Blown Speaker in my Ashdown. Can't recone, only replace. Suggestions?

jorwesflow · #1 03-17-2010, 12:09 PM

I have an Ashdown ABM C210T-500 EVO III Combo, and one of the two 10" 16ohm Sica speakers is blown. I gutted it thinking I could recone it (sure enough the voice coil was nice and charred), but come to find out, there are no recone kits available. Only replacement speakers. I have contacted Ashdown and been referred to a service dealer on this side of the Atlantic in Ontario, and he gave me a price of $126.90 for a replacement (Sica P/N HK07486, which turns up void in a Google search). This seems a bit steep considering I could find a comparable speaker for half that price, and recone it for less than half that price (if only the flippin kit was available)...

My question is what should I replace this blown speaker with? Any suggestions? Does it have to be 16ohms to match the one that's still in there? Are there any companies that manufacture blue-coned speakers?

Thanks in advance.

BassmanPaul · #2 03-17-2010, 12:15 PM

Your best result will be replacing the speaker with the proper one from Ashdown. Anything else will be a crapshoot. And yes it'll have to be 16Ω

Paul

RickenBoogie · #3 03-17-2010, 03:16 PM

Yup, buck up and spend the 126 for the proper speaker. Otherwise, there's a very good probability that things won't work out very well.

LesS · #4 03-17-2010, 04:30 PM

Another idea would be to buy two speakers like the Eminence Deltalite II 2510 and then sell your good Ashdown speaker.
The Deltalite II's are 8 ohms each, so if you do that, you could not add an external speaker.

You are free to give your opinion - and I will not criticize it.

Rick Auricchio · #5 03-17-2010, 05:09 PM

And the Deltalites would STILL be a crapshoot in a cabinet not designed for them. Why is this such a hard thing for people to understand?

A speaker cabinet must be properly designed to match the speakers used. Period.

Yes, there are situations where you'll substitute a speaker and it will sound good and perform well. But if you don't want to gamble, you don't try this. The vast majority are a losing proposition.

gumtownbassman · #6 03-17-2010, 05:20 PM

option 1) get a replacement of the same type.

option2) replace both with something comparable (they need to be a matched pair) with either 16 ohms (inparallel), or with 4 ohms (in series) and you still end up with an 8 ohm cabinet.

C64 · #7 03-17-2010, 05:22 PM

Call Ashdown at 866 871 5800 and see if they'll throw a little good will your way. You never know.
Henry

Rick Auricchio · #8 03-17-2010, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gumtownbassman

option2) replace both with something comparable...

Comparable means the T/S parameters for the new speakers are the same as, or very close to, those of the originals.

Since Ashdown doesn't publish the T/S parameters for their drivers, there's no way to find comparable speakers. (And no other amp manufacturer publishes either.)

billfitzmaurice · #9 03-17-2010, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jorwesflow

My question is what should I replace this blown speaker with? Any suggestions? Does it have to be 16ohms to match the one that's still in there? Are there any companies that manufacture blue-coned speakers?

Thanks in advance.

I've seen the specs on OEM Sica drivers used by Ashdown, and they're not pretty. Even the least expensive Eminence drivers are significant improvements. The problem lies in the 16 ohm impedance. The only Eminence driver that might work for you is the BP102-4, a pair wired in series will give you an 8 ohm load. But they have very weak mids. If you don't run an extension cab you cab use 8 ohm drivers, and that opens up more possibilities. Aside from the absurd replacement price you want to dump that other Sica anyway, if one blew the other will likely follow suit sooner than later.

Lukejt · #10 03-17-2010, 06:00 PM

I've seen them on Ebay fairly cheap before. Ashdown new OEM speakers...

liam_g · #11 03-17-2010, 06:13 PM

There is something that bugs me about the whole "you can't replace speakers with something else and get a good result" spiel. It's actually an oversimplification. Sure, if you just throw any old speaker in any old cab, it's a crapshoot. But if you simply measure the cab internal and port dimensions and model it in WinISD, of course you can replace the speakers with something else, provided you find something else that models well for the cab.

For example, I have two EV TL606 cabs designed for the old EV 15's. However, feeding the dimensions into WinISD along with the T/S params for the Eminence Kappalite 3015 (non-lf) showed me that this driver would work quite well. And it does.

So yeah, it's a crapshoot. UNLESS you do your homework.

Cheers,
Liam

Rick Auricchio · #12 03-17-2010, 06:20 PM

[quote=liam_g;8856940But if you simply measure the cab internal and port dimensions and model it in WinISD, of course you can replace the speakers with something else, provided you find something else that models well for the cab.[/QUOTE]

Agreed. But 90% of the people who post asking about replacement speakers wouldn't know how to use WinISD if it bit them. These are the people who should be told simply "Don't try it."

Tim Skaggs · #13 03-17-2010, 07:11 PM

On the other hand, some of us have been taking the Thiel small parameters of our driver, pencil & paper, and manually calculating the optimum cabinet dimensions &/or port depth / diameter since well before WinISD or computers to run it existed. Most likely, some of the younger poster could not only use WinISD, they could write more advanced programs.

liam_g · #14 03-17-2010, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Auricchio

Agreed. But 90% of the people who post asking about replacement speakers wouldn't know how to use WinISD if it bit them. These are the people who should be told simply "Don't try it."

Good point, and 100% agreed.

Cheers,
Liam

Rick Auricchio · #15 03-17-2010, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Skaggs

Most likely, some of the younger poster could not only use WinISD, they could write more advanced programs.

Yeah, I'll grant you that. But since there are LOTS of non-computer folks out there, it behooves us to help educate.

JimmyM · #16 03-17-2010, 09:33 PM

for the life of me i can't figure out winisd.

Pilgrim · #17 03-17-2010, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyM

for the life of me i can't figure out winisd.

DAMN, Jimmy!! THANK YOU! I have spent probably three+ hours entering numbers into WinISD and loading speakers - and I can't change anything and get information out of it, I can't get it to tell me anything, it does me no good at all.

Somehow I just DO NOT get it. And after that much time, if I don't get it, I probably never will. I know others use it and get results - I don't.

Tim Skaggs · #18 03-17-2010, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Yeah, I'll grant you that. But since there are LOTS of non-computer folks out there, it behooves us to help educate

Agree on that. Keep trying to teach; don't give up on us.

I sure miss the old days of BP. I subscribed from '92 until '09. Bailed when it dropped below 75 pages last year.

Rick Auricchio · #19 03-17-2010, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Skaggs

I sure miss the old days of BP. I subscribed from '92 until '09. Bailed when it dropped below 75 pages last year.

Heh...I wrote a column called "Studio Time" in BP from 1997 through 1999.

Tim Skaggs · #20 03-18-2010, 08:46 PM

Yep, read every word & still have every issue. It's why I mentioned it in my reply to you. Those were the good old days of BP in my opinion.