Eaw la 325 help needed.

Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Brandon G Romanowski said:
Alan you should contact EAW's application support about all of this, if you are looking for solutions and answers. They can get you all the information you need without all the speculation. EAW: Application Support Group
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Brandon, Got hold of Steve at Eaw right after I stopped at your shop, very helpfull. Got to call him back though, I a/b ed the box's against each other last night and the 6''ers on 1 box are twice as loud as the other box. Seems like that set of 6'' are not being low passed. I'm going to disconnect the horn and run pink noise through each box to night and see what I get, thats the only way I really know how to test it.

I solderd the cap that was hanging around, also soldered each of the cheap spade conectors that were loose and flooping around on the crossover.

I found another cap that the blue covering is coming off, but it doesn't look like it has expanded at all. Anyone know if this is a common problem on a cap, or does it mean it got hot?
 
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Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Alan Sledzieski said:
I found another cap that the blue covering is coming off, but it doesn't look like it has expanded at all. Anyone know if this is a common problem on a cap, or does it mean it got hot?
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I recently had a problem with the 6.5" drivers in one, and traced it down to exactly that -- one of the 200 mfd (I think) caps wasn't passing anything. It wasn't expanded or charred... but the plastic covering was loose and coming off. I suspect you're exactly right -- it probably got hot and failed, but without actually looking like it.
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Alan Sledzieski said:
I found another cap that the blue covering is coming off, but it doesn't look like it has expanded at all. Anyone know if this is a common problem on a cap, or does it mean it got hot?
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Agreed with Jim. The caps can easily be bad, yet look alright. Sometimes they fail more "gracefully" than others. Do you have a DMM that can test caps? That way you could be certain.

I like replacing caps. :)
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

I pulling both crossovers and sending them to Pro Sound Service in Ma. let them go through them and be done with it, I can't waste anymore time on them. I can replace parts that are visibly blown or broken, I don't have the test equipment or knowledge to figure out whats bad though.

Is this crossover design suppose to be high tech or something in the eaw? Theres 2 crossover boards that take up the area of 6 or 7 times that of my jbl 4733's, I've been running the jbls for 14 years probably, with a ca 18 in stereo at 1800w, and never had a issue.
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Alan Sledzieski said:
I pulling both crossovers and sending them to Pro Sound Service in Ma. let them go through them and be done with it, I can't waste anymore time on them. I can replace parts that are visibly blown or broken, I don't have the test equipment or knowledge to figure out whats bad though.

Is this crossover design suppose to be high tech or something in the eaw? Theres 2 crossover boards that take up the area of 6 or 7 times that of my jbl 4733's, I've been running the jbls for 14 years probably, with a ca 18 in stereo at 1800w, and never had a issue.
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That's probably the best thing to do then. A crossover that has been abused like that should be gone over thoroughly. You may never know how good a speaker system can sound if your only impression is with worn out components. To try and answer your question, I would say that this is a very "comprehensive" design for a crossover, which no doubt addressed more issues than was normal (at the time it was designed) with a passive crossover.
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Alan Sledzieski said:
3 bad caps, another was replaced with the wrong one, 1 jumper was cut on a nl connector, 2 others were cut and reversed. WTF
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Alan,

My initial take on the pictures you've posted is that these have been worked on by someone other than the good production folks at EAW. You can't go around inferring that this is the factory's fault, it is very obvious to me that the crossovers and drivers have been worked on, and in some cases, poorly.

I will agree with you, that midrange(and I know which one it is), should not be crossed over at 170hz. It is probably the limiting factor in the passive mode power ratings.

Best regards,

John
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

John Halliburton said:
Alan,

My initial take on the pictures you've posted is that these have been worked on by someone other than the good production folks at EAW. You can't go around inferring that this is the factory's fault, it is very obvious to me that the crossovers and drivers have been worked on, and in some cases, poorly.

I will agree with you, that midrange(and I know which one it is), should not be crossed over at 170hz. It is probably the limiting factor in the passive mode power ratings.

Best regards,

John
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Sorry, was pretty disgusted in the shape of the boxs internally when I got them. The one thing that is kinds a cheap is the spade connectors all over the place. They should be all soldered connections if you ask me.

I got my crossovers back, will be installing today.

My buddy did sound last night at a club, a 325 over 2 528's per side. Ran a ca 12 on the 15's, and a ca 9 on the highs, 2 crest 9200 for the bottom. ca9 is 900 into 4 ohm stereo. We had one blues band and the lead vocalist tone of his voice managed to clip the ca9. Now we crossed the high end at 1.25k, LR 24 db. I take the crossovers in the 325 are pretty in efficient??, if I put 900w into a jbl horn, going through the internal x over in by amp mode, I would have blood coming out of people ears.
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Alan Sledzieski said:
Sorry, was pretty disgusted in the shape of the boxs internally when I got them. The one thing that is kinds a cheap is the spade connectors all over the place. They should be all soldered connections if you ask me.

I got my crossovers back, will be installing today.

My buddy did sound last night at a club, a 325 over 2 528's per side. Ran a ca 12 on the 15's, and a ca 9 on the highs, 2 crest 9200 for the bottom. ca9 is 900 into 4 ohm stereo. We had one blues band and the lead vocalist tone of his voice managed to clip the ca9. Now we crossed the high end at 1.25k, LR 24 db. I take the crossovers in the 325 are pretty in efficient??, if I put 900w into a jbl horn, going through the internal x over in by amp mode, I would have blood coming out of people ears.
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The ca 12 running the 15's, which are totally bypassed of the crossover, never came close to clipping.

