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Mackie sub problem?

jacobrownoly

jacobrownoly

Jun 16, 2007
257
32
#1
Hello, looking for some help on a possible problem with our Mackie SRM1801 sub :(


We have 2 srm1801 subs and the other night at a gig I noticed that one of the subs was clipping/blinking and the other one didn't blink at all. On closer inspection once we had the disco music through the whole system at the interval, I noticed that the sub that was blinking was putting out/pushing harder than the other one, which sounded a little weaker than the clipping one even though they where both on the same level. Overall it sounded great and had no audible distortion, but why would this be???

I know these subs get a bad name but they are less than 2 years old :(

My guess is the problem lies with the one that sounded weaker, it is the older of the two subs. I never push them above Unity and when the whole band play through the system I never have the meters in the red on the mixer just the occasional yellow which is perfectly fine. Nothing was panned hard either.
 
#7
Bump! My band owns 3 of these subs. As of very recently 2 of them are out of commission. We have pushed them in the past but nowhere near where they should just go out like they have. I know one is under warranty and I'm not sure about the other. Our BL owns all the equipment and 2 of these 3 subs have been in the band since I joined last year. One sub was acting strange so we bought a new one in April as a backup and ended up having to use it not long after the purchase. The other problematic one gave up the ghost. Anyhow, I have been speaking to Mackie and reading reviews...neither of which have been any good. It appears our nearest Mackie repair center is 3 1/2 hours away up in Dallas. After speaking to the repair tech there it seems like they've seen quite a few of these subs come through. I wanted to see about shipping just the input/power module but he said the problems with these subs have been so drastic and varying that they need the whole thing to properly diagnose it. We have a nice neighborhood/park gig this weekend that we are going to have to rent another sub for now, and it looks like the repairs will be anywhere from 4-6 weeks on our current one from time of arrival to the tech. Anyhow, we might be selling these lemons after repairs as we pretty much use our PA for every gig we do at least 1-2 times per week and need gear with some better reliability issues. If you're looking at these subs, you might want to look elsewhere!
 
#8
jjk2007 said:
Bump! My band owns 3 of these subs. As of very recently 2 of them are out of commission. We have pushed them in the past but nowhere near where they should just go out like they have. I know one is under warranty and I'm not sure about the other. Our BL owns all the equipment and 2 of these 3 subs have been in the band since I joined last year. One sub was acting strange so we bought a new one in April as a backup and ended up having to use it not long after the purchase. The other problematic one gave up the ghost. Anyhow, I have been speaking to Mackie and reading reviews...neither of which have been any good. It appears our nearest Mackie repair center is 3 1/2 hours away up in Dallas. After speaking to the repair tech there it seems like they've seen quite a few of these subs come through. I wanted to see about shipping just the input/power module but he said the problems with these subs have been so drastic and varying that they need the whole thing to properly diagnose it. We have a nice neighborhood/park gig this weekend that we are going to have to rent another sub for now, and it looks like the repairs will be anywhere from 4-6 weeks on our current one from time of arrival to the tech. Anyhow, we might be selling these lemons after repairs as we pretty much use our PA for every gig we do at least 1-2 times per week and need gear with some better reliability issues. If you're looking at these subs, you might want to look elsewhere!
Click to expand...

I agree! We have 2 of these subs and as from the other night at a wedding gig, one completely died (only 2 years old). Thermal and clip lights stayed bright red all night and produced no sound (very frustrating!) :(

Right now its in for repair, but I had an interesting conversation with the repair guy on the phone and he said something about subs are designed to be pushed hard and that it could do MORE damage with not pushing them. He said it was to do with not having enough air to move the driver and the preamp overheating. Sounds confusing :\

Anyone care to enlighten me on this reason?
 
#12
A few years ago I had the same issue with the Mackie powered subs except mine was the same model with the 15 in them instead of the 18. Unreliable as could be. I had one good sub and one bad one. It would mess up on us almost every gig at some point. It would short out and then start back again or just quit completely sometimes. Sent it to Mackie and got a replacement *supposedly* that started doing the exact same thing in a month. I sold all my Mackie stuff that month and never used their stuff again.
 
#13
I take that back; I kept a couple of their power amps, the M1400I series power amps, and still have them to this day. Great power amps. I use them for my PA rig and occasionally as a spare bass rig as needed.
 
#14
we have a pair of the 15 subs, and although we've never had any issues, they do get hot (thermal light comes on). I usually turn em down, back the lows off on the BBE and make sure the par lights aren't shining on em. This happens when we are using long runs of extension cord. I have a few times turned my fan around to blow on em.
 

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