Hi, I've just replaced my very old Teleton amp with a new Marantz as I was getting distortion on both speakers on quiet passages in music, especially noticable at low volumes - very fuzzy - but to my horror it now sounds worse. The sound from the headphone socket is great but if you select speakers the sound distorts, selecting speakers also causes the headphone output to distort too as if the speakers are overloading the amp? My old Leak speakers are 4-8 Ohms, 35 Watts, the amp input is 4-16 Ohms with an output of 50 Watts,they are connected correctly. Is there a type of speaker fault that would cause this?
Old speakers often deteriorate along the surround to the woofers. Pull the covers off and take a look. Some folks replace the capacitors in the crossover but this seldom needed due to the high Voltage values vs the incoming power.
Your best bet, if the problem isn't something as obvious as failing surrounds, is to take the speakers to a technician. Ask them to run a frequency sweep to the speakers. Since you haven't said where in the speaker you feel the problem might exist as far as driver or when a specific condition occurs with volume or dynamics, there are several possible reasons for speaker distortion. If your speakers run through connectors or speaker switches which are in line with the signal, it's possible your problem isn't in the speakers but in some ancillary equipment.
Whats puzzling is that connecting either of the speakers distorts the headphone output so they are affecting the amps, they are 8 Ohm standard speakers with no active components, nothing in line with the speakers and I have changed the cables, the amp outputs are 4-16 Ohm and it's at low volume so they should not overload the amps in any way, i need to borrow some speakers to see if both of mine have gone faulty at the same time.
No usually fairly low volume but I have found the cause is due to vibration of the speaker surrounds although visually they appear fine, maybe just deterioration with age. I found that I could completely cure the distortion by applying gentle finger pressure at different points on the speaker surrounds. I have rigged up two small bars with foam pads that touch on the points that were most effective and it works a treat at all volumes! Thanks everyone for the help and the new amp is a great improvement on my old one so i'm glad I bought it even if for the wrong reasons!