Effect of direct sun on speakers

[HolyGrowl]

I had a gig not too long ago where I had to leave my cab on stage between soundcheck and show time in direct sun exposure from 4pm to 9pm, and it was a very hot day. That night on the gig one of the drivers started farting. After removing the grille to have a look, the driver is torned and corked all around.

Can this be an effect of leaving it under the sun for a long time? Power can't be an issue... it's an 8ohm DB 410 powered by an M6 Carbine with master at 10 o'clock and gain at 1 o'clock.

What do you guys think?

 

[megadan]

Doesn't seem like it... doesn't matter what your gain settings are, if someone came along and fed your amp a super hot, bass-y signal, it could have blown your driver.

If it was the sun, you'd expect them to all be the same...?

 

[billfitzmaurice]

After removing the grille to have a look, the driver is torned and corked all around.

Can this be an effect of leaving it under the sun for a long time? ?

It could be. Not recommended .

if someone came along and fed your amp a super hot, bass-y signal, it could have blown your driver.

If it was the sun, you'd expect them to all be the same...?

If it was overpowering you'd expect them to all be the same as well.

 

[KramerBassFan]

Just out of curiosity.... had you looked at your speakers BEFORE all of this happened?
It could have been the result of a long standing problem, and perhaps the sun just was enough to finally push that speaker over the edge?
For example, maybe the speaker was already worn/abused before this and you just found out about it now....

Thanks.

 

[HolyGrowl]

Doesn't seem like it... doesn't matter what your gain settings are, if someone came along and fed your amp a super hot, bass-y signal, it could have blown your driver.

If it was the sun, you'd expect them to all be the same...?

I doubt someone came and use my kit. But I get your point that it might have been damaged by overpowering. Yet, an amp delivering 600W at 4ohms feeding an 8ohm cabinet able to handle 750W leads me to believe that this is not the problem.

 

[HolyGrowl]

Just out of curiosity.... had you looked at your speakers BEFORE all of this happened?
It could have been the result of a long standing problem, and perhaps the sun just was enough to finally push that speaker over the edge?
For example, maybe the speaker was already worn/abused before this and you just found out about it now....

Thanks.

Unless the cab was abused at the store before I bought it, I don't think so. And I don't think I ever pushed the cab over it's limits. Like previously said, it's an 8ohm cab able to handle 750W. My amp delivers something like 420W at 8 ohms.

 

[basspro]

It's probably just a a fluke it happened while in the sun, granted direct sunlight will
ruin almost everything if left out longterm.
The driver was probably already worn and maybe it did get heated enough to
make the paper/foam softer and it split.

 

[Bass_Pounder]

I doubt someone came and use my kit. But I get your point that it might have been damaged by overpowering. Yet, an amp delivering 600W at 4ohms feeding an 8ohm cabinet able to handle 750W leads me to believe that this is not the problem.

Those numbers mean absolutely nothing.

A "750" watt rated cabinet will start farting out well below 500 watts of input.

The 750 number is only a thermal rating of the voice coil.

Torn drivers is a sign of over excursion of the cone.

 

[HolyGrowl]

Those numbers mean absolutely nothing.

A "750" watt rated cabinet will start farting out well below 500 watts of input.

The 750 number is only a thermal rating of the voice coil.

Torn drivers is a sign of over excursion of the cone.

Never heard it fart before the driver went bad but that raises a question...

On the last show I did, I was direct to the board, no cab. The soundguy told me he was getting distortion from my bass when I was playing with a pick. I figured that maybe the pickup is a bit too high for how I dig into the strings and now I'm thinking, could the very hot signal be sending bad transients to the drivers and induce damage even if the sound is not farting?