Ugh, did I blow my Strata Mini or could this be an easy fix?

[Vedder323]

Im writing for guidance on an issue with a speaker (AV123 Mini Strata) that I cant seem to solve. Im hoping that someone might be able offer advice or guidance? As of last night, One of my Stratas started to distort slightly on medium to moderate listening levels throughout ALL speakers, particularly the woofer and and midrange planar. I have eliminated the possibility of it being my tube amp because when I swapped all tubes from left to right, the distortion didnt follow the speakers, it remained on the "trouble speaker". What im hoping to find out from you is that there is a good possibility that it might be the crossover? Maybe some capacitor is malfunctioning? Any other ideas? I would be terribly upset to discover that I blew the speaker from neglect...

 

[Adam]

Hi. You mentioned that you swapped the tubes, but did you also try swapping the speaker connections from left to right to completely rule out the amp?

 

[Vedder323]

Hi. You mentioned that you swapped the tubes, but did you also try swapping the speaker connections from left to right to completely rule out the amp?

I did, as well as swapping the source from left to right to rule that out as well...

 

[TLS Guy]

I did, as well as swapping the source from left to right to rule that out as well...

What were the circumstances under which the speaker failed?

It will not be a crossover problem, as there are no parts of a crossover common to all the speakers. All sections are in parallel.

There are occasionally series crossover designs. These are rare and it takes a nut like me to occasionally work with them. However a series crossover can only involve two drivers and not three.

Unfortunately it sounds as if you managed to overload all three speakers at once.

You need to remove all three drive units and test them on an amp connected to an oscillator set to the appropriate frequency range of the drivers concerned.

Taking out the crossover and making a circuit diagram of it would also be helpful.

AV 123 are out of business with the owner in clink. So the possibilities for repair only exist for a crossover problem.

 

[Pyrrho]

...
AV 123 are out of business with the owner in clink. So the possibilities for repair only exist for a crossover problem.

Most likely, they sourced the drivers from other manufacturers, and so one might be able to get new drivers anyway. One would want to pull a driver and inspect it for identification to find out what one can about this, as well as search online for information about them.


One way to test whether one has a speaker or crossover problem is to swap drivers from the bad speaker to the good one, and if the problem switches sides, then it is a driver problem, and if it does not switch sides, it is a crossover problem (assuming, of course, that one has eliminated all upstream components, such as amplifiers, from consideration).

It would be odd to damage all drivers in a speaker at once, but it is not impossible to do.

 

[cschang]

The Mini Strata has a powered woofer in it, correct? Maybe a problem with its amp?

Just throwing things out there to check.

 

[mtrycrafts]

The Mini Strata has a powered woofer in it, correct? Maybe a problem with its amp?

Just throwing things out there to check.

Well, that can be a good piece of info if the driver is powered by its own built in amp.

 

[Pyrrho]

The Mini Strata has a powered woofer in it, correct? Maybe a problem with its amp?

Just throwing things out there to check.

Well, that can be a good piece of info if the driver is powered by its own built in amp.

Yes, that is important, as the amplifier could be screwing up everything if the signal is going to it first and it is dividing the frequencies that will go to the other speakers and powering the woofer.

 

[TLS Guy]

Well, that can be a good piece of info if the driver is powered by its own built in amp.

Yes it is! That explains the problem. It does have its own 350 watt amp and crossover for the rear 8" woofer. There is a two way electronic crossover at 80 Hz.

So that does explain the problem. However that bass amp and associated electronic crossover that has to be the source of the problem, is unlikely to be a unit that can be serviced.

Shifty's electronics are about as shift as him.

The best bet for the owner, is to get a dual channel external lower amp and electronic crossover such as the mini DSP.

I would leave the original amps in place, and unplugged, and disconnect them internally and put two sets of terminals on each speaker.

This will take some funds, but will be the best long term solution.

 

[GranteedEV]

The best bet for the owner, is to get a dual channel external lower amp and electronic crossover such as the mini DSP.

I like this idea. Plus you can optimize baffle step compensation based on where the speakers are, rather than using an abritrary value