Crossover malfunction?

Hi all,

One of my speakers (Westlake BBSM4) is intermittently losing top end and level. Before I realized it was intermittent I thought I had a blown tweeter so I replaced the diaphragm. OK for a while, then it happened again. I checked everything up to the console outputs and so far so good. I've switched the leads to the speakers and I have a session later and I will see what happens. I have two questions:

1. Between the console output and the speakers I have a White 4700 EQ, a Marchand XM-9 crossover and my power amp. I have a hard time imagining something going wrong in those components or the wiring that would produce less top and level intermittently. Any ideas? Am I missing something?

2. Could a crossover problem inside the speaker produce those effects?

Thanks,

Seth

I googled the Westlake BBSM4 I could not tell if the tweeter has a Lpad level control. If it has a level control maybe it needs to be cleaned by turning it.

I did see you can biwire it, if you are not biwired check the straps or switch(could not find a picture on the web of the back) between the crossover highpass and lowpass sections.

Vibration can help cause dirty contacts.

Hi Gus,

Thanks. That didn't occur to me. There is no L-pad, but there are jumpers for the bi-wiring. I will check them.


:thumb: :sam:

Also make sure the wires inside the speakers are solidly connected at both ends.

Peace,
Paul

I reversed the wires from the amp to the speakers and the problem followed the switch, so it's not the speakers. More troubleshooting....

:sad:

Are there any caps in the crossover? I just took apart a set of Heathkit/AR2's and found that all the caps were blown.

Seth

This is an interesting problem. Is the Marchand for a sub woofer? You have four other possable places the EQ, crossover, amp and output of the console. I know I am posting the obvious but the level change and loss of high end together is a strange one. Do you lose subwoofer level? If not I would guess the Marchland has a problem with one of the highpass filters.

Hi guys,

I'm an idiot.

There's eq on the stereo bus of my console and it was on on one side. I always keep it out, but either a cat walked on the button or I dropped headphones on it and somehow it got switched in. I'm not sure why I thought it was intermittent except for maybe the switches were dirty or something.

Anyway, that's where it seems to be at now - if it happens again I'll have to investigate more deeply.

Thanks for your help.