Please Help Me!!! Newbie At This......

[dman192]

Hello everyone i am kinda knew and would like to know what is going on with my setup. i got a pair of dual 18" speakers, each box has 4 tweeters and 1 horn and 2 18" speakers. when i first got these speakers none of the tweeters worked. i changed them and they popped again. These speakers are being pushed by an ep-4000 amp and they are bridged. Please help me with my problem. i don't want to change the tweeters and horn again and for them to pop. i am open to any suggestion. the speakers sounded beautifully until they all left one by one lol. Am i connecting something wrong? should i connect something to them? These speakers don't have a crossover in them..... but i put filters on each tweeter hoping that would solve my problem but that's when i was wrong and found out the hard way.......if i need a crossover what kind do i need???? what type of tweeters and horns do i need??? Filters??? capacitors??...what you guys recommend?? i want this to last a long time without blowing......Please guide me as i am a noob in this field...... thanks again

[AMC]

Sounds like a simple case of way too much power to me. You could try crossing them over higher, it might help. Or you could use a steeper slope, 12 or 18 perhaps. Your talking about 1K watts, not many speakers can take that alone, and your asking four $2.00 tweeters to do it?

I'm not even going to go in to the questionable design of the speakers themselves.

[wg_ski]

These are the speakers your mother (and every member of these forums) warned you about. A couple of big "woofers" and a bank of mis-matched piezo high frequency drivers. There is no cheap permanent fix other than using less power - somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 watts per side.
Buy/build a decent subwoofer(s) and run that off the EP4000. The use a smaller amp to run the "mains". With the bass cranked up to satisfying levels and separately amplified you won't need to push the mains as hard.

To make those speakers handle more power, you would need to replace the "horn" with a real compression driver/horn combo - at least $50 per side, but more like $100 for ones that can take a beating and cross over low enough to work with big woofers. Then and add a real crossover. You could build proper crossovers for about $20, but you would need to know what you're doing, have measurement equipment and tools, and be able to wind coils. It'll cost $50-100 per side for off the shelf units, and they will sound terrible without tuning and adding a pad for the "midrange". At that point, you question the wisdom of keeping any of the original equipment.

[arlis_1957@yahoo.com]

Are there multiple terminals on the back? Seems like they are pa speAkers and should have active crossover

[wg_ski]

In this price/performance range, I seriously doubt it.

[dman192]

Ok im willing to redesign the speaker.....ill take off all the cheap tweeters and horn and put a big heavy duty mid ranger if i have to....but i need help as in which ones are the best and what type of crossover i need to get because these speakers don't have one......if i have to make one plz tell me all the equipment i need....i saw a video from parts express on youtube that shows how to make a crossover...but i want one that can hold this big woofers......or is it possible that i can just make a crossover for the horn and leave the woofers direct????

[billfitzmaurice]

Ok im willing to redesign the speaker.....ill take off all the cheap tweeters and horn and put a big heavy duty mid ranger if i have to....but i need help as in which ones are the best and what type of crossover i need to get because these speakers don't have one.....I'm afraid that any investment in that POS would be good money after bad. It's a horrible speaker, not worth trying to save. In the future stick with name brands, like Yamaha, Peavey, Mackie etc. If you can't afford a good speaker new buy a good speaker used. And before embarking on any other buy this would be money very well spent:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=500-342

[jont]

On the cheap you could disconnect the tweeters and use the boxes for bass bins with some new tops.
What is you budget? A decent x-over that can take that power is going to be expensive.

[dman192]

well i dont wanna spend to much maybe 400 tops

[wg_ski]

You can get a pair of 10"/1" for that - maybe cheaper 12's or name brand 12" used. Then add an active x/o (Behringer CX2310) and a small amp for the tops. A used hi-fi amp 150-200 wpc is fine for now. The amp and x/o cost about what off-the shelf passive ones do so cost wise is a wash. This is probably the most professional option. You could then replace the bass bins later - after you blow the old ones out (and you will).

The absoulte cheapest way is to "replace" the horn with a D250X driver and appropriate horn, replace the piezo supertweeters, and build (not buy) a 4th order crossover around ~1100 Hz to run all the HF components through. You will also need to know basic filter theory and can make measurements. It's NOT something that can be explained step by step because it's a custom job unique to the situation. An engineer or engineering student who does not need help with his homework can do this, but in general, people can't unless they've done it a few times before. And in the end you will still be replacing the speakers because they're not really good enough to use professionally. If you're a college kid who has to eat and pay rent on less than $200 a week, and is motivated to learn this stuff I can recommend it. It's how I started 25 years ago. But if you're in the biz to make money it's not the way to go.