[ddartmedia]

Hi, apologies to anyone annoyed by laypersons' questions here (I got
flamed here once before) but I really want to put the question to a
community like this; the only alternative I know of is Yahoo Answers
(home of "how is babby formed?").

I'm wondering if I've blown my speakers. There's no *constant*
"bzzzzz" sound with all music I play, but I suspect I hear it very
subtly in certain songs (I might be being paranoid), and I'm pretty
sure I'm not hearing certain subtleties I once did.

Here's the story: my speakers are Infinity Beta 40s, about 3 years
old. I don't blast them; never really have. Infinity's "recommended
power amplifier range" for them is "10 - 200 watts." My receiver is a
75 watt-per-channel Yamaha RX-497. Until doing it once when the
system was turned on, my crawling baby daughter used to really love
turning the Yamaha's big, tempting volume knob all the way up. Sure
enough, one day I turned on the receiver (which was set to tuner) when
the knob was turned all the way up. Of course it started blasting--
for the two seconds or so till I could turn it down.

So, considering what my gear is, how likely is it that those few
seconds (such an incident may have happened two or three times total)
have meaningfully damaged my speakers?

Here's a reference to some famous music to try to illustrate: I have
the 2009 remasters of the Beatles' mono catalog. In "Taxman," there
are those two "beats" (?) that come after lines like "let me tell you
how it will be (beat/chord) (beat/chord) / There's one for you 19 for
me (beat/chord) (beat/chord)." On those beats, it seems to buzz a
bit, even at moderate volume. Is that an indication of speaker
damage, or am I just freaking out and forgetting that it always
sounded a little distorted there?

If this little story is not enough to determine whether my speakers
are likely damaged, then what's the best way to determine it?

Thanks a lot for any advice as I fret over my very dear speakers.

And I'll graciously pass on suggestions about placing my gear out of
reach of children (for the kids' sake). After ignoring my instinct to
do so, I have now made the responsible adjustments...