Help.... Blown Vista

I have a Mcintosh MC402 I use with my Vistas.... Had a party and had the music up loud... The woofer in one of them blew. The mac is supposed to put out clean power, regardless of volume level, etc.. from what I understand anyway... So... did it blow because the Vista can't handle the power? The woofer actually popped...

Dublin25 said:

did it blow because the Vista can't handle the power? The woofer actually popped...

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Evidently. You can only pump so much air with an 8" woofer then something is gonna give.

Nothing will pump out clean power "regardless of volume". Nor will any speaker take clean power "regardless of volume". It's beyond the realm of physics.

Not much that can be done and warranty probably won't cover abuse, so you're up for the cost of a new woofer. You'll probably want to replace both from a matched pair.

Must have been a wild party though - hope it was worth it!! And next time you want to blast yourself into orbit, it might be better to keep the high-end room locked up and use a pair of Mackie active sound reinforcement speakers like attached!

yeah, I would never attempt to put 200 watts to my Clarity's, even though they are rated for it. There was an speaker shootout w Lou Reeds, where the Clarity fried. For the parties....I fire up the Klipsches.:band:

Dublin25 said:

... So... did it blow because the Vista can't handle the power? The woofer actually popped...

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Sorry to hear, but there is indeed only so much power a dynamic woofer can handle.

This is a good contrast between ESL panels and Dynamic drivers. The ESL can pretty much handle huge amounts of power for extended time-periods with no real side-effects.

Dynamic drivers have voice-coils that are being driven by the amps. When those voice coils heat up with extended, high-power inputs, you can fry (the voice coil wires melt) them.

Keep in mind that the resistance of an average driver is around 8 ohms, so any power going into it will have some of it converted to heat. If your amp is getting hot, then you can bet your voice-coils are also getting toasty. And wooden speaker cabinets do not radiate heat well.

BTW- this is one of the reasons why I prefer line-array configurations for dynamic drivers: It spreads out the thermal load

Amey got it right, next party, rent some Pro-sound active speakers and keep the good stuff safe.

Thanks for the responses. Obviously I am a little ignorant when it comes to more technical details like this. So... If I want to add a set of speakers to my setup, that I can use to....chrank... What in your opinion is a good choice. I listened to a set of Mcintosh XRT1k - which is an array like you mentioned... Those are amazing... However, upwards of $35k is a little out of my range...

I wonder what part actually breaks inside the speaker? can you see any damage to the woofer from the outside?

Often, you can't see the damage. The voice coil is inside the magnet structure. If you can see damage, then you've been doing this.

Check out this article for more details: http://www.teamelectronics.org/kb/entry/9/


It has pictures of a good Voice Coil:




And blown voice coil:

Dublin25 said:

Thanks for the responses. Obviously I am a little ignorant when it comes to more technical details like this. So... If I want to add a set of speakers to my setup, that I can use to....chrank... What in your opinion is a good choice. I listened to a set of Mcintosh XRT1k - which is an array like you mentioned... Those are amazing... However, upwards of $35k is a little out of my range...

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Heh, XRT's, are nice, but one can get just as good for a lot less.

For parties, use any Mackie or JBL that fits your budget and/or space from this list
Units with dual 15's are best for really rattling the wals

You will need an XLR to RCA adapter cable to hook them up (or a Jensen Isolation transformer, which I happen to have two for sale).

Party on dude :rocker:

Dublin25 said:

So... If I want to add a set of speakers to my setup, that I can use to....chrank...

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The Mackie speakers I attached above.

As Jon said, any professional active will do the trick as well - Ramsa, JBL, Yamaha, ElectroVoice, Peavey et al. Those Macs are domestic speakers and will not fit the bill, right?

You could need various cables depending on which model you choose. You can hook them into your preamp, but you're probably better off leaving the high-end stuff locked up tight and using iPod or whatever you have lying around.

Have a look here - it explains most of the connections, etc you might come across.
http://www.sweetwater.com/shop/live-sound/pa-speakers/buying-guide.php

Maybe you could hang these Ramsa arrays from your ceiling??

Dublin25 said:

Thanks for the responses. Obviously I am a little ignorant when it comes to more technical details like this. So... If I want to add a set of speakers to my setup, that I can use to....chrank... What in your opinion is a good choice. I listened to a set of Mcintosh XRT1k - which is an array like you mentioned... Those are amazing... However, upwards of $35k is a little out of my range...

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IMO the best sounding high output speaker is the old Altec Model 19. I owned many Altecs, JBLs, EVs and such and IMO the 19 is the best turnkey, non electrostatic speaker made.

It will give outrageous volume with very low distortion and needs very little power to do so; 10 watts will give you the volume a sane person can stand and 100 watts will give you live at the Aragon output.

Not only that but they have great imaging, tonality and clarity. A true hi-fi speaker. But they quit making it about 25 years ago, you gotta find 'em used. But they're easy to find and there are many Altec nuts out there online to help you out. And the parts are still made brand new and in The United States by GPA, the succesor company to the "real" Altec.

I think for parties I would stick by an old favorite the Cerwin Vega !
how can you go wrong for $600 bucks! at 110 pounds and dual 15" drivers these are what the doctor ordered

FISH_MAN said:

I think for parties I would stick by an old favorite the Cerwin Vega !
how can you go wrong for $600 bucks! at 110 pounds and dual 15" drivers these are what the doctor ordered

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When that CV came out a few years ago it raised quite a bit of interest in the horny world. It's well built, uses good quality drivers and was designed by a fella with considerable experience in audiophile speaker design. However the overall consensus was that the speaker was deliberately voiced with a very prominent midrange that makes the speaker fatiquing. Evidently this was a choice made by people above the designer in the CV food chain.

Anyway some guys were modding the CV crossovers to revoice the speakers.

I never heard the speaker myself however.

Irishtom said:

However the overall consensus was that the speaker was deliberately voiced with a very prominent midrange that makes the speaker fatiquing.

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Who really cares when you just want LOUD! This is just to protect the 'Logans after all! I'm sure the CVs won't sound any worse than the other things people have suggested like JBL and Mackie.

most of my friends don't know a blows from a logan lol

FISH_MAN said:

most of my friends don't know a blows from a logan lol

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Nor do mine! In fact they probably think Bose is better "because it's smaller and sexier".........

In fact, there's another option for your next party. I'm sure these'll handle the juice to tear your ears off!!!

amey01 said:

Nor do mine! In fact they probably think Bose is better "because it's smaller and sexier".........

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a friend of mine says that he likes em because they are smaller but even he knows that most speakers are not even close to being as sexy as a pair of Logans.

FISH_MAN said:

not even close to being as sexy as a pair of Logans.

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....... Especially those piano black Ascents!