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Carvin BRX series cabs! Problems??

heavyfnd

heavyfnd

Guest
May 9, 2014
16
4
53
Tennessee
#1
A couple weeks ago I received my brand new Carvin BRX 10.4 cabinet only to find one of the 10" speakers already blown! I called them up and told them about it and they rushed me a replacement speaker! No problem replacing it as the wires and the terminals are marked!

I finally got to play it with the band tonight and noticed something didn't sound quite right! Now, I run a Boss ODB-3 through a BBE B-MAX preamp into a Crown XLS 402 power amp bridged mono! The cabinet is 4 ohms rated at 1200 watts rms, and the amp is rated 1140 watts bridged mono @ 4 ohms! In a small practice room with two guitarists playing through combos and a drummer, this thing sounded like it was fixing to blow every speaker out of it!!! I'm no where near maxing the power amp, so why is it sounding like I'm fixing to blow it up? Carvin has always had a great reputation or they wouldn't have been around as long as they have! Did I just get a bad overall cabinet or could it be something else? My frustration meter is pegged and I sure could use your input!!! Thanks!
 
#4
heavyfnd said:
A couple weeks ago I received my brand new Carvin BRX 10.4 cabinet only to find one of the 10" speakers already blown! I called them up and told them about it and they rushed me a replacement speaker! No problem replacing it as the wires and the terminals are marked!

I finally got to play it with the band tonight and noticed something didn't sound quite right! Now, I run a Boss ODB-3 through a BBE B-MAX preamp into a Crown XLS 402 power amp bridged mono! The cabinet is 4 ohms rated at 1200 watts rms, and the amp is rated 1140 watts bridged mono @ 4 ohms! In a small practice room with two guitarists playing through combos and a drummer, this thing sounded like it was fixing to blow every speaker out of it!!! I'm no where near maxing the power amp, so why is it sounding like I'm fixing to blow it up? Carvin has always had a great reputation or they wouldn't have been around as long as they have! Did I just get a bad overall cabinet or could it be something else? My frustration meter is pegged and I sure could use your input!!! Thanks!
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The wattage rating is actually the thermal rating - the point where the voice coil melts. You can cause speaker damage with any amplifier, especially if you eq things to be heavy on the low end.

If it sounds bad..then turn down and/or tweak your eq. If you need more volume, add another 410.
 
#5
I learned this a long time ago, only after BLOWING many speakers----

Maximum head watts i'd put into ANY cabinet is probably 2/3.
And even with that if you play hard, or have some nasty OD effect, boosts, super hot pickups or play at max volume, it is not a question of if your speakers will blow, but when.

An open jam douchebag blew out one of my speakers in my SWR GO light 210. (that is another topic: NEVER host open jams with your decent gear- buy crap to use)

I had it daisy chained with a markbass 210 (vertical stack) and was powering it with my TC BH250 head.

That head is rated at a maximum of 250 watts, and I only had the volume on 60% with a passive P-Bass (but a hot quarter pound pickup)- but this clown got too heavy on some accent notes, and now one of my speakers is rattling away.

That SWR Golight cabinet is rated at 400 watts...So in theory it should be able to handle my whole BH250 head at max volume all night long (on its own). But it didn't!

Plus amp heads typically put out much higher "peak" watts than their total watts. A 250 watt head, very well could peak at 400 watts when pushed hard I believe.
 
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#6
All the previous comments about head wattage hold true. I will only add, as a former BRX player, that those cabs simply don't push enough to keep up with a full band. I played a Carvin 4x10 "redeye" for nearly a decade before deciding to "upgrade" to the BRX line. I stuck with the same head (B1500) and same number of speakers/cone area. Simply put - they sounded AMAZING on their own, but did not cut or carry in a band context. I struggled with them for two practices before selling and switching to a Schroeder 6x10. That guy will take everything and more!

Best of luck!
 
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#8
I guess it wouldn't bother me so much if I hadn't been playing the exact same setup with the gain and volume settings set where they have been, if not less, for the past 5 years into a 300 watt 8 ohm Fender 4x10 cabinet! The amp had twice the watts that the cab could handle, and it took 5 years of abuse before a speaker blew apart! So I'm having a really hard time believing that these couldn't last through 1 practice!!! Could it be a bad crossover in the cabinet or anything besides the speakers themselves? I'm fixing to go buy a multimeter and start checking things!
 
#10
BassCliff said:
Hi,

What kind of EQ settings are you using on the amp? Lots of bass boost and treble boost (i.e. a "big smile") in the EQ?


