Oct 17, 2007 08:20 am Did you blow the horn? Hell, the last band I was in we pretty much replaced horn drivers once a month...
I'd say blowing the horn would be more likely than the crossover.
PA Speaker problem
Posted on Oct 17, 2007 08:18 am
mclir9
www.witchsmark.com
Member Since: Aug 13, 2006
Man, ever since we got done with the last Oktoberfest gig we've had nothing but problems. Another problem we are having is that vocals coming from the PA seem to be somewhat muffled almost like your singing into a bucket. They don't seem to be as clear as they used to be a few weeks ago in rehearsal. The only thing different I have done is I tried running an EQ and BBE thru the Send/Return of the mixer, decided I didn't want to go that route and put it inline as follows mixer/EQ/BBE/PA. Now even when I go from the Mixer straight to PA we still get this muffledness, so it's not the EQ/BBE. What does it sound like if you blow the little crossover in a 2-way Speaker?? How can you tell if you did??
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Oct 17, 2007 08:20 am Did you blow the horn? Hell, the last band I was in we pretty much replaced horn drivers once a month...
I'd say blowing the horn would be more likely than the crossover.
Oct 17, 2007 09:11 am Clipping destroys horns/tweeters. If you're blowing them out, get a more powerful amp that won't clip during loud passages.
Oct 17, 2007 09:11 am It's a possibility, how can I test to see if I did??
Oct 17, 2007 09:22 am put your ear by the horn and see if any sound comes out of it...
Oct 17, 2007 09:52 am Well thats logical... so it will just totally not make any sound what so ever. Ok cool, when I get home I will check it out.
Oct 17, 2007 10:22 am Yeah, if the horn is blown no sound at all will come out of it, which means everything over the crossover frequency will be gone, leaving only the mids/lows, which will create mud...
On the up side, depending on the make and model, replacing horn drivers can be reasonable cost and easy to do yourself.
Oct 18, 2007 08:03 am Well I checked the horns and sure enough nothing was coming out. I removed them and they have a "Y" looking device with 2 piezo speakers that both fire into the horn. One of them was completely fried, physically burnt and the wire snapped. The other wasn't working either, but it wasn't burnt. They are little Piezo speakers from Motorola, and one of the local music stores in this area sells them, so I'm gonna grab some more and give it a run. these speakers are over 10years old... what is the life expectancy of speakers for the most part, and do they actually just start declining with use and age?? Maybe it's just time to get some new PA speakers.
Oct 18, 2007 08:09 am Well, with horns, when you replace the driver it's basically a brand new horn...being that old models may have changed so it MIGHT be hard to get new drivers for it, but definitely try.
For the horns in some of my PA and monitor speakers and seemed like the life expectancy was maybe a month :-) We didn't clip them or anything, we just overpowered them on a regular basis... but back then the drivers only cost about $10 each so we always had a couple spares.
In the future what might help is putting a fuse between the horn and input jack to the fuse blows first...make the fuse accessible without having to remove any speakers of anything...it makes quick easy work of "fixing the horn" put just replacing a quick, cheap fuse.
I can't remember any details of the size fuse we used or anything, my guitarist friend at the time was the electronics guy, I was the "construction" guy...made the cabs and whatnot...
Oct 18, 2007 08:35 am Driver?? Now I am completely confused. These things just run from wires from the 15" speaker to one little piezo speaker which in turn is wired to the other little piezo that both face into a horn.
Oct 18, 2007 08:37 am OK, the piezo I mean...sorry, that's what I mean when I say driver...just different terminology. The little piece of the speaker that actually creates the sound...all the "horn" does is disperse it...the piezo does all the work...
Sorry, different words, same meaning.
Take out the burns piece, go to the store, toss it on the counter and just say "I need a new one of these" :-)
Oct 18, 2007 05:54 pm Well I got one of the horns working, but the other only 1 of the piezo speakers is playing. Both of the little piezos work however, it seems that one of the resistors that crosses over to run the 2nd is bad. I went to Radio shack to try and get a replacement, but no good. Does anyone have a clue what tolerance this little resistor would be?? All I know is that it is a cement resistor and has the number FB2 SAB stamped on them.
Oct 20, 2007 08:02 am Got both horns working now, and it seems like that was the problem. Ended up having to use a little bit bigger resistor (5W 56OHM instead of the 3W 56OHM that was stock), but it works. Thanks for the help peeps.
Nov 06, 2007 01:47 am A good fail safe for this too, is to go to radio shack and get some 10Khz + capacitors (1000uF 50V) and rig them to the power in to your horns. Sounds nuts, but when clipping in the future, those little 2$ doo-dads can save you from replacing the horns all over again; they'll blow before the horn does. Better to replace the 2$ capacitor than replace the much more expensive horn, and it's easy to spot and easy to fix, even at a gig; just keep a soldering iron in your guitar amp, you never know when you might need it anyway!
Nov 06, 2007 08:10 am yeah, something like that can be fixed between sets quickly if need be.
Nov 06, 2007 09:18 pm We used little lamps. They would act as a fuse of sorts and you could see if it went out. A simple twist out of the blown one and twist in the new one and your good as gold in about 60 seconds. They were wired in as Keith suggested with the cap.
Both work great.
Nov 06, 2007 10:57 pm it got to the point where we installed a fuse bus in a handle enclosure above the inputs; 10 second fix, worked every time; I've found that the caps work better though, since the cut and low end that the pre may be missing, and solves the issue by itself 9 times outta 10
Nov 07, 2007 05:53 pm I have to agree, a capacitor will change what the tweeter gets. And it will also work like a shock absorber to help catch it before it happens.
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