EV ZXa5 problem again

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d2benz

DJ
Feb 10, 2011
112
23
54
washington dc
I need suggestions on my present experience with my EV ZxA5 that I LOVE when it works but keeps breaking down on me.

I've owned a pair of these great speakers for about 2 years and have had numerous problems, mostly failed woofer that have been reconed many times.
EV even replaced one of my speakers at one point. between the 2 speakers the woofers have been reconed about 12 times...at about $180 each time and cost of renting replacement speakers while mine is down...I've paid enough money to buy another pair....oouuch!!:embarrassed:

The speaker went out on me at an event few weeks ago and I sent it to EV, EV said " The warranty was void due to high voltage"
Fan and twitter are out.
I was surprised because my Yorkville LS 801P sub was plugged to the same outlet and is still working...how come only the ZxA5 was affected by a high voltage...Could the fan had gone out and the unit overheated. I've read of different issues with the ZXa5 including the fan going out and the speaker oeverheat.

Below is the estimate & pictures EV sent...

the repair estimate is
Parts $ 641.00 Labor $ 90.00
Total $ 731.00
100_2344.jpgd. 100_2342.jpg
total shipping cost is $130 ...total cost of repair is $861.00

I called customer service dept to discuss with a manager, but no manager has returned my calls in about 4 weeks.

What would you do?
Is there anyway I can appeal to EV to cover the repair cost or split it ?
I need your advise and suggestions .

Thanks in advance
 
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More than likely, maybe the Voltage to which they are referring is the input signal voltage. If you have too high of a signal it can cause peaks and clipping. Tell us what components you are using in the complete chain and what settings on each component you have.
 
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I'm betting the limiter isn't working properly on those boxes and if so, I would also punt and pick up something else. There are enough 15/2 cabinets out there these days that sound wonderful.

A quick google shows many others having issues with blown drivers. It appears to be electronics related.
 
I have a pair of Yamaha DSR 115 tops and a pair of matching DSR 118 subs. I had a woofer got blown in one of the subs. It was being pushed too hard and I didn't know it. I think someone turned it up. For me I leave my setting at 12 o'clock on all my powered speakers and just control the volume from my controller. Now if that isn't good enough then that means I don't have enough sound for the event I'm doing. I don't go too crazy with the volume on the controller either. Some DJ's think louder is better. The louder it is the more they will impress people. What can happen when a speaker is pushed too hard is the sound can become distorted and you can blow something within a speaker.

That happened to me a lot when I had a pair of JBL JRX 125 speakers. Those were double 15's and they had a little hole in back of the cabinet. Now when you saw the light inside come on that meant the speakers were being pushed to hard and you needed to turn the volume down. For me if I need more then the 2 powered subs and tops, I still have a pair of Yamaha S215 speakers that I use a QSC 2450 amp with those speakers. I've known DJ's playing in a club and having everything in the red. Their thinking is it's a big system and it needs to be pushed hard. Why not? It should be able to take it right? Then when things sound like a mess and things need to either be fixed or replaced that normally is the problem. Unless the speakers are just some cheap garbage that a owner or a DJ has bought thinking that they are good enough. What they will find out is they should have spent more on some real speakers and that they would be done.
 
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This is the problem with going active. If the amp section breaks, out of warranty (or at any time) and you don't have backup speakers you are down to one speaker. Modern stand alone power amps rarely fail and if fed undistorted power most passive speakers will absorb much more power than their rated RMS value. I know active is convenient but a passive system is more robust and flexible. And now with light weight amps with DSP built in it you do not have to carry a heavy rack any more.
 
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But the benefit of active is the electronics are supposed to be preventing blown cones from happening, so it appears there is still work to be done on the DSP front.
 
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steve149 said:
But the benefit of active is the electronics are supposed to be preventing blown cones from happening, so it appears there is still work to be done on the DSP front.
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You can blow passive speakers too if too much power is fed to them. When buying passive speakers it's important to make sure you get the right amp for those speakers. What I have found out is that it pays to buy good quality gear. It will last longer and doesn't break down very often. That QSC amp is over 10 years old and it has been in the shop once because the power button stopped working.
 
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drzinc said:
This is the problem with going active. If the amp section breaks, out of warranty (or at any time) and you don't have backup speakers you are down to one speaker. Modern stand alone power amps rarely fail and if fed undistorted power most passive speakers will absorb much more power than their rated RMS value. I know active is convenient but a passive system is more robust and flexible. And now with light weight amps with DSP built in it you do not have to carry a heavy rack any more.
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You are correct. Even with a Driverrack which takes the place of a Crossover, EQ, Limiter, Compressor etc. If that unit goes down it can spoil your gig because it is like having 4 or more units go down, whereas if you are running individual units, you can bypass one unit at a time if one goes down.
 
