Watchwww.youtube.com

lol...... in my 20+ years of dj ing, i have never seen this happen to a speaker, it's not blown/crispy/burnt......the speaker just ripped apart

Covered under warranty

Talk about lesson learned! I really wonder if such damage would be covered. If the repair shop is cool, they'd say it was a manufacturers defect issue but I'm wondering if they would possibly say it was user error. Do EV warranties cover user errors (eg: like Yorkville warranties)? That's the question...

As Joee pointed out, this is a clear case of too much (distorted) gain causing a mechanical/over excursion failure of the driver. A limiter may have helped in this case but when you've got a monkey at the controls with his gains at 100%, ain't too much you can do to prevent failure. The ZXa5's are not that speaker to have amateurs at the controls.

Joee, did you also have subs at this event or only the tops?

next time, id be standing over them like a hawk to make sure all of their levels are under control....

im suprised you didnt hear any distortion while that other dj was playing.

^ no sub's it was a lazy day.......lol, but i'm glad i didn't bring subs i know the zxa5 is in the $150 range to recone & the dj that did gave me the $150

i however i do not know the cost of reconing a jbl vrx918sp, but i'm sure it would cost a lot more than $150

i have had these speakers longer than 3 years, i think warranty is expired

O i heard the speaker breaking up, but once i got to the mixer it was too late

well at least he was cool about it... and owned up.... no harm no foul.

funny thing is once the zxa5 went out the other came down, we put up the elx115p's and played on the rest of the day without issue & the sounded really good outdoors

go figure the cheap $700 speaker has better limiting protection than the $1,700 speaker

I been screaming for some time now.... Run a dbx drive rack with this cabinet... It's cheap and easy to set up...

Too late to tell you... Told you so

NM NH

haha

never needed it had them more than 5 years without issue, and there still is no issue as i was payed the reconing fee

in the future when other dj's are playing i will use only elx's, i must say that being outdoors they sounded really good, even with the dj limiting them like crazy there where songs that the clip light didn't turn off it was steady limiting(his speakers), they still sounded clean and clear with plenty SPL

Sorry to hear that!! How much spl did u lose going from the zxa to the elx?

a lot you would walk down the street and it was like the zxa5 was right in front of you , but the elx's did the job nice plenty loud

Nice. Still tryin to convince the wife to let me get a pair. Lol. Nm

Did you adjust his settings downwards (safe zone) before you put the ELX's in or leave him in destroy mode?


Thats the problem though... red lights in the world of pro audio is a no no. He or ya'll shouldn't be running your equipment into limit for extending periods, especially at the source. What that's telling me is ya'll didn't have enough rig for the gig. You needed subs, especially being outdoors. Some situations can dictate subs being inconvenient but remember to put your caution hat on with the tops you're asking to carry the heavy load.

Glad ole' boy paid you the recone fee. Considering he was still limiting the rest of the event, he doesn't to appear to have learned any lessons from the experience. Some people just don't get it...

FYI... I run my Serato with autogain @ 91 or 92dB gain. I find that 93dB has my songs all clipping.

no need to worry after my zxa5 when out, the elx's belong to the other dj

i had plenty of speaker for the event, i was hitting them harder than the other dude without issue, i wasn't providing sound for the hole block just the one house area, not the length of the block but cross the street

92 is where mines is

Mine is at 89.... All green ... Never even sniff the yellow

NM NH

what was the explanation for the gain on 100? thats crazy

LMAO

Hopefully, DJs will have a look at this thread in take heed to the importance of proper gain levels. You wanna 'turn up' because you may be feeling yourself in the mix, but if you see those little red meters appear, you're distorting and clipping the sound.
(nm)

and damaging speakers

@ The_Black_One,

You may want to insure it's not set too low. The reason is, you don't want floor noise ever encroaching on actual sound output. An example of this is the low output signals given by anything with RCA vs. the hot signal given by equipment with XLR outputs, which by default, is +6dB to +10dB higher. I'm not exactly sure on the science behind it all but you're better safe than sorry. 89dB - 92dB is pretty safe in Serato's setup.

Another thing I do is try and NOT turn up EQ gains... I turn them down or make cuts unless it's really necessary to add in a certain region. On my NS6, I find it has a more harsh or digital sound compared to my TTM57. The vocals on tracks all seem to stand out a little more than they need to so I make slight cuts on the mid-knob. This give the tracks/EQ a smiley-face effect and the bass appears more enhanced even though it's no higher than 12 o'clock.

I love my meters like I love my money.... Green!!!!

NM MH

from what I've read, the ZXA5s have no limiting protection - get yourself a limiter in your audio chain and keep shit out of the reds.

