norty303

Interesting what you say about arcing, the reason it broke i think may have been due to moisture getting in at an outside event (it was undercover but the rain was coming in horizontally) The Ego's hang upside down so that power and fan are on the top when underslung. The board sits vertically and any water ingress through the fan aperture would go directly onto these group of components. So i suspect a small bit of moisture bridged these 2 tracks at mains voltage hence the flash and noise

Yep, its a single board in the Ego. the black thing in the background is the IEC6 socket and the big yellow thing to the top left is what i assume to be the transformer. Here's the link to the schematic if its any use to you. Ego Schematic

Nope, sadly the electronic part of my knowledge is depressingly thin. Being able to identify broken components is one of my self-hates as i can only do it visually. Doesn't stop me repairing stuff generally tho!! ;) Ok, i've ID'ed the bridge on the board and it isn't the bit i thought it was. The component i suspect is labelled L101 on the PCB and i'm not sure what L indicates. I know what R and D are coz i've done resistors before and the bridge is a D for diode right? Sorry, this must be painful for some of you.... I've tried googling for the part code but no luck in tha

I did manage to get Martin to send me full schematics for the Ego03 but unfortunately they only have their reference numbers on it (e.g. R101, R102, etc). They also supplied me a full parts list with part numbers for the Ego but unfortunately this doesn't have any common links to the schematic references!!!! The component sits across the 2 main power tracks from the fuse, 2 legs into each, sort of 'bridging' the 2 so i suspect it is the bridge. What do they do exactly? Given that the 2 legs on each side are both connected to the same track its not like current has to flow through it a

Be sure to read up about the software probs on the DSP on the early XTi's tho. Prosoundweb has a good thread/s. Its an easy fix and didn't affect them all but worth knowing if it needs doing in advance.

My Ego03 has a very similar problem, with the internal fuse gone to dust. Would these bridge components be directly after the int fuse? There is one on my board that has 4 legs but it sort of rectangular in shape with an oval top (sorry, crap description) and is the only thing from visual inspection that looks remotely suspect. How would you go about testing these?

Seriously, the DCX has a very userfriendly interface, the graphics shouldn't put you off. Don't forget if you get an analogue crossover you'll need an EQ still and then if you want a gate you'll also need a dedicated gate or a compressor/gate. there's at least 4U of rack space taken up.... (and £300+) I'm not sure that i agree with the use of a gate given previously. Gates are used in live work to stop bleed through open mics and to give separation to mics in close proximity like on a drum kit. Using them to cure a problem with noise or signal leakage in the signal chain

I would say you have a problem with your mixer. If either the channel fader or the master are all the way down you should get NOTHING playing. Anything else is incorrect. It may signify a broken/dirty fader or crossfader. The DJM's were also reknowned for a little (and i mean little!) crosstalk between the channels but nothing like you describe. We run DJM's most of the time and on rigs of 10k+ and we don't get any unwanted noise apart from the slight background noise floor associated with having a reasonable amount of processing in the signal chain. Lastly, if the

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'sweeping in between' However it sounds like you're using the old 'EQ as crossover' trick If you're just interested in getting the cabs playing bass then the best thing you can do is boost all of the frequencies from 63hz up to about 200hz to full and pull all of the other frequencies to the bottom. this way you get somewhere in the region of 24db of gain reduction (+-12db or so on most EQ's). you can use a stereo EQ to provide mono crossover duties on a 2way active rig by using left as bass (boosted low end) and right channel as mids/tops (c

QUOTE Although they produce an interesting effect, I feel it is really only of any interest to kids and teenagers, also I find my 2 tubes to be a bit bright, as they cause every bit of paper in the walls to glow brightly. UV's are NOT just for kids and teenagers! They are a proper theatrical effect and if used with some elements of decor can make a completely unbelievable environment. Most of the events i work on are psy-trance and techno affairs and UV decor is the mainstay of these scenes. Some are getting on for full installations. Not just for getting yer knickers glow

QUOTE I assume this is a tongue in cheek comment, norty! Pioneer (and Denon too) have semi-concealed (tool adjust) rear output trims so that the ultimate output of the mixer can be matched to the sound system in the amp room. Since there may be lots of controllers or other things (fire alarm volume reducer etc) in between the mixer and the amps, its useful for the contractor to make sure the levels are matched so that when the mixer is in the red, then so are the amps (or the system in gain reduction if it has a limiter). The mixer's own vu meter is often the only way of knowing how

Just seen you have a DJM600 too. Can i suggest you try running with channel gains at maximum of 2 red leds. (its sometimes necessary to do this in order to get enough gain to the headphones in really loud situations) Fix the master fader so it can only be turned up to 7 by either dropping a small self tapping screw in the fader path at 7, or use some gaffa tape. Then set the attenuator at just under half. you should get a nice clean signal like this at around 0db. I spent some time running sine waves through my DJM at various frequencies with different combinations of gain on the c

As Robbie has said mixers vary greatly in their output and what they display, often this is down to poor design but other times it is intentional. I use the DJM600 which has the potential to give very high outputs from the master. It does however have an attenuator which can be used to reduce the overall output to nothing. This has absolutely no effect on the meters however so the only reliable way of knowing how much output you're getting is to look at the input of the crossover. Pioneer do this because DJ's generally like lots of red lights to make them feel good about themselves/tal

And tied in with all this is gain structure. In order to maximize dynamic range, each piece of kit that has an amplifier section (mixer, xover inputs, crossover outputs) should be set so that they all hit 0db at the same time.

