Crossovers

[kblackmore]

I just finished doing the wedding discussed in an earlier post and it appears the crossover (Behringer CX3400) has some serious issues. I found it hard to EQ the system and throughout the night the bass would intermittently (suddenly) just about double. I am assuming it is the crossover as the mid\highs kept fairly constant throughout the night. Is there a way I can test the unit at home? I live in a condo, so driving a PA there is pretty well out of the question. Also, if I have to condemn the crossover, what would be a better replacement? My main concern is being able to configure it to 2 or 3 way depending on how I am running the system that night. Does having a crossover that is configurable for 2 or 3 way make it less reliable than one that is fixed? I am considering the DBX 234s model, but I don't know if I would be better off just getting a 2 way and a 3 way crossover to avoid reliability issues. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

An afterthought;
The amp used for the bass is a newly acquired used QSC MX-1500 that was bridged. The clipping lights seemed to be coming on both channels at the same time leading me to believe the amp is OK, but it is also another possible bad link in the chain as it was just for the bass and something that was changed in the signal path.

[Paul O]

Re: Crossovers

Troubleshooting 101 is divide and conquer, anything in the signal chain could be the cause of your problem so take each piece including all cables and check it out one at a time, you can use some home audio speakers to test out the audio components at reasonable levels. Levels that change sporadically could be a ribbon cable that needs to be reseated or or broken solder joints.. both easy fixes, but could also be dirty controls which may mean it's time to replace that component anyway... this is a common problem on old amplifiers, sometimes some Deoxit fixes it up.. sometimes not.