I've heard various things about how you transport your cabinetry. One, is that if you drive around/carrry your cabs on their backs, that it will eventually damage the speaker cones as they will bounce and fall back into themselves, by ripping the material. Because of this, I quit putting my cabs on their backs for transport years ago, and always set them on their sides. But now that I have my Mesa 6x10, getting it up in the truck on it's side is a real pain, instead of getting more leverage by laying it flat and just pulling that way. Two, this is all BIG-time BS. Speakers are meant to take damage, and just having your speaker cab on it's back is hardly going to do anything to damage the speakers themselves. Any real-world/factual experience/thoughts on this? Thanks in advance, RSB
I can't answer your question completely, but I can say I have never heard of this before and none of my cabs have ever sustained damage during transport for 20 years. I wouldn't worry about it.
Thanks for the input already. I'd never heard it reported as fact, but just anyone with real-world experiences (like yours) is appreciated. This will definitely help now in the load-in/load-out of my new cab!
I haven't been transporting big cabs for a long time so I don't have real world experience but just from a logical point of view I can't see how setting a cab on it's back will damage the speakers.
Yep it's BS. I had someone once telling me that with the speaker lying on it's back, the speakers could be damaged by hitting bumps in the road, because the bumps made the speakers move too fast for the suspension to handle. I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair. That's like saying you can drill through concrete with your fingernail.
Are you saying that the car vibration doesn't do any harm to the cabs? What about electronics? Amps, premps...?
That's completely different. Solder joints, especially those subjected to temperature changes, aren't designed to move like speakers are. I carry all my electronics in cases that have some sort of vibration absorbing material.
I couldn't imagine that bumps on a road could make your speakers move more than when you're playing say slap bass with the volume right up.
Yep, that's nonsense. If your speakers' suspensions can take that they're total crap.... I've been transporting speakers of all descriptions in everything from ATV trailers to tractor trailers for years and the only damage I've ever seen is some shifted magnets on some 18" drivers after the semi that was carrying them got blown off the highway.....
If you're really worried about the speaker cone moving around and suffering damage, here's something you might try: insert a shorted plug into the socket of the cab, or short the speaker inputs (binding posts) together. The way this works is that a speaker coil, moving in a magnetic field, will generate an EMF across the speaker input, and shorting the input will tend to dampen the movement of the cone. Hey, I use shorting plugs with my cabs - I get weird looks, but I get those anyway (see my pic) Hope this helps - - Wil
I would think that putting it on its side would be worse than putting it on its back especially for the voice coils as side to side movement could be very bad.
I've seen a few dislocated magnets, and even a few dislocated speakers. Look at the way most drivers are mounted. The mounting screws/bolts are more likely to shear in the lateral plane, at least in my experience. In any case, properly securing the cab is way more relevant than its orientation, eh?
Do you think you are damaging your cab by putting it on it's side on a car's trunk (with a soft cover)?
Exactly. I have seen lots of mangled drivers, but pretty few attributable to transportation. I dropped a Meyer MSL-3 off a 6 foot stage once.... the impact sheared the magnets off both 12s and cracked the horn throat off. The cab itself remained intact, amazingly enough.