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My experience with powered speakers is that if there becomes a problem it's usually human error that caused the problem or trying to get a pair of cheap powered speakers to do more then they really can do. A friend of mine has some powered Alto speakers. When I bought the one I have a salesman I know all too well in GC tried to get me to buy those same speakers. I wouldn't waste my time listening to them because I know they were some cheap garbage that I wouldn't be happy with. I bought what I know was good quality and would last me for many years. Not to mention how good they sound. I've gotten plenty of compliments over the years I've had them. In certain situations I have to watch how loud I play them and I still don't have to worry about something happening to them. I just make sure I watch that the red light on the back isn't clipping. If it is then it's time to lower the volume eithe on the speakers themselves or the controller.
 
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I would contact the person you bought them from, but I would have done that awhile ago, I have 2 "5's" and I did blow one about a month after I got it, but have not had a problem since,,, been maybe 3 years now.....

I beat the crap outa mine... school dances for 800 kids with just 2 of them and subs...
 
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I hope the OP comes back to this thread he started. I have some questions for him before I do my homework. I was wondering do you have either a sub or a pair of subs you use with those tops? My thinking is if you don't have subs you might be pushing those speakers too hard to make up the difference. With subs that will help with not having to work the tops so hard. Now when using those tops are you seeing the red light stay on? Like I said when I use mine I do my best to stay away from that issue. That lets me know I'm in a danger zone and need to be mindful of the volume.

Now you said these speakers have had failure more then just once or twice. You said the money you spent on getting those speakers fixed you could have bought another pair of speakers. EV normally makes some great stuff and I just can't see them making speakers that keep having so many issues as you said these have had. To me it's something either you're doing or not doing that keeps causing these problems. May I ask what are you hooking these speakers up to? How long have you had these speakers?
 
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Thank You for everyone's suggestions and input....

I will respond to all the questions...

1. I run these speakers with 2 Yorkville LS 801P's
2. The settings is always in the "Highpass" mode, that send the bass to the subwoofer
3. I was using a Rane TTM 57sl and I now use a Vestax VCI-380 controller, I've had issues with them while using the TTM 57sl mixer.
4. I use Serato, so all my music are in digital form...99% .mp3
5. My connection is as follows...from Controller -->Yorkville Subs --> EV ZXa5
6. the speaker doesn't have any limiter light to monitor.
7. The volume on the spekers are usually set at 2 or 3 o'clock setting...max is at 5 o'clock setting.

Once again thanks for your inputs, I don't know what I'm doing wrong...these are my 1st powered speakers....
Previously I was using Yorkvile Elite 400 watts passive speakers for over 10 years and probably only blew the fuse 2x or 3x...the fuse is just a bulb..about $2.00 each...

I'm at the point where I'm seriously considering another set of speakers....I got very used to the loudness of these speakers...I tried out QSC KW112
I don't like those speakers ...My ELX 115P sound better than them...
Any replacement options will be appreciated....but I'm patiently waiting for the New Yorkville Parasource speakers hopefully it will stand up to expectations http://yorkville.com/loudspeakers/paraline_parasource/product/ps15p/

cheers!


MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
I hope the OP comes back to this thread he started. I have some questions for him before I do my homework. I was wondering do you have either a sub or a pair of subs you use with those tops? My thinking is if you don't have subs you might be pushing those speakers too hard to make up the difference. With subs that will help with not having to work the tops so hard. Now when using those tops are you seeing the red light stay on? Like I said when I use mine I do my best to stay away from that issue. That lets me know I'm in a danger zone and need to be mindful of the volume.

Now you said these speakers have had failure more then just once or twice. You said the money you spent on getting those speakers fixed you could have bought another pair of speakers. EV normally makes some great stuff and I just can't see them making speakers that keep having so many issues as you said these have had. To me it's something either you're doing or not doing that keeps causing these problems. May I ask what are you hooking these speakers up to? How long have you had these speakers?
Click to expand...
 
From the ZXA5 manual:

To provide maximum performance with LF punch and high SPL, the ZxA5 does NOT have a separate protection limiter for the woofer, but the woofer amplifier does have a clip limiter. It is possible to overdrive the ZxA5 hard enough and long enough for the woofer to fail.
When the ZxA5 is driven to amplifier clip the sound quality decreases; at this point the drive level should be turned down.
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If you like them, you may want to throw a DSP in front of them to act as a limiter (DriveRack PX or PA or any of the other similar units). That can help soften the output as it gets up there.