This x-over is interesting. I would like to find out what the low pass is on the 6'', and maybe run these box's 3 way and not use the crossover at all???

90 - 1200 on the 15's, 1200 to 1800 ish on the 6's, 1800 up on the horns, have to do some playing around.
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Hello Alan,

Great topic here and actually one that i have pretty regularly.. please also feel free to contact me directly outside this forum and we can discuss this further.
Somethings to keep in mind with this... yes many people have turned around and bypassed the crossover, changed drivers, and what-not and honestly once that is done, they are no longer "EAW" quality nor an "EAW" loudspeaker.
Yes 1000 watts at 4 ohms is all that the dual 15" can handle, and 600 for the MF/HF section (due to the crossover)
Also with our processor settings for the LA325 http://www.eaw.com/info/EAW/Processor_Settings/Current_Products/LA_PROCS_rev2.pdf we do require an overlapping High and Low pass filters - there is an inherent crossover point between the 15's and the 6.5" and we need to put this overlap in order to help prevent any sort of destructive interference between the two sections. Is the 6.5" drivers going truly down to 177 Hz - No not at all, most likely somewhere up in the 300 - 400 Hz range but that is more evident if you measure the system with something like Smaart.
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Alan Sledzieski said:
...Now we crossed the high end at 1.25k, LR 24 db. I take the crossovers in the 325 are pretty inefficient??...
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As Joe said - rolling your own DSP settings make this not an EAW box any longer. Many look at the numbers on paper and figure, "that can't be right," when the electrical response combined with the drivers, crossovers, etc combine to make the final acoustical response. EAW probably knows how their box should sound, and did not guess when they made their settings. I would do what EAW says to do and not question it.

Also - the 325 has never been considered a 'high output' box...so expecting it to be one is going to disappoint.
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Alan,

It's hard to tell from your photo. However, when a HF voice coil gets burnt it's normally pretty obvious. Can you measure the DC resistance of both your HF drivers? If one is secretly a 16-ohm driver then there would be a difference in level.
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Bennett Prescott said:
Alan,

It's hard to tell from your photo. However, when a HF voice coil gets burnt it's normally pretty obvious. Can you measure the DC resistance of both your HF drivers? If one is secretly a 16-ohm driver then there would be a difference in level.
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Bennett,

The quiet one is 5.5 ohm, the louder one is 6.6 ohm. ???? lol

To eliminate a crossover problem I switched the high freq assembly between the 2 box's. The problem followed the high freq assembly so that ruled out x over.

Then I switched the diaphram between the drivers, the problem still followed the diapragm. I even switched waveguide's, no change.

Also the 6'' are still off a db, not worried about that, I know i said equall before, but they are real close, before was extreme difference, thing is, the 6'' are 1 db down when they are paired with the the questionable diaphram.

These box's have me at wits end.
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

I thought I found the problem when I saw these brackets at different hieghts. I bent the one back into shape, the bent one, which is a revision, was the quieter one.

This brings up another sore subject, a stamped peice of steel in a $2800 box??, wheres the QC here, its over 1/8 a inch. This is not quality, this is disturbing.

Was the 325 box a experiment??


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Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Alan Sledzieski said:
I thought I found the problem when I saw these brackets at different hieghts. I bent the one back into shape, the bent one, which is a revision, was the quieter one.

This brings up another sore subject, a stamped peice of steel in a $2800 box??, wheres the QC here, its over 1/8 a inch. This is not quality, this is disturbing.

Was the 325 box a experiment??
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The LA325 has been around for quite some time - over 15 years, I believe. It's a solid box, but not particularly high output for its size.

We've already established that your particular boxes have been abused and serviced by one or more people that did not appear to believe in quality workmanship (the state of the crossovers should have told you that). So now you have a choice. You can either bring the boxes back up to EAW specs (including processor settings), or you can make your own driver choices and processor settings and end up with a homebrew speaker in a LA325 enclosure.

And since you seem to have issues with the choice of stamped steel brackets within the enclosure, I'd be interested to know what you would suggest instead.
 
Re: Eaw la 325 help needed.

Rob Timmerman said:
The LA325 has been around for quite some time - over 15 years, I believe. It's a solid box, but not particularly high output for its size.

We've already established that your particular boxes have been abused and serviced by one or more people that did not appear to believe in quality workmanship (the state of the crossovers should have told you that). So now you have a choice. You can either bring the boxes back up to EAW specs (including processor settings), or you can make your own driver choices and processor settings and end up with a homebrew speaker in a LA325 enclosure.

And since you seem to have issues with the choice of stamped steel brackets within the enclosure, I'd be interested to know what you would suggest instead.
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Cast, rigid, something that doesn't flex, that's a lot more precision, then stamped, + or - .125. Complete bolted together assembly would be nice, along with a perfectly centered gasket.

I'm bringing them up to spec, x overs were reworked, next horns. 1 step at a time I guess.

I'm up to about $1600 total invested in them as of now so it doesn't hurt to bad. Still like to slap the people that had there hands in the earllier repairs.
 
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