It is possible to do all of this without the speakers connected on a decent amp. So just don't plug the speaker cables into the amp, turn up the gains and watch the signal and gain lights. My example was on the basis of getting the most out of your amps/speakers without having clipping occur. The point that is being made is that you should use the crossover to control overall output (input to the amps) rather than use the amps gain controls as these do not limit the actual power it produces. e.g. if you put in a 0db signal the amp should be at its max output with gains fully up

Its worth pointing out there will be 2 types of signal lead - balanced and unbalanced. You won't be able to tell for sure what it is unless you open up the connector and look. Most XLR cables will be balanced but you do get unbalanced ones too. From the outside they will look the same. Jack cables will be unbalanced if they are TS (Tip, Sleeve) and may be either balanced or unbalanced if they are TRS (Tip, Ring, Sleeve) http://www.dplay.com/dv/balance/balance.html

Nope, you should really run the amps flat out, and limit the signal upstream using a combination of the input, master and output gains of the crossover. This way it stops any accidents when someone grabs the amp pots and cranks them. easiest way to set it up is to turn the mixer up to near maximum, then start with the DCX gain low and gradually turn it up until the amp clips. Now back it off a little bit. Now go to each output channel and turn the limiter threshold down so that you just get the limiter light flickering. You now have it set so that the limiter cuts in before the am

Yep, impedance curves make a lot of difference to the power that actually gets delivered at certain frequencies. To be honest, unless the constant bass tone (sine?) is getting played at the max output of the track then you'll still be ok. I should imagine that if the track you mentioned had the constant bass tone at 0db then it would be fairly horrible to listen to as a piece of music. We do some sound for drum n bass nights where they DO try to play very high spl sines and we've yet to encounter problems. It s generally the punters who get sick of it before the speakers. 1.5

Don't worry about about the odd 100w here or there, it really won't make any difference. Remember that RMS is an average rating, music is a pattern of peaks and troughs with the highest peak only ever being the max output of the amp, and it will only ever do this for very short periods. With a 750w amp, the average power a speaker will see is around 400w providing you're not compressing or clipping the signal. For bass especially its generally accepted that ~1.5 times the RMS rating of the cab is about right. For the mid/tops look for something that'll give between 300-500w int

Still showing as a current product on the website and the X range haven't been out long.

I suspect that the current cabs are 8ohm as they are running parallel off the amp giving a 4ohm total load per side. I'd be surprised if they were 4ohm cabs just due to the fact that not all amps are comfortable with a 2ohm load. If you wanted to try out the active route you'd only need to really get an active crossover. If you're happy with a mono signal then you could run tops off one side of the amp and subs off the other. What you may still find is that you still need an EQ. Most cabs, at any level, will benefit from some equalisation, especially when being used in vastly diff

It might be that the reason so many are for sale is due to the X4, X5 and X6 being released (basically DMX versions of the 1, 2 and 3) I've got 2 Ego 03's and i like them, however one is currently needing a repair to the board. A replacement board is £175!!! so i tmay well just be cheaper to buy a new second hand one. I paid around £150-£160 for each of mine on ebay which was a fair price at the time. A little less now they're not so rare 2nd hand would be expected.

I have just today received 2 of the BLS2700's and they are fantastic value for money. You can get 2 for the price of one of those and the winch and locking system is really nice on them. The 2700 also looks to have a wider spread on the feet, useful if the load is not pefectly balanced (like a big scanner hung to the front on a tophat mount like i'll be doing)

QUOTE Buying decent sleeves for them all and replacing cracked jewel cases will probably be half the cost of a 2nd hand Laptop All of my CD's and cases are nicely tucked away at home, safe and sound and mint. The CDR copies come out in 1 or more CD wallets so when the inevitable happens (loss, theft) its not too hard to sort it all out again. And think of the resale in years to come of non gigged, imaculate CD's.

The damage could also be caused by poor crossover design, by trying to get the HF section to play lower than it is designed to, thereby subjecting it to higher rms levels. This is common in cheaper cabs where they use a bass orientated 15" or 12" to give it warmth and depth, but which struggles to play the midrange well. they then have to get a 1" comp driver very low to cover the missing midrange (down around 1-1.4k) In a HF section the type of signal is made up of very high dynamic peaks but very low rms levels. Percussion such as cymbals and hi-hats etc is very short sharp peaks wit