Audioengine A5+ distorts under certain circumstances

[Cythreill]

A week ago, I received my Audioengine A5+'s, and while I'm very pleased with them 99.9% of them of the time, I have a small problem with them.

When playing certain types of songs at an especially high volume, the sound becomes distorted. The distortion is a sort of crackling noise, that seems to affect all frequencies of sound, not just vocals/bass/etc. I've only noticed this with hip-hop tracks, just now I had DMX's 'Get It On The Floor' at an especially high volume and I could notice the crackling noise.

It's important to note I've not noticed this with other genres, house, jazz, etc. I just played some house and jazz and couldn't make out any distortion at the same sort of volume that I require to force the distortion for many hip-hop songs.

My Audioengine A5+'s are plugged into the rear panel of my Creative X-FI Titanium. I play my music from Spotify/Winamp. I keep the volume of the Spotify/Windows at 100%, usually.

I'm interested as to why this is happening, and what I'm able to do to eliminate the distortion.

I have two related questions;

1) Does whatever is causing the distortion have any capacity to damage my speakers? I'd test the problem some more but it feels like I'm damaging my speakers whenever I induce the distortion.

2) My speakers seem to play the lowest frequencies at a very soft and very low volume; e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn1VGytzXus Is this just a side-effect of having a non-high end 2.0 setup? I'm sure any 2.1 setup could play those frequencies at a much higher volume.

Thanks :]

 

[sdifox]

maybe you are pushing them beyond their capabilities and they are clipping? Clipping is bad for speakers.

 

[Soundmanred]

"Audioengine A5+'s" plus "an especially high volume" = distortion.

 

[biostud]

A week ago, I received my Audioengine A5+'s, and while I'm very pleased with them 99.9% of them of the time, I have a small problem with them.

When playing certain types of songs at an especially high volume, the sound becomes distorted. The distortion is a sort of crackling noise, that seems to affect all frequencies of sound, not just vocals/bass/etc. I've only noticed this with hip-hop tracks, just now I had DMX's 'Get It On The Floor' at an especially high volume and I could notice the crackling noise.

It's important to note I've not noticed this with other genres, house, jazz, etc. I just played some house and jazz and couldn't make out any distortion at the same sort of volume that I require to force the distortion for many hip-hop songs.

My Audioengine A5+'s are plugged into the rear panel of my Creative X-FI Titanium. I play my music from Spotify/Winamp. I keep the volume of the Spotify/Windows at 100%, usually.

I'm interested as to why this is happening, and what I'm able to do to eliminate the distortion.

I have two related questions;

1) Does whatever is causing the distortion have any capacity to damage my speakers? I'd test the problem some more but it feels like I'm damaging my speakers whenever I induce the distortion.

2) My speakers seem to play the lowest frequencies at a very soft and very low volume; e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn1VGytzXus Is this just a side-effect of having a non-high end 2.0 setup? I'm sure any 2.1 setup could play those frequencies at a much higher volume.

Thanks :]

If you want heavy bass you need, other speakers/amp setup or get a sub maybe look at this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1412257/audioengine-5-need-subwoofer

from pcmag review, while scoring 4.5 out of 5: cons - "Not for bass lovers."

 

[Cythreill]

Okay, so it sounds probable that the noise I heard was from clipping.

Now I am curious; how likely is it that have I damaged the speakers? I have only had my speakers clip for a total of about 2 minutes since I got them, as I always turn them down very shortly after hearing the clipping.

Is it bad practice, if I want to play my speakers loud, to turn them up until I hear clipping, and then turn them down a bit? I am thinking this might cause some damage, but I'm not sure of the tolerance of my speakers in regards to clipping.

And what baffles me the most is; why design speakers to allow them to play louder than is healthy for the speakers? Why not just limit the speakers so that there is a max volume, and that max volume is healthy to play at?

Thanks for the help guys, and I'll keep the power cables in mind, but I won't buy them just yet. Are there any alternatives to solve clipping? Would getting a sub help, considering the clipping seems to coincide with playing low frequencies?

again, thank you

 

[biostud]

Okay, so it sounds probable that the noise I heard was from clipping.


And what baffles me the most is; why design speakers to allow them to play louder than is healthy for the speakers? Why not just limit the speakers so that there is a max volume, and that max volume is healthy to play at?

again, thank you

If you have a recording of low volume you would like to be able to turn up the volume, more than if it's at normal recording volume.

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

Also the max volume will depend on your source. If you hook them up to a weak mp3 player then you would need to turn the main volume up higher than a high powered source.