Peavey?

[safehands 0]

hi all,ok where do i start.

 

done a brilliant gig saturday,first 3 hours the sound was excellent,no distortion etc,come 11pm,i looked at the mixer,the led lights where literally full on,not moving,turned and looked at 1 of the amps(peavey cs800x),the ddt warning lights where stuck on,then bang,1 tweeter as blown on 1 side,i turned the amp down so it was only half on,and the ddt lights where still on,the side with the tweeter blown shut down that side of the amp(it done it on its own),although this came back on it still shut itself down when i turned the volume up a litle.

 

can anyone tell me what went wrong,why the sudden peaking and blowing of the tweeter,why didnt the other tweeter blow,i thought peaveys ddt system stopped this from happening??

 

ok so last night i tooked the speaker apart to check the protection bulb,hmmm still intact,why didnt this blow?

 

then i looked at the compression driver lol,wasnt even a peavey part it was a replacement,was half the size and half the weight comparred to an original peavey tweeter.i bought the peavey pro 15s of e bay,obviously the previous owner thought it was funny to put a cheapo replacement in,i checked the other cab,the same cheapo driver in that 1 aswell.

also the compression driver is 8ohms,the woofer is 4ohm,doesnt this make an uneven load inside the cab??

 

i ave also put the amp in for service today as the tunnel the fan blows through on the amp is covered in dust,and i mean covered,would this also be a cause.i used a citronic amp with these same speakers 2 weeks ago,the same wattage and they where fine.

 

anyhow i am gonna replace the 2 compression tweeters,does anyone now what wattage the original peavey ones would have been as i dont want this to happen again? cheers,your thoughts on this appreciated. :wall:

[McCardle 1]

i thought peaveys ddt system stopped this from happening??

 

Protection systems shouldn't be relied upon as the be all and end all, sometimes they are effective, othertimes they are not. Just the same as an airbag in a car won't stop you from being turned into pulp if you get hit by an HGV.

 

In short, if the situation is extreme enough, no protection system is 100% effective.

 

My first question, why were the LED VU's on the mixer all lit solid into the red?. Was this user error from being too heavy handed with the faders and master levels or from a fault?. Did you try to reduce the output level before the tweeter went bang?.

 

why didnt the other tweeter blow

 

You are just lucky I guess

 

i ave also put the amp in for service today as the tunnel the fan blows through on the amp is covered in dust,and i mean covered,would this also be a cause.i used a citronic amp with these same speakers 2 weeks ago,the same wattage and they where fine.

 

Keeping the fans clean on an amplifier is important, as it aids cooling. Take away that cooling especially during warm summer nights and you risk problems with thermal issues on the amplifier. However, I suspect that this is not the issue here.

 

You said that the mixer output LED's were all red, so it would be unlikely to be amplifier related. Find out what was wrong at the mixer end of the sound chain and you have your answer.

 

Regardless of how well protected your sound system is (or you THINK it is), or the claims of this DDT protection system You shouldn't be driving any mixer into the red peak leds voluntarily. Problems can still occur even on the best protected system (as you have found to your expense!). Far easier to avoid any risk and keep the warning lights off, rather then flat out.

Edited July 14, 2009 by McCardle

[safehands 0]

Protection systems shouldn't be relied upon as the be all and end all, sometimes they are effective, othertimes they are not. Just the same as an airbag in a car won't stop you from being turned into pulp if you get hit by an HGV.

 

In short, if the situation is extreme enough, no protection system is 100% effective.

 

My first question, why were the LED VU's on the mixer all lit solid into the red?. Was this user error from being too heavy handed with the faders and master levels or from a fault?. Did you try to reduce the output level before the tweeter went bang?.

You are just lucky I guess

Keeping the fans clean on an amplifier is important, as it aids cooling. Take away that cooling especially during warm summer nights and you risk problems with thermal issues on the amplifier. However, I suspect that this is not the issue here.

