Awful Smell From My Amazings

Before you go tearing your stuff up -

Last week I had the same problem with my great BOSE speakers. I panicked until I realized my Bride had farted near the bass tube.

I bet you didn't ask her if she did Bill!!!!!!!

So, you had a chance to figure out what's going on with them yet?

I can't seem to find anything. Could have got hot enough to stink but not do any damage. Might have burned voice coils a bit but I tried pushing on the center of the honeycomb part of the speakers and I don't here any noise. Thinking about my woofers however and thinking since they are probably over 20 years old maybe its time to start replacing them. I went on the Dynavox sight and noticed they really got pushed up in price. For me here in Canada that's probably close to 100 bucks a pop. Nearly a grand to replace all of them. Gary said they were on sale awhile back. If anyone notices another sale maybe you could give me a heads up if they come on again. I could pick up used ones but they would probably be as old as the ones I'm replacing. Just getting ready to redo the platinum upgrades I acquired about a year ago. Was able to find Cardas 9.5 guage hookup wire at a place called Percy Audio in California. He also had the Rhodium-Gold binding posts so I ordered a set of those also. Will send my money order on Monday. May have one bad ribbon. As I reported in an earlier post it had been stuffed with pieces of felt which I removed. I'll know better when I fire them up. If they are it might be time for a little field trip to New York. Art

Art, I'd bet on it being the 150uf100vnp capacitor. I'v let the "magic smoke" out of two of mine. It is the large black cap. If you have a silver cap with no markings, it's probably that cap with the vinyl cover melted off of it. If that turns out to be the culprit, replace it with a higher voltage cap with the same pf rating.

Yeah, but we SAW the smoke before we noticed anything wrong with yours, Skip~

These are my Carver Originals. I don't see anything that is black on the crossover boards . On my spare set which are converted originals to platinums there are some black things in the crossover. Everything on my Original set is either yellow or blue. Being honest here I don't even know what a cap is.

Guts of Carver Amazings 003.jpg (834.63 KiB) Viewed 117 times

Nothing OBVIOUSLY toasted there. Like I said, borrow that Multi-Meter & check your impedance first.

Yeah, but we SAW the smoke before we noticed anything wrong with yours, Skip~

Not really, I heard something wrong before the cap went bad. I remember that distinctly.

Gary is correct in that nothing is obvious. How bad was the smell? Maybe it was dust burning on the ribbon assembly creating a short for a stint.

When did you have to push foam in the ribbon assembly....before or after the smell appeared?

O.K. just ot clarify. The felt I mentioned in the earlier post referred to my spare set of speakers that I purchased awhile back. The smell came from my original set of Carvers that I have owned since the beginning. The crossover in the picture was taken awhile ago not after the incident. One other post had mentioned checking on a black capacitor. The photo was to show there were no black caps on the crossovers of my originals. The one the person mentioned probably was in a platinum crossover. Sorry about the confusion Art. P.S. Probably should read the entire post. I shouldn't have mentioned my spare set or put in a photo that didn't refer to the actual problem .

did it smell of varnish? kinda like burnt motor windings....
along time ago I fried 2 woofers, and after there was a varnish burnt smell in the air. not real strong but there...
after you could the voice coils scraping....
got them replaced under warranty, that was in 93, about 1 month left till the end of my warranty...., carver was still in lynnhood then...

The reason for burnt varnish smell is the voice coil winding is coated with varnish when it's done to hold it together.

I'm suspecting this little fucker RIGHT HERE:

Crossover of Carver Amazings_ART.jpg (192.23 KiB) Viewed 94 times

That resistor in the lower left corner doesn't look all that healthy.

Sorry Art, I was referring to a Plat x-over. Good eye Jesse, that pink discoloration does indeed look suspicious.

Sorry Art, I was referring to a Plat x-over. Good eye Jesse, that pink discoloration does indeed look suspicious.

Good eye Jesse, that pink discoloration does indeed look suspicious.

I agree Skip, Hey Art, stick your nose down by that sucker and smell if you can smell anything !

So how would I check it to see if it's dead or not