Too much of something is overloading my monitors!

[Armistice]

I use a reasonable quality hi-fi for monitoring purposes - I've got used to it over the years and know what sounds good and what doesn't. Here's my problem - the right hand speaker appears to be damaged in that it rattles/distorts sometimes, but only when I'm using it for monitoring my stuff.

I can put a commercial CD on and turn the volume up as much as I like and there is never a problem, however when I use it for mixing I get this rattle/distortio, particularly when recording electric guitar and electric piano. I can have the volume down REALLY low and still have the problem - it's almost like there's a resonating frequency (that I haven't yet been able to identify/eliminate) that sets the speaker off. Very disconcerting.

Anyone have any tips/ideas - I'm using a Yammy AW4416 which has reasonably good dynamics / EQ - I just can't, for all my scanning up and down the frequencies, get rid of this rattly noise, at least not without getting rid of the majority of tonal nuances of the instrument that's been recorded. It doesn't do it for bass - more a keyboard / guitar thing. Any help appreciated!

David

PS. Anyone know a resource anywhere that I can use to help get an understanding of what frequency in Hz / kHz etc corresponds to what actual note on guitar / piano - would speed up my EQing immensely!

[Sennheiser]

Most home stereo speakers cannot handle transient response of a home studio without a shitload of compression.

The same goes for using them as instrument speakers or PA.

[TexRoadkill]

Originally posted by Sennheiser
Most home stereo speakers cannot handle transient response of a home studio without a shitload of compression.

The same goes for using them as instrument speakers or PA.

Word. Get some monitors, yo.