 

You said that the mixer output LED's were all red, so it would be unlikely to be amplifier related. Find out what was wrong at the mixer end of the sound chain and you have your answer.

 

Regardless of how well protected your sound system is (or you THINK it is), or the claims of this DDT protection system You shouldn't be driving any mixer into the red peak leds voluntarily. Problems can still occur even on the best protected system (as you have found to your expense!). Far easier to avoid any risk and keep the warning lights off, rather then flat out.

 

hi mate,the mixer was fine more or less all night,i would have thought that there was still plenty of power to push,i just literally searched for a cd,turned round and all hell broke loose,like a surge of power or sumin,i missed the tweeter blowin because i had headfones on and was in the mix,obviously when i took them off i heard it straight away and turned the volume down to halfway,but the amp was still going into overload on both sides,i think it has to be the cheapo compression drivers the previous owner put in them,obviously not up 2 the job.

 

[Dream Catchers 0]

,i think it has to be the cheapo compression drivers the previous owner put in them,obviously not up 2 the job.

That would not have made the VU meters on your mixer go into the red.

The simple fact is that you were overdriving the amp.

 

Jim

[safehands 0]

That would not have made the VU meters on your mixer go into the red.

The simple fact is that you were overdriving the amp.

 

Jim

 

hi jim,why wasnt the amp clipping when i done a sound check,and the 3 hours beforehand,or are you saying i need a more powerful amp for these speakers,i wouldnt have confidence in these speakers with a bigger amp,especially in the compression units,these cabs are 500w programme,i think a more powerful amp would blow them apart lol.i was also using a seperate eq,so the sound was well under control with the gains on the eq just over half,and all the sliders basicly on 0.

 

[TonyB 0]

Can we clarify what you said earlier:

 

i looked at the mixer,the led lights where literally full on

 

were they previously full on or did they suddenly go like that without you touching anything?

 

The DDT is like a clip limiter and it would only cut in if there was a too strong a signal being input from the mixer. It has the effect of reducing the output (volume) from the amp so the speakers don't get overloaded but if you don't notice it has cut in, there is a tendency to increase the output from the mixer to try and compensate to make it louder. What that would do is make it worse, the DDT would cut the signal further and compress it. A continual heavily compressed output will cause an amplifier to cut out (thermal) and will damage speakers.

 

DDT is designed to provided protection against short term peaks such as feedback or someone shouting down a mic.

[safehands 0]

Can we clarify what you said earlier:

were they previously full on or did they suddenly go like that without you touching anything?

 

The DDT is like a clip limiter and it would only cut in if there was a too strong a signal being input from the mixer. It has the effect of reducing the output (volume) from the amp so the speakers don't get overloaded but if you don't notice it has cut in, there is a tendency to increase the output from the mixer to try and compensate to make it louder. What that would do is make it worse, the DDT would cut the signal further and compress it. A continual heavily compressed output will cause an amplifier to cut out (thermal) and will damage speakers.

 

DDT is designed to provided protection against short term peaks such as feedback or someone shouting down a mic.

 

no the leds just went like it,no movement at all just full,thats when i looked at my rackpack and the ddts where stuck on aswell,i turned the volume down,and the mixer lights where still on full,no change even tho i decreased the volume by half,like i said earlier i done a party with a citronic amp,with the same power rating and it didnt clip once all night and the room was bigger.confused i am.

[TonyB 0]

It sounds more like there is a problem with the mixer. Turning the gain (volume) down on the amplifier wouldn't change the output (LEDS) on the mixer. Could you have accidentally hit the master volume control on the mixer?

 

What do you use for media? - CD's or digital/laptop? It may just have been that particular track that had a much higher level than the others or if you were using a PC/Laptop, could the output volume have been increased?

[superstardeejay 0]

It sounds like the mixer went doolally and then over-drove the amp which popped the dodgy tweeter. Just one of those things! Repair the tweeter, test the mixer with the amp (leave the speakers unplugged for the time being) and make sure the mixer doesnt go off scale again.

