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Voice coil smell during show

T

TheDutch47

Mar 13, 2024
60
105
#1
Last night I backlined my two Eden D210XLT cabinets for a show. Paired, they're 4ohm and 700w handling.
One bands bassist was using a 500w head but also using a crazy amount of gain. During their set the pace started stinking like something was burning. Everyone was smelling amps to locate the smell. None of the amps smelt and we couldn't locate the source. Until we checked some lights near my cabinets and realized the smell was coming from my speakers. All 4 speakers smelt like hot voice coil.
I made that bassist turn volume and gain down and they played their last song.
I used the cabs for my band after and the speakers sounded as articulate and punchy as normal. No distortion coming from the speakers.
When I put the cabinets in my car after the show, I could still faintly smell it.
The smell was not apparent when I dropped them off at our practice space.
This was the first time these cabinets were pushed at show volume. One of the cabinets came from a guy who used it for home practice and never pushed them. The other was in a studio for over 20 years and not used often. I've used them for band practice for about a year but they don't see more than 250w at practice and I don't use a lot of distortion. Someone at the show said it smelt like a speaker breaking in but I'm not sure I believe that. Adding that into incase there's truth to that.

I'm going to go check them out in about an hour. I don't think I'll be able to see the voice coil directly to check for burns. I'll be bringing an ohm meter to test impedance. I know that you can push on the speaker to feel for the coil scraping.
What else can I do to test if these speakers are OK?
 
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#2
TheDutch47 said:
Last night I backlined my two Eden D210XLT cabinets for a show. Paired, they're 4ohm and 700w handling.
One bands bassist was using a 500w head but also using a crazy amount of gain. During their set the pace started stinking like something was burning. Everyone was smelling amps to locate the smell. None of the amps smelt and we couldn't locate the source. Until we checked some lights near my cabinets and realized the smell was coming from my speakers. All 4 speakers smelt like hot voice coil.
I made that bassist turn volume and gain down and they played their last song.
I used the cabs for my band after and the speakers sounded as articulate and punchy as normal. No distortion coming from the speakers.
When I put the cabinets in my car after the show, I could still faintly smell it.
The smell was not apparent when I dropped them off at our practice space.
This was the first time these cabinets were pushed at show volume. One of the cabinets came from a guy who used it for home practice and never pushed them. The other was in a studio for over 20 years and not used often. I've used them for band practice for about a year but they don't see more than 250w at practice and I don't use a lot of distortion. Someone at the show said it smelt like a speaker breaking in but I'm not sure I believe that. Adding that into incase there's truth to that.

I'm going to go check them out in about an hour. I don't think I'll be able to see the voice coil directly to check for burns. I'll be bringing an ohm meter to test impedance. I know that you can push on the speaker to feel for the coil scraping.
What else can I do to test if these speakers are OK?
Click to expand...
Your ohm meter cannot measure impedance. If you have a meter that can measure inductance, that would be a good start. Measure each speaker independently. All the inductances should be close to the same number.
It's possible that when the voice coils overheated, the insulation (varnish) on the magnetic wire began to melt. This could have resulted in shorted turns or no damage. DCR values might not show a few shorted turns, but inductance values will.
 
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#4
How do you know what a voice coil smells like?

There are other much more likely causes of a burning small, specifically some crossover components. You might be able to see damage, but sometimes you can get some smell without any permanent damage.

You can't see the voice coil. Testing impedance can't be done with an ohm meter, you will get a DC resistance value but that won't tell you anything without knowing what it is supposed to be.
 
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#5
agedhorse said:
How do you know what a voice coil smells like?

There are other much more likely causes of a burning small, specifically some crossover components. You might be able to see damage, but sometimes you can get some smell without any permanent damage.

You can't see the voice coil. Testing impedance can't be done with an ohm meter, you will get a DC resistance value but that won't tell you anything without knowing what it is supposed to be.
Click to expand...
To be honest I don't know what a voice coil smells like. I was told by multiple people that was what the smell was.
 
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#7
TheDutch47 said:
Update. Crossovers were smelling very burnt in both cabinets. Speakers looked great and had no smell. Looks like I'm getting off lucky with a $40 repair.
Click to expand...
What specifically got burned? A qualified service tech should be able to identify and repair at a reasonable cost. I would not recommend replacing with aftermarket junk however.
 
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#12
TheDutch47 said:
Last night I backlined my two Eden D210XLT cabinets for a show. Paired, they're 4ohm and 700w handling.
One bands bassist was using a 500w head but also using a crazy amount of gain. During their set the pace started stinking like something was burning. Everyone was smelling amps to locate the smell. None of the amps smelt and we couldn't locate the source. Until we checked some lights near my cabinets and realized the smell was coming from my speakers. All 4 speakers smelt like hot voice coil.
I made that bassist turn volume and gain down and they played their last song.
I used the cabs for my band after and the speakers sounded as articulate and punchy as normal. No distortion coming from the speakers.
When I put the cabinets in my car after the show, I could still faintly smell it.
The smell was not apparent when I dropped them off at our practice space.
This was the first time these cabinets were pushed at show volume. One of the cabinets came from a guy who used it for home practice and never pushed them. The other was in a studio for over 20 years and not used often. I've used them for band practice for about a year but they don't see more than 250w at practice and I don't use a lot of distortion. Someone at the show said it smelt like a speaker breaking in but I'm not sure I believe that. Adding that into incase there's truth to that.

I'm going to go check them out in about an hour. I don't think I'll be able to see the voice coil directly to check for burns. I'll be bringing an ohm meter to test impedance. I know that you can push on the speaker to feel for the coil scraping.
What else can I do to test if these speakers are OK?
Click to expand...
If the L-Pad was turned off that might be the source of smell. On Eden cabs you are advised to a a minimum crack it open and never close it completely off.,
 
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#13
dbsfgyd1 said:
If the L-Pad was turned off that might be the source of smell. On Eden cabs you are advised to a a minimum crack it open and never close it completely off.,
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The level was set at about 25%. I've heard to not turn them completely off. Everything looked great except the one part that was obviously the source of the smell.
 
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#15
dbsfgyd1 said:
Bases on you other info that the cab operated fine, I would still guess the L-pad is the likely culprit.
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I'm confident that's the problem. I'm beyond relieved it wasn't the voice coils. A few people had me convinced that's what the smell was. They were basing it off smelling burnt coils in the past, but luckily they were wrong. It took me over 2 years to source these cabinets in the condition they are in. I was going to be devastated if they were ruined.
 
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#17
Bass4ThePublic said:
Mistake number one: letting people use your things.
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Mistake number two is believing what people believe is wrong with your gear. Most players have no idea, yet are willing to give their opinion as though it's fact.
 
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#18
I was always nervous about letting other people use my gear. I once played at a " festival " with 4 bands. I used my backline since I actually was playing in 3 of the bands. Epifani UL902 one UL310 and one UL210. I usually set gain at about 1:00 and Master as needed. I showed the other bass player how I had it set up and he thought it was "unusual". I usually had the EQ relatively flat. But I assured him this was the proper set up. They start their set and I go out in the crowd and watch the clip indicator solidly red through the whole song. Not trying to be a dick but not willing to let him blow my gear up I went up from backstage in between songs and discreetly moved to the front of the amp and saw that he had almost dimed the the gain and since they were a big loud band the master was pretty high and he had the bass at about 3:00. I politely advised him that if he wanted to run it like that the next song is not going to have a bass line. He was cool about it. I reset it and all was well and it sounded great. What really irritated me was that he ignored what I had told him initially.
 
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