Dead Radial JDI's... thoughts?

Jeff Babcock

Jeff Babcock

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Jan 11, 2011
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I have a bunch of Radial JDI's, a mix of the old Mark I and some newer ones.

Recently 2 of them died over the course of a couple consecutive gigs for no apparent reason - they were my shows, not abused, just used on keys and acoustic gtrs. No weird scenarios like feeding an amplifier out into them etc, just basic stuff.....

They no longer will pass audio. Upon having a local tech check them out for me, he said it appears that the transformer is to blame.

It seems odd to me that that big ol' Jensen transformer would fail. What is more odd is that 2 transformers would fail in similar timeframes, and while one is an older Mark I, the other is a newer model with minimal usage.

I'm going to send them back to Radial but I had heard that they were going to stop using the Jensen transformer? Can anyone confirm that? Anyone else had something similar happen or have any thoughts as to why these died? I was pretty surprised, I have always considered the JDI pretty bulletproof..... ?
 
Re: Dead Radial JDI's... thoughts?

Bill Whitlock posted on the Syn-aud-con list serve that their manufacturing was just moved entirely in house, and that there was production shortages during this time. Because of this Radial had to source transformers for some products from somewhere else. Word is that manufacturing is quickly catching up to the demand, and it should be business as usual very soon.
 
Re: Dead Radial JDI's... thoughts?

I had similar problem with a ProD2. Just stopped passing Audio last summer at a show. Probably the first time we deployed it. It was not one of Radials with Jenson but I was shocked it died like that.
 
Re: Dead Radial JDI's... thoughts?

Jeff Babcock said:
I have a bunch of Radial JDI's, a mix of the old Mark I and some newer ones.

Recently 2 of them died over the course of a couple consecutive gigs for no apparent reason - they were my shows, not abused, just used on keys and acoustic gtrs. No weird scenarios like feeding an amplifier out into them etc, just basic stuff.....

They no longer will pass audio. Upon having a local tech check them out for me, he said it appears that the transformer is to blame.

?
Click to expand...

I just got one of their AV boxes back from repair. Top notch service, quick turn-around, the repair tech I talked to said the same thing, bad transformer. Box was about 1 year old.
 
Re: Dead Radial JDI's... thoughts?

I am debating whether to bother having them serviced.

I'm probably looking at at least a couple hundred bucks to repair these when factoring in shipping etc. I can buy a pair of their ProDI's for that cost.....

Anyone just want to buy these on the cheap and fix em yourself? I'll sell the pair of them as is for $50 including shipping...
 
Re: Dead Radial JDI's... thoughts?

Kinda makes you wonder when Jensen transformers go bad that have not been subjected to unusual stress! With a passive DI you would think it would be the usual stuff, bad switch, bad jack, broken solder connection.
Hope it's not catching, I have a nice sized collection of various Radial DI's. Wonder what the failure rate of Whirlwind IMP's are.
 
Re: Dead Radial JDI's... thoughts?

David Sturzenbecher said:
I use these, it's a JDI with less switches...LBPINC :: DI
Click to expand...

Thanks to this forum or maybe the forum before this one - I grabbed a double of these as well and intend to get a couple more soon. I have a Radial JDI type that I would love to trade for one of these ^

If you have more than 1 dead DI you need to look at other things - I've never had a DI go dead.
 
Re: Dead Radial JDI's... thoughts?

Jensen transformers are guaranteed for 20 years. JENSEN TRANSFORMERS, INC. - PRODUCT WARRANTY

The only Jensen transformer related failure I have seen is that if they are PC board mounted, and the DI box is dropped HARD the pins can pull out of the transformer or the board. I think this is probably very rare

BTW in my DI the transformer is fastened to the box, not a PC board. This allows me to twist the input wires.
 
Re: Dead Radial JDI's... thoughts?

John Roberts said:
A bad transformer in a DI does not seem like a normal wear and tear issue. Was it hit by lightning?

JR
Click to expand...

That's what I thought - those things are supposed to be pretty much bulletproof outside of extreme use conditions.
No lightning or other unusual power events.

I'm going to crack them open again myself and take a closer look, I'm just going on what the tech told me. Maybe Frank's comment about the pins is valid.
 
Re: Dead Radial JDI's... thoughts?

I am interested in what you find. Here is the info on the transformer pin location. http://www.jensen-transformers.com/datashts/dbepc.pdf

There should be a combanation of switches that removes everything but one resistor. Pin 2 and 3 on the XLR should show about 62 ohms. The tip and sleeve on the input should have 4.6 K plus the resistor (6.8 K on the Jensen ckt.)
 
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