 

The DDT on a peavey is pretty effective but will of course only limit the amp's output to just under clip, and that's quite alot of power for the elderly but powerful CS800X. If the speaker tweeters weren't man enough to withstand a flat-out CS800, then that's the speakers fault, not the DDT circuit which wouldn't know you had fake tweeters in there!

 

Get the original Peavey drivers, you can see them on ebay from time to time. Most tweeters in a 4 ohm cab will be 8-ohms, the power sharing's done by the crossover.

 

If you're using bass bins, make sure they have the 2-way crossover and adapter lead so you dont load your amp down to 2 ohms by mistake.

 

 

 

 

[safehands 0]

It sounds more like there is a problem with the mixer. Turning the gain (volume) down on the amplifier wouldn't change the output (LEDS) on the mixer. Could you have accidentally hit the master volume control on the mixer?

 

What do you use for media? - CD's or digital/laptop? It may just have been that particular track that had a much higher level than the others or if you were using a PC/Laptop, could the output volume have been increased?

 

you may have a point as i used a different mixer than what i usually use as its better quailty than my other numark,do you think the diaphram is easy to replace as this is what a presume is blown,can get a peavey diaphram for £13.99

[gadget 0]

you may have a point as i used a different mixer than what i usually use as its better quailty than my other numark,do you think the diaphram is easy to replace as this is what a presume is blown,can get a peavey diaphram for £13.99

 

There are about 3 different tweeters used in the Peavey Pro Mk1's. If its just the diaphram that's gone, and not the whole tweeter unit that was swapped for a cheaper unit..

 

David

[superstardeejay 0]

can get a peavey diaphram for £13.99

 

thats not a bad price reeely.

 

 

[safehands 0]

thats not a bad price reeely.

 

 

are these easy to put in the unit as i have never tried this before?

[safehands 0]

hi all,

 

after my previous post it seems that these drivers were original peavey parts,so is there anyway i can check the diaphram to see if its working or blown as i dont want to buy a diaphram if its the magnet that has a problem,also anyone no the wattage of these drivers,have e mailed peavey but no reply.had my peavey amd back from service and theres no problem with that,but one thing he did say was that,the amp is a bit to powerful for the pro 15s.thanks

[superstardeejay 0]

The magnet won't be faulty!

 

Check the resistance of the coil with a multimeter, it should be around the 8 ohm mark, maybe a little less. Look at the coil, it should be intact and golden or light brown, if its dark brown or unevenly coloured then its kaput.

 

You can ring Peavey, they're pretty friendly so long as you keep the call reasonably professional!

Peavey replacement coils come with an instruction booklet to tell you how to replace it, there's a right way and a wrong way.

 

 

 

 

[superstardeejay 0]

I think we're doing 2 parallel threads here (calling all mods....)

 

Yes, easy to change, they come with instructions, important to follow them re- cleaning the magnet gap etc.

 

edit by Dream Catchers: Merged as requested.

Edited July 16, 2009 by Dream Catchers

[safehands 0]

The magnet won't be faulty!

 

Check the resistance of the coil with a multimeter, it should be around the 8 ohm mark, maybe a little less. Look at the coil, it should be intact and golden or light brown, if its dark brown or unevenly coloured then its kaput.

 

You can ring Peavey, they're pretty friendly so long as you keep the call reasonably professional!

Peavey replacement coils come with an instruction booklet to tell you how to replace it, there's a right way and a wrong way.

 

 

hi,i avent got a meter so i just tried it in the other cabinet and it didnt work,i put the good one in the magnet and it worked although even the one that worked smelt of burning a bit,looks like 2 new diaphrams.

[safehands 0]

ok,2 new diaphrams ordered from a nice chap a stagebeat,got a great deal,£30 sheets,including vat and delivery.