When other people use my rig, I'm the biggest sound nazi... ain't no one gets to fuck up my gear other than me...

+1 but some people are to stubborn and wont get a processor .... SMH

na... im good ..... been running with a processor for "X" amount of time .... dont need it
mine run fine with out one...
i dont know how to set it up ...

some of the excesses i have read

NM NH

*with out

Didn't everything he played sound really horrible with it set that way? (regardless of any other mixer/system settings)

I'm guessing the voice coil got hot enough to melt the glue attaching the paper cone, and when that happened *rrrrip!*. I've never seen anything quite that extreme.

^^ surprisingly no, everything sounded clean & clear

he DJ so bad the speaker couldn't take it anymore...

Hey Joee, were was your ZXa5 sensitivity setting at? Was it on Unity gain (12 o'clock)? (nm)

^ yes sir, you know it

^^This^^ rite hurr!!!

There is no way on God's green earth....

I just don't get this. This is what you are paid to do. You are playing modern low-frequency dance music at high volume and can't be bothered to bring subs? Tying to run any full range speaker (even the mighty ZXa5) at dancing volume with current dance music puts way too much stress on the woofer, trying to cover those low frequencies causes over excursion of the woofer and overheating of the driver coil. I can see doing a cocktail party or background music with no subs, but not full on dance sets. It's one thing if you don't have any...

That being said, I don't trust ANYONE playing on my equipment. If they are playing, I will be standing right next to them, watching like a hawk. If they don't like it, they don't have to play on my gear.
+1 to using a limiter with the ZXa5s, especially if other people will be using them.

Then the muhfuggah had the bass up too high, and caused too much excursion...

I've seen that before....

It happens when you OVERDRIVE a speaker, with say too much wattage...

The sound is CLEAN, but the power is too much for the speaker to handle...

Blows the cone right off the spider....

no i wasn't payed, just helping a friend, hence no subs

Ahhh... a freebie gig. Definitely time to bring out the Behringers, Tapco's, EONs, ELX's and other budget focused gear.

(nm)

i just spoke with the repair guy, it seems that ev has been sold again, there were sold to telex or bosch some years ago but quality was still there, they have been sold again to another company & the story goes downhill from there


i made need to pick a different favorite speaker company soon

That could be the interest in making the lower end speakers, but I would assume the higher end stuff still has quality behind it.

from what i heard the new owners fired everybody, now theres a bunch of morons working there, but he may have exaggerated

Electro-voice is still under Bosch. Bosch is out of Germany where quality products is usually the mindset. Those lower end products (ZLX, ELX, cheaper mics and such) are of course to meet the demand of budget minded buyers. It's been working but as long as they separate the big boy stuff (Made in USA) from the entry level stuff (Made in China), I don't mind (too much).


(nm)

I have yet to run my ZXA5's at 12 o'clock (unity). The highest I've ran them at is at -12db and it is already loud. I do have proper gain structure on my music, mixer, and outputs.

I have noticed a little "farting" noise from the woofer on the ZXA5 once in awhile on particular songs. Is this just from the cabinet and air or should I be more concerned?

^^ the first time i heard that, had me thinking there was something wrong with my woofer, but as you said just air moving from ports, the zx4 does the same thing

Thanks Joee

yeah, i think thats where i think a better quality plastic/wood cab comes into play. but still they sound good.

yes i had a similar issue with a dj blowing my zxa5 because his serato gains were maxxed out.....

"After my set at a pool party I let the next dj set up his laptop unattended as I went out side to chase some ass and/or drink and smoke. When i returned 5-10 min later I heard the music playing loud and extremely distorted. I run to the booth and the speaker goes out before I could shut the system off. The dj had all the gains and master volumes within serato maxed out SOLID RED. Luckily I was only using 1 zxa5....smh. I kicked the dj off, hooked up the other zxa5 and saved the day.....lol. I would normally never allow a dj to setup unattended for this exact reason."

does anyone what to see what a $1,700 speaker looks like inside

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sucks but i'm not mad he gave me $150 & the speaker is in the shop right now waiting for the recone kit from ev, the job is costing $150

Cool stuff!
With it open like that, makes you wonder if there is any way to make your own limiter and install it inside the box.

I'm working on a case with a mixer and a drive rack installed both in the case...

NM NH

Yea I've taken my zxa5 and vrx918sp apart......it's that feeling you get just after looking behind the wizard of oz curtain.......lol

the reason this speaker cost so much, i think is the amp module a replacement cost $1,000

man my zxa5s are like my kids. somebody would've gotten lumped up.

anyways glad you're back up running again.

and looking at the zxa5's guts...i guess they spent all the dough on those hex bolts.

lol.........no need to lump anyone up, he gave me the money to recone the speaker