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
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Sorry I haven't replied sooner! My e eq settings are quite mild, really! Preamp settings are as follows! Bright switch is off, gain set at about 8! Treble-6, mid-2, low-3! Para mids freq is around 400 he +2 gain! Compression level is a touch less than 5, but is turned off! Sonic maximizer is set low contour 4, process 7! Master volume less than half!! I haven't adjusted anything more, because it just doesn't handle it!
Thanks
 
#12
jonesn4bass said:
All the previous comments about head wattage hold true. I will only add, as a former BRX player, that those cabs simply don't push enough to keep up with a full band. I played a Carvin 4x10 "redeye" for nearly a decade before deciding to "upgrade" to the BRX line. I stuck with the same head (B1500) and same number of speakers/cone area. Simply put - they sounded AMAZING on their own, but did not cut or carry in a band context. I struggled with them for two practices before selling and switching to a Schroeder 6x10. That guy will take everything and more!

Best of luck!
Click to expand...
I had the exact opposite experience. I had 2 Schroeder 21012's that didn't cut it, I ended up selling them & bought 2 brx 210's & 1 410. Most of the time 1 210 is all I need. I am very impressed with how much these cabs will take. I have some of the older neo's & don't know how they compare to their current cabs.
 
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#13
I have an update on my situation!!! I finally got a chance to try a few different setups! First, I tried a different preamp (digitech bp8) into the crown power amp with same results! Next up, I tried an Ampeg SVT-3 PRO, by itself, and all was great! Then tried using the Ampeg pre out into the crown power amp, same crackle/popping sounds! Then used my overdrive pedal into my BBE B-MAX preamp into the ampeg and wow, that's the sound! So it looks like the crown is the issue, not the cabinet!
 
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#15
INTP said:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
http://www.crownaudio.com/xls-series.html

From the Carvin site, that is a 4 ohm cabinet. The data for the XLS-402 shows a setting for bridged into 8 ohms, but not into 4 ohms. Based on the web site (and the online pdf manual) it looks like that amp doesn't support bridging with a 4 ohm load
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The pdf and the original hard copy manual that I have say they do (1140 watts into a 4 ohm load)!
 

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#16
Interesting. The manual online has 01/08 at the bottom, which I guess is the date for that version. Depending on the date of yours, I wonder if they changed it because it didn't play well at 4 ohms bridged...

Having said that, that cab states "Sensitivity: 104DB @ 1w/1m". Even using one channel of that amp with 400W (450W on the online manual) into 4 ohms would be VERY loud. And since that is a RMS number, it's in the ballpark (i.e. within a few decibels) of Carvin's "power handling: 1200 Watts", which is almost certainly a peak number. I can see that if you've found a solution it might not be worth it, but you might still try running the amp in non-bridged mode.

I'm glad you have something that works, in any case.
 
#17
INTP said:
Interesting. The manual online has 01/08 at the bottom, which I guess is the date for that version. Depending on the date of yours, I wonder if they changed it because it didn't play well at 4 ohms bridged...

Having said that, that cab states "Sensitivity: 104DB @ 1w/1m". Even using one channel of that amp with 400W (450W on the online manual) into 4 ohms would be VERY loud. And since that is a RMS number, it's in the ballpark (i.e. within a few decibels) of Carvin's "power handling: 1200 Watts", which is almost certainly a peak number. I can see that if you've found a solution it might not be worth it, but you might still try running the amp in non-bridged mode.

I'm glad you have something that works, in any case.
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I've tried running it off of one channel, and tried both channels, which had the same results! That would only put out 450 watts per side, and it still pops like it's clipping, badly! At least I know it's the amp! I've had this amp for 11 years! It could probably use a tune up! Lol
 
#18
20140624_191636.jpg
New update! Finally got a new power amp (Crown XLS 1500) bridged mono this thing KILLS!!! The sound is crazy good!!! Thanks for all the help! I've learned a LOT from reading this forum, it's truly a blessing to have so much information readily available! Again, thank you all!!
 
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#19
I have the same cab, and love it. I got mine used for dirt cheap, but it did have some issues. I had to take the grill off and tighten down the speakers. I thought I had a blown speaker, since it was rattling so much. I even ordered another speaker from Carvin, which was not an exact looking match, so I sent it back. Anyway I decided to see how tight everything was, and there were some screws not tightened down all the way on a couple of speakers and the horn. After that, all smiles. I got it back in December, but started gigging with it back in April, and it rocks :)

I have mine paired with a GK MB500 right now, but I am thinking of switching back to my Little Mark III. I toggle back and forth between those two amps throughout the year...
 
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