As for gain level, "0" or the 12:00 position, is the normal place to have it unless the device feeding the speakers (mixer) is putting out too low of a signal. So at your 2 or 3 oclock position, you are adding additional gain beyond unity .. increasing the chance for failure.
 
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steve149 said:
...
As for gain level, "0" or the 12:00 position, is the normal place to have it unless the device feeding the speakers (mixer) is putting out too low of a signal. So at your 2 or 3 oclock position, you are adding additional gain beyond unity .. increasing the chance for failure.
Click to expand...

^^^ That's a good point.

Also, did you use Autogain on your TTM57 mixer within the Serato [setup]? (You should have been)
... If so, what dB level was yours set at? Anything 93dB and especially above is absolute distortion and all your tracks are playing in the red on the Serato output. I run Autogain and mine is set to 91dB. I play all types of genres.

I had a warranty covered coil failure early on when I first got my ZXa5's. I was running them w/o a sub and probably playing them too loud. The lack of limit light didn't help (thanks EV). That said... I am cognizant now of the limits of these tops and do have external DSP for limiting when I run my full sub and top setup (4 TH-118s and 2 ZXa5's).

Once you own a pair of ZXa5's, all other mid-level 2-way powered tops will seem like a step or two back. They don't get hardly as loud and the overall sound quality usually doesn't measure up as well. It takes a LOT of sub bass firepower to keep up with the ZXa5's too. I'd hate to see a bunch of potential user errors and ignorance blemish the reputation of a great Made in USA powered speaker.
 
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steve149 said:
From the ZXA5 manual:



If you like them, you may want to throw a DSP in front of them to act as a limiter (DriveRack PX or PA or any of the other similar units). That can help soften the output as it gets up there.

As for gain level, "0" or the 12:00 position, is the normal place to have it unless the device feeding the speakers (mixer) is putting out too low of a signal. So at your 2 or 3 oclock position, you are adding additional gain beyond unity .. increasing the chance for failure.
Click to expand...
He even mentioned having the volume button at 5 o'clock. Big NO NO! That's pushing those tops way to hard. At that position I wonder why you didn't hear distortion. That's over working those tops. Do as I suggested and keep the volume button on the speakers at 12 o'clock and control the volume from the controller. That should solve the problem unless the room you're using the gear in is a big ballroom. Then that means you don't have enough speakers and you trying to make up for the lack of by raising the volume to unsafe levels. Hope that helps.

- - - Updated - - -

Gaffle said:
^^^ That's a good point.

Also, did you use Autogain on your TTM57 mixer within the Serato [setup]? (You should have been)
... If so, what dB level was yours set at? Anything 93dB and especially above is absolute distortion and all your tracks are playing in the red on the Serato output. I run Autogain and mine is set to 91dB. I play all types of genres.

I had a warranty covered coil failure early on when I first got my ZXa5's. I was running them w/o a sub and probably playing them too loud. The lack of limit light didn't help (thanks EV). That said... I am cognizant now of the limits of these tops and do have external DSP for limiting when I run my full sub and top setup (4 TH-118s and 2 ZXa5's).

Once you own a pair of ZXa5's, all other mid-level 2-way powered tops will seem like a step or two back. They don't get hardly as loud and the overall sound quality usually doesn't measure up as well. It takes a LOT of sub bass firepower to keep up with the ZXa5's too. I'd hate to see a bunch of potential user errors and ignorance blemish the reputation of a great Made in USA powered speaker.
Click to expand...
I'll match my Yamaha DSR's to yours any day!
 
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I do sound for other DJs with my equipment. A couple of years ago I was having extreme problems with one DJ who was using a Rane TTM57 and Serato. The Signal Levels coming out of it was very high and peaking everything as soon as it came to my system The guy just won't listen and kept maxing everything on his end. I ended up having to purchase a Compressor, Limiter Gate (DBX 166xl). That solved the problem. However if one is running their own system, they need to know its parameters and set all gains appropriately.
 
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oldschooldj said:
Nice specs on that ART speaker, but it is one ugly beast :(
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I'm a believer in good looking gear as well but I don't personally feel the ART 4 and 7 series are bad looking at all. They do have a Storm Trooper type look but the angles seem proportional and edgy + the logo is nice (unlike FBT's).
 
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