Ashdown 1510HX Problem

[Jack]

Hello folks,

I recently bought an Ashdown 1510HX for use as a cabinet to just leave in the rehearsal room. didn't really feel happy leaving the Barefaced. The problem is, I don't think there's any sound coming from the 10". The cab used to be Clarky's, but it's been through at least one pair of hands before it came to me. Hope he doesn't mind me stealing his pics.




I stupidly didn't do the 9V battery test (more on this later) before I bought it, but I played through it obviously and it sounds ok as is. The 10" certainly doesn't seem to mive when the cabinet is going full tilt boogie, and I can't hear any sound coming from it either. With a 9V battery only the 15" moves out, but I read in a thread [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f15/speaker-replacement-596192/"]here[/url] discussing my cab that it might not if it's high-passed.

I tired to open it up after band practice last night, but the back appears to be glued on. Forgive my ignorance, I've never had to open a cabinet before. Is this normal? How else would I get into the cabinet to check?

Questions:

Is there a definitive way to test if the 10" is really working? It occurs to me that if it is high-passed at 100Hz it mightn't appear to move as much.
If not, how do I open her up?
Assuming the 10" is shot, any ideas for a cheap replacement? It looks like it's in it's own enclosure from online reading, once I can open I can measure the enclosure volume.


Gah, this was supposed to just be a cheap cabinet, didn't want to be spending time or money on it. Thanks in advance.

[Protium]

Take the grille off and unscrew the 10" speaker. Speaker should lift out. Note polarity and remove the wires to test the speaker with a 9V

[Jack]

After a sizzling sound at practice a few nights ago I finally got around to opening this up today. The ten is completely inflexible, doesn't move in when pressed like the 15". It's also been fed off a crossover along with the horn, whilst the 15" is wired straight in to the input. I'm assuming this means then that the crossover COULD be fried, but needn't be as the ten is pretty obviously seized?

[icastle]

[quote name='Jack' timestamp='1361031181' post='1980069']
I'm assuming this means then that the crossover COULD be fried, but needn't be as the ten is pretty obviously seized?
[/quote]

Yep that sounds like a pretty good assumption to me.

The crossover assemblies used in these cabs are passive and not hugely sophisticated (they have no need to be) so there's not a lot to go wrong with them.

Might be worth having a look at it to make sure nothing looks damaged\melted or loose though.

[Jack]

Pulled it all apart, hooked the amp up to the 10" directly. Unfortunartely the speaker is broken, it's just putting out a very quiet distorted sound, nowhere near the volume of the 15".

Therefore I pretty much need a replacement 8ohm 10" driver. It's high-passed for certain, folklore says at 100Hz but I have no idea how to tell. The driver is also in a sealed box within the cabinet. Hard to estimate volume as it's a weird shape but if it were a 30cm circle (pretty much is, it's an irregular heptagon best I can tell) and 10cm deep it would have a volume of 7068cm^3, which is about 7l. What would be a good speaker for this? Would it be possible to use a guitar speaker? It's high-passed and in a small sealed box after all. The whole cabinet was only £80, so I'm not about to drop £150 on a Deltalite unfortunately. Besides, I already have a couple of Barefaceds.

EDIT: Sorry icastle I didn't see your reply there. The crossover was thoroughly checked for cold solders and the like and there was no scorching or anything. The 15" is wired directly to the input jack, whereas the 10" and HF are both fed from the xover. This seems like a pretty unusual arrangement but there you go. Does it sound right? There is nowhere on the xover for the 15" to be connected to, but there has definitely been some work done to the cabinet. It's dated '97 and the 10" is dated '99 and the xover board has 2 sets of screw holes so it's been out and back in before as well.

Edited February 16, 2013 by Jack

[Protium]

If you're not fussed about the weight I'd recommend an Eminence Beta 10, cost around £45

Personally I'd be tempted to remove the 10" enclosure, scrap the crossover and run both speakers full-range

[icastle]

[quote name='Jack' timestamp='1361035306' post='1980169']
The 15" is wired directly to the input jack, whereas the 10" and HF are both fed from the xover. This seems like a pretty unusual arrangement but there you go. Does it sound right? There is nowhere on the xover for the 15" to be connected to, but there has definitely been some work done to the cabinet. It's dated '97 and the 10" is dated '99 and the xover board has 2 sets of screw holes so it's been out and back in before as well.
[/quote]

That sounds right to me.

The 15" driver is being run full range from the input socket.
The crossover is filtering out unwanted frequency ranges and providing separate taps to feed the 10" and horn.

[Jack]

[quote name='Protium' timestamp='1361039914' post='1980290']Personally I'd be tempted to remove the 10" enclosure, scrap the crossover and run both speakers full-range[/quote]

This is something that had occurred to me as well. One the one hand this cabinet is a teeny bit of Ashdown history and it was designed that way for a reason I'm sure. On the other, since when did a ten need a hpf? Would I need to completely scrap the enclosure or could I just take the back off? How much of it would I need to remove to make it acoustically not there? If I could just remove a panel or two that means it could be put back at some point in the future.