Dead SVT Speakers! Lesson Learned

[Fair Warning]

Picked up a beautiful SVT 810 today, found on CL. Played some notes through the cab when I checked it out. All looked and sounded good. Almost no outside damage to the the cab, so it looked lightly played.

Got it home and noticed 2 speakers of the 3rd row down were not moving. Took out one of those speakers, did a 9vdc check with no response.....also the pair speaker in that row had no response.

Checked all the other speakers and found 2 more DEAD speakers. Double checked the harness. Found only 4 of the 8 speakers functional.

What is interesting is that the cabinet sounded great. Even with 4 of the 8 speakers doing nothing. Also amazed that in the another 2 bays, even with one of the two speakers dead, the speakers appeared to move just like its pair! This was due to the compression in the bay, coming from the live speaker.

After checking the sound again, the only way I could tell the dead speakers (by sound) was to pluck the G string.

Lesson is, to do the 9 v dc check or you may never know that you have a dead speaker in your cabinet!

Any thoughts?

[JimmyM]

if it's a flatback, get the speakers reconed. you'll never find speakers as good as those old cts svt 10's again.

[Fair Warning]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

if it's a flatback, get the speakers reconed. you'll never find speakers as good as those old cts svt 10's again.

I am trying to date this cab. Speakers are round magnet, 451010-1 / 86-032-01 / 10324 / 67-9002 62 ????? Bunch of numbers I took off the back of the cones.

The cab is angle back towel bar, real plywood, single plug, no rails, no kickplate, white plastic badge, classic trim, Sn: I81EC20088...

Nearly perfect tolex! I guess that is what let my guard down and assumed that it must be lightly used to be this old and that new in appearance. Also, still amazed how good this sounds with only 4 speakers pumping. The othe 4 were just going along for the ride!

Talked to the local speaker guy......Ouch$$$$$.

[Fair Warning]

Speakerman dated my speakers as 1990. So 21 years old. I am lucky. Of the 4 speakers I took him only one is dead (open circuit).....the other three appear to have connectivity issues with the lead wire and stand a good chance of a $10-$15 repair on each.

[Stumbo]

Seems to me that if the "dead" speakers were moving along with the active ones, they would be moving a bit of air. Maybe kinda like a passive speaker.

[mmbongo]

Originally Posted by Fair Warning

I am trying to date this cab. Speakers are round magnet, 451010-1 / 86-032-01 / 10324 / 67-9002 62 ????? Bunch of numbers I took off the back of the cones.

The cab is angle back towel bar, real plywood, single plug, no rails, no kickplate, white plastic badge, classic trim, Sn: I81EC20088...

Nearly perfect tolex! I guess that is what let my guard down and assumed that it must be lightly used to be this old and that new in appearance. Also, still amazed how good this sounds with only 4 speakers pumping. The othe 4 were just going along for the ride!

Talked to the local speaker guy......Ouch$$$$$.

Those are Eminence speakers.
Orange County Speaker Repair - GLS Audio Wholesale: 10" Ampeg SVT Speaker 86-032-01 32 ohm

[Rick Auricchio]

Originally Posted by Stumbo

Seems to me that if the "dead" speakers were moving along with the active ones, they would be moving a bit of air. Maybe kinda like a passive speaker.

Not really. All they're doing is causing pressure changes inside the sealed cabinet, which goes against the design.

A properly-designed passive-radiator system it ain't.

[lowend1]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

if it's a flatback, get the speakers reconed. you'll never find speakers as good as those old cts svt 10's again.

Jimmy once again speaketh the truth.

[Fair Warning]

Originally Posted by Rick Auricchio

Not really. All they're doing is causing pressure changes inside the sealed cabinet, which goes against the design.

A properly-designed passive-radiator system it ain't.

What is important to note here, during my inspection before purchase, is that even though I was getting what appeared to be low "frequency sound" and speaker movement, all the dynamics were coming from the other live speaker in that same bay.

Upon further inspection, once I got the cab home, I noticed one entire bay (2 speakers in same row) both were not moving any. Even putting my ear to them, I thought I heard sound, even with those two, but I now know I was wrong. I was just hearing bleed-over from the other active bays.

I now know that it is impossible to determine if all the speakers in a sealed cell cab are functional by "visual indications only" ie: playing through the cab and looking for movement. It really makes me wonder how many dead speaker there must be out there that go un-noticed.

After all the trouble shooting, trying to again see if I can "hear" anything different through the dead speakers, you acually can.....only when I played high notes off the G string. I could hear the low frequencies through the dead and live speaker, but plucking some high notes difinitely did not come through the dead speakers.

Bottom line for cabinet inspections before buying:

1. Speaker cloth off

2. Do 9 Vdc check through Speaker cable Jack

3. or Pluck High notes, put ear next to each speaker.

Again.....looking for speaker movement tells you nothing, unless you have two dead speaker in the same bay.

Cheers

[JimmyM]

well from those numbers, you have eminences made in 1990. despite my obvious cts bias, i think the earlier cabs made from slm are great, and that's what you have. the only thing about those speakers is that they'll handle about 50w each in an svt 810 cab, giving you 400w total power handling, but man do they sound great. and since there's really not an available direct replacement anymore, i would consider getting them reconed, except...

you could load it with eminence b810's and get a total of 800w power handling out it, or you could load it with jensen mod 50's and decrease your power handling to even lower levels, or you could scour ebay looking for direct replacements.

me, i'd be tempted to recone them just to keep it original since the sound is so terrific. aside from the limited power handling, they're great cabs.

[tbird36go]

Here is what your looking for. http://usspeaker.com/legend%20b810-1.htm OR http://usspeaker.com/jensen%20mod10-50-1.htm Both come in 32 ohm. Electro Harmonix use to make some sweet SVT 810 speakers. You may be able to find those NOS.

[selftitled907]

Sounds like it would even be safe to assume that the guy who sold it to you didnt even know there was a problem. bummer deal. hope you can get em fixed/replaced somewhat cheap.