Aeon-I Rotel 1080B impedance mismatch?

[cvj]

I have been the happy owner of a pair of Aeon-i's and a Rotel 1080B combo for about a year. I use them for listening at moderate sound levels and I have been pleased with ths sound. The speaker are connected to the amp using the 10 gauge copper cables in a bi-wired setup.

A few days ago the Rotel's left channel died... one of the four 8T 250 fuses had given up the ghost. I replaced it and things were fine for about an hour - then one of the other fuses blew.. again I replaced it and amp now seems ok.

But I am wondering why the fuses blew - and after looking at the specs I noted that the Rotel manual recommends using speakers with a nominal impedance of 4 ohms or higher. Further that "you should exercise some caution when driving multiple pairs of speakers in parallel configuration, because the effective impedance the amplifier sees is cut in half".

Since the nominal impedance of the Aeon-I is 4 ohms, I am wondering if the bi-wire setup is reducing the nominal impedance to 2 ohms or less - thus causing problems in the amp.

Has anyone else had problems with the Aeon-I / Rotel 1080 combo?

Should I get rid of the bi-wire setup?

Any suggestions/comments would be welcome.

 

[GregLett]

cvj,

I drove my Aeon I's wit a Rotel 980 for a while with no issues.
I Don't think the 1080 would have a problem with the Aeon
especially at moderate levels.

I would check the wiring on the left channel cables closely
you might have a wire touching.

 

[MotorToad]

Nope, bi-wiring doesn't affect nominal impedance. (Unless they're touching! ) You're driving the same drivers through the same crossovers from the same outputs on the amplifier, wiring that might appear to be in parallel is feeding different sides of the crossover.

 

[cvj]

Update: Reply from Rotel Technical Support

Update..

Rotel Technical Support replies:

"It should not be a problem but it could be that music with the low frequencies are pulling so much current that it strained the fuses over time and caused them to blow. If they open again any time soon then I would think about sending the amp in to be checked out. Otherwise, I would not worry about it.".

The 1080B is running OK after I replaced the second fuse in the left channel - so I am keeping my fingers crossed that all is well now :music:

 

[coolcobramatt]

I've been waiting to bi-wire my Aeon i's but still looking for a good set of quality speaker cables first. A tech at ML told me the Ai's "loved" biwiring. Of course another tech there said the opposite lol.

 

[mbergs9]

I've been waiting to bi-wire my Aeon i's but still looking for a good set of quality speaker cables first. A tech at ML told me the Ai's "loved" biwiring. Of course another tech there said the opposite lol.

You should check out Audioquest cables...you can order them either single or double bi-wired with either spades or banana plugs. I've always had great listening with them before I switched to seperate sources.

 

[eknuds01]

You should check out Audioquest cables...you can order them either single or double bi-wired with either spades or banana plugs. I've always had great listening with them before I switched to seperate sources.

Yeah, those are nice cables.

 

[paulo m]

I've been waiting to bi-wire my Aeon i's but still looking for a good set of quality speaker cables first. A tech at ML told me the Ai's "loved" biwiring. Of course another tech there said the opposite lol.

I'm selling my 8' AudioQuest Bedrock biwire spades-spades pair for $125. Let me know if you are interested.

 

[slowGEEZR]

I'm selling my 8' AudioQuest Bedrock biwire spades-spades pair for $125. Let me know if you are interested.

I've got those same cables and think they are great!

 

[SugarMedia]

Update..

Rotel Technical Support replies:

"It should not be a problem but it could be that music with the low frequencies are pulling so much current that it strained the fuses over time and caused them to blow.

There are several threads on buying amps that have a "high current peak to peak" so you don't run into those issues.

hope you got it fixed though.

 

[Joey_V]

I am a member on ClubRotel and we have had many reports of the 1080's channels dying (i.e. blown fuses) for quite some time now. I doubt this particular incident with your MLs is an isolated incident.

Joey

 

[cvj]

I am a member on ClubRotel and we have had many reports of the 1080's channels dying (i.e. blown fuses) for quite some time now. I doubt this particular incident with your MLs is an isolated incident.

Joey

I saw those reports and thought the problem had been solved by replacing the 6.3 amp slo-blo fuses with 8 amp fuses in the older 1080s.

The 1080 I purchased came equipped with 8 amp slo-blo fuses. I have replaced the fuses and the amp has been working fine for the last two weeks so perhaps I am out of the woods :music:

I could add that I am playing a lot of classical 96/24 music - with more low frequency content... perhaps that gradually stressed the fuses?

As an aside, I noticed that the comments posted in the Rotel forum about the 1080s talked about the LEFT channel "dying" .... but perhaps that is just a coincidence? :musicnote: