problems on my other issue. Sometimes, my 250 have some relay clicks on standby. I suspected something to do with my panels or inverter. I have a separate circuit powering the naims through a Chord Powerhaus P6.
To try & find if there is a problem with your amp or whether the only problem is now a blown tweeter, simply plug the speaker leads from the fully working speaker into the the one you fear may have a damaged tweeter.
If it still sounds the tweeter is not working then it must be a speaker issue & your amp is still working properly. If the speaker is now working as it should, then the problem will be with the amp.
Yes, the wording suggests that from the amp’s point of view you can play as loud as you like (and as long as you like) with impunity.. That also seems to imply that it would not bd a party-pooper cutting out because of overheating due to loud play (though this would not extend to ambient temperature or ventilation not being as may be recommended).
The speakers’ recommended amp power of 50-300W also doesn’t suggest anything wrong with up to 100W fir which Naim claims the distortion max would be under 0.1%.
So based on botb manufacturers’ specs, unless pushed harder than 100W into distorting (and louder than 110dB 1m in front of speakers) I would not expect issues, so on the face if it no reason not to party, and thix can be pointed out to the dealer. But push it beyond that to the point of distortion more than momentarily are tweeters are at high risk of destruction.
Yes - clicks are more likely relays - such as signal input relays or mains relays etc
DC on the mains is often associated with saturating efficient transformer cores such as torrodial transformer cores as typically used by Naim. A saturated transformer will buzz or create a distinct noticeable rasping sound.
Innocent_Bystander I’m not sure that I have reached the limits of the 250, I keep my 222 with a maximum volume of 70 in the settings, thinking I would avoid right the things which happened.
Whilst that setting may limit how far up you can wind the adjustable volume, unfortunately it means nothing in terms of absolute volume - that will depend on the source’s maximum output, as well as gain of pre and power amps. and the preamp can’t know what you’re feeding it, so overload is still possible.
I am not saying you did overload, in fact if the amp and speaker are as their specs suggest it would seem unlikely unless you had a packed room (but you said a small party) and were playing ti achieve rock gig levels at the back if the room (near impossible with hifi speakers unless raised above heads!).
Big question: was the music distorting? In case you were unaware, playing music loud enough to distort can very rapidly destroy tweeters. In fact my understanding is that more speakers are damaged by using underpowered amps pushed to their limits so causing clipping than are damaged by simple overload from a powerful amplifier turned too high. (It’s not the crossover sending bass to the tweeters as someone suggested, but clipping produces harmonics, so the multitudinous high frequency harmonics created from frequencies the crossover cuts off from the tweeter are added to whatever in the music is already going through to the tweeter, so putting much more power through the tweeter voice coil than its normal proportion of the music, overloading it.)
As far as I remember, the music was not distorting, but it was when the amp entered protective state and the music faded very much and sounding somehow distant, it was clear that something is wrong.
It was obviously my mistake, but the question remains, how high is high listening. Not to make it a habit, but now I will be afraid to not broke something if I dare to raise the volume.
Still there is the possibility of a faulty amp, I’ll see the service opinion, even though I had some problems with a nova and the service didn’t manage to solve it after two interventions, the unit was fixed in uk finally.
I have not read all of it, but an amp should protect itself, what he seems to have done. But in doing so he should also protect the speakers he is wired to. And nc250 is powerful - it really takes a hard party I think. I would have 250 checked
Yeah, I would agree, I would find it hard to believe that the NC250 is not party proof. I can play mine all day then crank it up past 12 for hours and it remains just nice and warm.
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