Bad news...you've blown the tweeters. Overdriving the mixer/amp creates distortion on the amplifier which heats up the speaker voice coils and eventually causes damage. Because of their small diameter voice coil windings the tweeters fail first (opens up like a fuse element does) followed by the woofer making a scraping sound (deformed voice coil) or not working as well. Warranty service because you blew out the tweeters? Don't get your hopes up.
1. PLEASE use enough power for the venue that you have. A high powered system will run all night at 10:00 (physical volume knob setting) than an underpowered system set for 2:00.
2. Get speakers off the ground and closer to your audience's ears. Audio from speakers on the floor must battle surfaces that actually absorb some of the sound....carpet, drapes, etc. And besides, legs can't hear that well.
Thank you for your quick response!
That is possible I suppose, but I'm not sure that's the case. I have never had to run my system at more than the 10:00 you suggest at any venue I've been at thus far. I run a behringer PMP1680s head with 3 of these speakers. That's 1600w split between 3 800w speakers (though I'm not sure what the RMS is on them).
Generally, I always start with everything down and raise levels on each channel to acceptable levels to achieve my desired mix, always with master volume down low. Then I begin to raise the master volume on the mains and the monitor and make whatever minor tweaks are left to be made to each channel from there.
These speakers are on stands so they are never on the floor (with the exception of the monitor). This was one of the mains. By the way, the woofer sounds fine. I actually did something I never recommend to anyone by swapping this one with my monitor and setting the eq on the monitor channel so it was basically all treble with a minute amount of mid and bass so that I could sort of hear what I was singing and it worked OK but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was satisfactory.
I did loan this to my bass player one night (who is a trained sound tech like myself) and, though I don't believe he would do anything to damage the system, it is possible that it could have happened on his watch. So, I will take it to the music store to have it checked because you could still be correct. At least then I will know if I should try to fix this myself, see if they will do a warranty replacement, or if I should just simply buy a new one.
Again, thank you for your quick response.
Good luck with your sound problems and if you return them for service, please let me know what you find to be the problem.
Good luck with your sound problems and if you return them for service, please let me know what you find to be the problem.
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Thank you for your quick response.
That's a possibility, but I'm not sure that is the case, as I've never had to go even half on the the power in any of the venues I've been in (and in fact, now that you mention it, 10:00 seems to be about where I usually run it). Not to mention I'm running 3 of these on a 1600w head (2 as mains and one as a monitor) and they are 800w each at peak (though I'm not sure what the RMS is on them). I've never clipped them that I'm aware of (I have had momentary clipping on individual channels during soundchecks which is typical for most applications as ideal sound is usually just below clipping, however ,main volume is down during the time when I'd bring these levels to where I want them to be). This one was one of the mains so the the power on that channel was split between 2 speakers. These speakers are also on stands so they aren't on the floor. The one I use as a monitor is on the floor, however, it is working fine and has become one of my mains for the moment.
I am a bit baffled at this though. I am afraid that it could have happened the one and only time that I wasn't the one running it. My bass player is a trained sound tech (as am I) so I didn't hesitate when he wanted to borrow my system for something else. I wasn't there, but I don't believe that he would have done anything to damage it.
The woofer sounds fine for the moment and even though I know it's less than ideal (and is probably bad for the speaker) I moved this one to being a monitor and then adjusted the eq so there was hardly any bass in the sound on that channel so that I could hear reasonably well what I was singing and it worked OK, but I don't do just OK, when I run sound it had better be great :-)
Anyhow, this is getting lengthy. In case you are correct, perhaps I should take this back to the music store to get them to check and verify that. If that is the case, at least I'll know and I can move on. I just don't want to be stuck wondering if I should fix this myself, see if they will do a warranty replacement, or if I should just simply buy a new one.
Thank you again for your quick response.
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