bassfunk Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Hi Guys I bought a pair of Mackie SRM450 (V1 USA made) active speakers of Fleabay. took them to rehearsal, used them for around 4 hours. Took them to a gig where we put 2 x vox, keys and a bit of kick through them. They were wired up in Mono (Left out from desk and then into the first speaker, link out into the other speaker). We were pushing them fairly hard but there wasn't any noticable distortion on the night. A few weeks later we set up at our next bar gig and one of the speakers was distorting! I've had our PA guy check it over. The distortion doesn't happen at low volumes and he's tested the driver and tweeter and there's nothing wrong with them. He took it to a local amp guy who said he wouldn't touch them as parts are hard to come by and you're better off sending them back to Mackie. Anybody had this problem before? I've googled it and apart from overheating there don't seem to be any other known issues. Don't know whether I should cut my losses by selling it for parts and buy a new speaker or try and repair this one. Anybody know any repair guys in the Manchester/Northwest area? Thanks Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 I am assuming you think the problem is with the 15" speaker and not the horn...? Strange as most horns on these types of cabs get quite a beating and it is the first thing to go, or rather, degrade IME. For that, read distort.. I would suggest the speaker is on the way out... and putting a kick through it wasn't a good idea. FWIW, I wouldn't run kick through any of this level of cab..and if you need to do so, you need a sub. As far as I know, the early Mackies were the more robust and the later ones ( non USA ) were where the QC became more suspect. I would pursue a line of thought that the speaker is the problem...and you might want to ask here what chassis they used as someone will have a pretty good idea/guess.. or talk to someone like Wembleyloudspeakers. If you are replacing the chassis...you'll need to get close to the version they used..and this is the hard part.. no one wants to let on what off the shelf speakers they use... and they may indeed go to some lenghts to obsure this. Many speakers in cabs tend to borrow pretty heaviliy from a makers product list, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassfunk Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 [quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1365078511' post='2034929'] I am assuming you think the problem is with the 15" speaker and not the horn...? Strange as most horns on these types of cabs get quite a beating and it is the first thing to go, or rather, degrade IME. For that, read distort.. I would suggest the speaker is on the way out... and putting a kick through it wasn't a good idea. FWIW, I wouldn't run kick through any of this level of cab..and if you need to do so, you need a sub. As far as I know, the early Mackies were the more robust and the later ones ( non USA ) were where the QC became more suspect. I would pursue a line of thought that the speaker is the problem...and you might want to ask here what chassis they used as someone will have a pretty good idea/guess.. or talk to someone like Wembleyloudspeakers. If you are replacing the chassis...you'll need to get close to the version they used..and this is the hard part.. no one wants to let on what off the shelf speakers they use... and they may indeed go to some lenghts to obsure this. Many speakers in cabs tend to borrow pretty heaviliy from a makers product list, I think. [/quote] Thanks for replying. Our soundguy seems to think it's the amp not the speaker?? I'm not great with electronics so I'm not sure. We've just bought a sub for the kick toa void this happening again. I'll get in touch with Wembley loud speakers, I'm trying to avoid any costly repair bills, but it look like I'm not going to be able to! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 I'd be thinking that is a result..as amps would be easier..although not always cheaper, to sort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nugget Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 We had the same problem with passive mackie 300z which look the same and might be similar inside but without the amp. Turned out all it was was one of the output wires from the crossover inside the cab had a bad solder joint, easy free fix.That was a few months ago and not had any probs since Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassfunk Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 [quote name='nugget' timestamp='1365099888' post='2035401'] We had the same problem with passive mackie 300z which look the same and might be similar inside but without the amp. Turned out all it was was one of the output wires from the crossover inside the cab had a bad solder joint, easy free fix.That was a few months ago and not had any probs since [/quote] Lets hope it's something as simple as that. It's a shame I know nothing about these things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 [quote name='nugget' timestamp='1365099888' post='2035401'] We had the same problem with passive mackie 300z which look the same and might be similar inside but without the amp. Turned out all it was was one of the output wires from the crossover inside the cab had a bad solder joint, easy free fix.That was a few months ago and not had any probs since [/quote] Did that happen at all volume levels or just when things got louder...? but yes... you might have to test every component. Try the speaker in a passive mode... but you will need to know how to unplug things to do this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 My old band had these. We had them repaired under guarantee...twice...by Wembley Loudspeakers because of over heating issues. And they were ready to deny there was an issue until we publicised it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassfunk Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share Posted April 5, 2013 Cheers guys, while I'm a numpty with these things our sound guy isn't. I'll mention the loose connection thing to him, and see if he can check it in passive mode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nugget Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 [quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1365106485' post='2035526'] Did that happen at all volume levels or just when things got louder...? [/quote] Yes at volume, it was the vibration screwing with the solder (solderless nearly) joint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Miller Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 Common faults on these are the j22 resistors. Easy test is to change the amp across to the other speaker. If it still distorts you will know its defo the amp. The j22 resistors look like two white sugar lumps. Check the soldering on these. If they look dodgy or the ceramic is burnt , replace them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassalarky Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 Our keyboard player had similar symptoms from an srm450, fixed by tightening up the bolts holding the 15" driver in. They were all loose! Might be worth a check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter204 Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 On 22/01/2020 at 23:49, Ray Miller said: Common faults on these are the j22 resistors. Easy test is to change the amp across to the other speaker. If it still distorts you will know its defo the amp. The j22 resistors look like two white sugar lumps. Check the soldering on these. If they look dodgy or the ceramic is burnt , replace them. I've had this recently with a crossover. Problem turned out to be a dodgy lead on a resistor which snapped off. so same effect as it coming unsoldered. Replaced it and speaker was good as new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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