PM6005/Zensor max volume

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I have had a Marantz PM6005 and Zensor 3 speakers for a few weeks now and have been enjoying listening to this combo as I carefully burn the speakers in. Last weekend, I made the mistake of leaving my brother in law in my house unattended and when I got back, to my horror, he had the volume cranked up to almost 12 o'clock on the amp and the music blasting away while he played along on his guitar. I turned off the amp as fast as I could, but I gather he had already listened to a few songs. It sounded ridiculously loud to me (I only usually turn the volume up to about 9 o'clock). While the sound was quite harsh to my ears, it was not obviously distorted. Hard to say whether the harshness was minor distortion or whether the distortion was in my ears due to the music being so loud! My questions are:

- given that I've only been burning in the speakers for a couple of weeks (probably about 30 hours), could this have damaged them? The manual says they need 100 hours of burn in. Maybe even after the burn in period, music at this level would have the potential to damage them, I'm not sure.

- with this amp/speaker combo, how loud can you turn it up before you run into issues? I can't imagine I would ever turn it up even to 12 o'clock again, but I know I have a popular combo, so I'm just wondering what others have found. I've read about amplifier clipping. How far can the PM6005 volume be turned up before it clips?

- how can it be that these speakers can handle 120W of input? If my 50W amp at 12 o'clock (i.e. 50%) volume plays the speakers as loud as I heard them the other day, I find it hard to believe they would actually handle 120W of power input

 

[Andrewjvt]

I have had a Marantz PM6005 and Zensor 3 speakers for a few weeks now and have been enjoying listening to this combo as I carefully burn the speakers in.  Last weekend, I made the mistake of leaving my brother in law in my house unattended and when I got back, to my horror, he had the volume cranked up to almost 12 o'clock on the amp and the music blasting away while he played along on his guitar.  I turned off the amp as fast as I could, but I gather he had already listened to a few songs.  It sounded ridiculously loud to me (I only usually turn the volume up to about 9 o'clock).  While the sound was quite harsh to my ears, it was not obviously distorted.  Hard to say whether the harshness was minor distortion or whether the distortion was in my ears due to the music being so loud! My questions are:

- given that I've only been burning in the speakers for a couple of weeks (probably about 30 hours), could this have damaged them? The manual says they need 100 hours of burn in.  Maybe even after the burn in period, music at this level would have the potential to damage them, I'm not sure.

- with this amp/speaker combo, how loud can you turn it up before you run into issues? I can't imagine I would ever turn it up even to 12 o'clock again, but I know I have a popular combo, so I'm just wondering what others have found.  I've read about amplifier clipping.  How far can the PM6005 volume be turned up before it clips?

- how can it be that these speakers can handle 120W of input? If my 50W amp at 12 o'clock (i.e. 50%) volume plays the speakers as loud as I heard them the other day, I find it hard to believe they would actually handle 120W of power input

I cant say for.sure but id bet that it was distortion you heard. The burning in the speakers thing you talk of will have no bearing on anything. Its not an engine that needs to run in and seat properly.

an under powered amp is more likely to damage speakers than an over powered one. Most budget amps are almost at max power by 12 o clock.

Just listen again and if it sounds fine you should be ok.
But if somethings damged like a tweeter you will soon hear it.

 

[Al ears]

Correct. It's very unlikely to have damaged them even at that setting.

 

[Thompsonuxb]

Have a listen.

If you hear any problems give your inlaw the bill.

A good blow out to loosen the drivers can be a good thing sometimes.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Have a listen.

If you hear any problems give your inlaw the bill.

A good blow out to loosen the drivers can be a good thing sometimes.

+1 they are strong speakers and well made I had mine up to 12 o'clock with no issues but that was only now and again but I can not see them being damaged it would be bad luck if that was the case

 

[GCE]

Insane test : Marantz Pm 6004 vs Quad 34 + 306 ( and Yam AS 500 ) on B&W 603 floorstanding

Some months ago I did some measures: CD PinkF Dark Side otm - absolutely high volumes ( there were no neighbors! ) , with vol knob at 15 o'clock , (max is 17 hours) and source direct ; in the peaks I digitally tested (average) : Vmax = 14 V/ch and Imax = 1.7 A, for a maximum power of almost 25 W/ch; I generally listen to 9:30 hours max, with my wife coming & asking me for a lower volumes....I've to say that, while the Quad 34 + 306 that I owned before for 20 years , with the same B&W towers, and at a little lower volume, was going in protection (I had to unlock it using the back button) and also warmed up a bit on the smart front radiator, the Marantz instead was almost cold and never gone + in protection. The Quad was also sounding a little harsh and with harder highs, at these levels, while the Pm 6004 has retained a good liquidity on the mid & highs, which were still confortable...; anyway, in everydays normal cd listening, at 9:30, I get only an output of 1 W/ch max on peaks, more punchy bass and similar mid vs Quad!

 

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Thanks for the reassurance. I've done quite a bit of listening since my first post and nothing is obviously out of place. It's funny how the mind plays tricks on you when you think you might have damaged something expensive though.