New XPA-5 Serious problem

[rocky500]

Is it possible you drove them quite hard at some point for a lengthy time with the previous setup just before the changeover? I have done this late at night with a few mates over and quite a few drinks in me.
I only mention this as you said you did not notice a difference in sound when first hooked up.
I replaced my 5w resistors (similar to yours) with Mills 12watt and Mundorf`s M-Resist SUPREME 20watt resistors in my crossovers. They are not that expensive and all you might need is someone to swap them in for you if you are not to handy with a solderig iron.
On the cheap you can get som Mox wirewound resistors around 10watt that should be better than the originals.

[mainiac116]

I'm curious to learn what actually happened as I will soon be connecting my UPA 2 to my Yamaha RX-A2000.

[g42]

Hey, thanks again for all the help. No updates yet, I've been too busy with other things to get anything done. Since the speakers died I've had a wisdom tooth go into revolt against me, car breakdown, started a new job, major plumbing repair, relative go for emergency surgery, a friend die...and I feel like I'm forgetting something...what a week.

[reaper60]

Sounds like you need a nice dram of scotch. If you're in MA come on by with the speaks and I'll pour you one and we'll get those fixed up in a moment. Also,... maybe its just the angle that you shot your photo at, but it almost looks like the insulation from your red wire (running to positive speaker lead?) Is pulled back a bit and the wire appears to be pulled over towards the negative terminal. With the kind of current that you can push with these amps if there is a very small gap between those terminals / wires you could have gotten a spark between them that fried something and shorted the amp as well. This could explain your fried resistor and putting a new one in will not solve the problem. If you are electrically inclined and have a multimeter you can test the resistor for continuity rather easily. You just need access to both input and output connections on it, and check for a complete circuit. I have seen many resistors with burn marks (particularly on the board) and it doesn't always mean that the resistor is broken or has failed, but merely that it got hot. Where they are coated in ceramic it takes ALOT to damage them. I had this on a 30 year old set of B@W Matrix 3's from having a tinsel lead on the tweeter pull free during play. A simple replacement of the tweeter diaphragm and I was on my way again!

Also, as others have mentioned, simply playing your center channel through each of the XPA-5's amp sections successfully will prove the amp is in fine shape and it can be limited to speaker or receiver.