Schnikies. Everything sounds fine now, so I don't think I did, but I'm sure y'all have more informed opinions.
Denon AVR-1603
Canare speaker cable, bare wire connections
B&W DM302 bookshelfs
My first stereo that's worth half a shit. Except for the total lack of bass (I have the receiver set to "Small speakers" so it doesn't blow up the place, and no sub yet) I'm happy with it. No complaints about the sound at all. My placement in the room leaves something to be desired, but it's the best I can do now. Anyway, enough Mokeing.
A guy can't help but want to eargasm once in a while, so a few times I've cranked the receiver up to -10... -5... 0... then when things got crazy, +4. I'd turn it down a few seconds later when the best part was over - eargasm complete. I've done this most often with the new Cradle of Filth album, and yesterday I did it with Manson's latest, just to get the full effect of loudness in the room.
Here's the problem. The last few times I've cranked it up, I caught a
tiny whiff of what smelled like electronics cooking. Kinda like that new car smell, but warm and burny. (Describing smells isn't easy.) Anyone know what I'm talking about? So I strolled around my room bloodhound-style. I sniffed the receiver, no smell. I sniffed behind the computers, thinking something had gone haywire back there and was heating up. No dice. So I turned the volume back down to a listenable level and the smell went away. Yesterday, I decided to sniff the speakers. I held my ears and put my face right up against it - BINGO! It was a very light smell of something heating up, something I wouldn't even notice if the speakers weren't pushing air out into the room. I've since resolved to not take the volume past an enjoyably loud -10, just to be safe.
And now, everything sounds fine. I took a gander at the cones and nothing looked fucked.
Intuition tells me that the receiver was just sending too much power to the speakers at those too-high levels. Did I ruin anything? What could I have ruined? How can I check? Most importantly, has anyone experienced somethign like this before? Should I worry?
I'll come back with some stats.
Thanks, everyone!
Armen