DFX Professional 215X

[bsco]

Anybody here ever heard of these spkr cabinets, comes with two woofers, one mid horn and 5 piezo tweeters......Looks like somebody wired everything together with zip cord......Isn't there supposed to be a crossover in this???? somewhere??? hoping I can find a wiring diagram at least...nothing on google that I could find.....Comments,Anybody???
Cheers

[J M Fahey]

We need *at least* a gut picture showing speakers and horns; brand and model by itself say nothing in this case because there's zillions of cabs like that, each with its own "house brand".

I guess it's a "cheapest of the cheap" generic cabinet, probably horn and tweeters are all piezo, so do not need any kind of crossover, simply all wired in parallel.

Look at the jack/speakon/banana/connector panel in the back, do wires go straight from connectors to speakers or the back panel is some kind of box?

Because if so it might hold some cheesy crossover inside, as cheesy as a single capacitor for the horn ; tweeters need nothing, although it's good practice to put a low value resistor (5 to 50 ohms) in series with them.

You may be looking straight at the crossover and not "seeing" it because it is not what you expect

Anyway, what seems to be the actual problem?

FWIW I saw them advertised as discontinued or used "cheap DJ equipment"
For the "cheap" word to be used in the ad description already says a lot (negative) .

One DJ advertised as having these "2000W cabinets" driven by a "3000W Pyramid DJ amp" , which makes me think that dividing each rating by 10 would be more accurate

Oh well, delights of the DJ World.

It might even have blown (speakers and/or xover) and some eager DJ might have "repaired" it.

There must be some reason this cartoon was drawn and became viral:

[bsco]

We need *at least* a gut picture showing speakers and horns; brand and model by itself say nothing in this case because there's zillions of cabs like that, each with its own "house brand".

I guess it's a "cheapest of the cheap" generic cabinet, probably horn and tweeters are all piezo, so do not need any kind of crossover, simply all wired in parallel.

Look at the jack/speakon/banana/connector panel in the back, do wires go straight from connectors to speakers or the back panel is some kind of box?

Because if so it might hold some cheesy crossover inside, as cheesy as a single capacitor for the horn ; tweeters need nothing, although it's good practice to put a low value resistor (5 to 50 ohms) in series with them.

You may be looking straight at the crossover and not "seeing" it because it is not what you expect

Anyway, what seems to be the actual problem?

FWIW I saw them advertised as discontinued or used "cheap DJ equipment"
For the "cheap" word to be used in the ad description already says a lot (negative) .

One DJ advertised as having these "2000W cabinets" driven by a "3000W Pyramid DJ amp" , which makes me think that dividing each rating by 10 would be more accurate

Oh well, delights of the DJ World.

It might even have blown (speakers and/or xover) and some eager DJ might have "repaired" it.

There must be some reason this cartoon was drawn and became viral:

Hahahaaa....Nice cartoon......I popped one of the speakers out so I could get a better look.......there is no crossover and I checked both cabinets.....The mid range horn is "not" a piezo.......there are no crossover caps connected to the mid horn....everything is wired together in parallel...I do have one mid horn blown.....everything else checks ok.....I' will have to try and find another driver or diaphram for the mid horn...the drivers don't have ang labels or info on them as well.....should prove interesting......Thanks for the replay and cartoon.....
Cheers,
Bernie

[Jazz P Bass]

I would at least hook up a capacitor to the mid driver.

If it is getting the full signal, the wattage probably killed it.

[bsco]

I would at least hook up a capacitor to the mid driver.

If it is getting the full signal, the wattage probably killed it.

I was thinking about that.....seeing as how everything is in parallel, the mid horn driver will see the same signal as the woofers......He also said he was using a PYLE 4100 power amp...I'll have to google that to see what it is......Sounds like an MCM Electronics line....these cabinets are rated for 1500W.......that must be peak power.......too bad I can't get the specs on the cabinet.....

[J M Fahey]

Well, there *is* a Pyle "4100W amp" whi9ch claims 500+500 W RMS at 8n ohms, so ...
FWIW a horn driver will die with some 30W RMS , if direct to it without crossover, so ....

Maybe some DJ found his cabinet dull sounding, noticed the horn muted and solved it by direct connection

Just for kicks, publush a couple pictures, but mainly of the horn driver.

And measure its resistance although I guess it will be above 1M

And what about the speakers?

Check the piezos also.

Is this a standard job or are you helping a friend, School or Church which deserves an extra effort, besides the $$$ reward?

FWIW I'm repairing a Catholic School for Girls PA system.

Since the Sisters do a great job helping homeless people, teen single mothers and their babies, etc. , I'm not charging a cent.

So far I found their PA amp has one channel dead (a single TDA 7294 each) , 20/30% of the pots are scratchy/noisy, 10% turn loose and some have pulled wiring, some shafts are broken at the neck, the speakers in the columns are a non standard size so I'll have to custom wind 4 x 16 ohms coils (I'd straight replace the speakers but standard ones don't fit, they are cast square frame like Peavey Scorpion or some JBL and slide in the columns like in a glove) , 2 piezo horns and 4 piezo tweeters are open or with wires pulled or cracked terminals, so that's what you find when sound equipment is operated daily by people which has absolutely no clue.

After it's working I'll do a house call at the School/Church to rewire the distributed speakers along corridors and patio: half a dozen 8 ohms speakers ... all in parallel without 70V transformers or at least in series/parallel, so now you know why that TDA7294 exploded into tiny bits, it expected 8 ohms and was asked to drive about 1.5 ohms or less.

Oh well.

[bsco]

Well, there *is* a Pyle "4100W amp" whi9ch claims 500+500 W RMS at 8n ohms, so ...
FWIW a horn driver will die with some 30W RMS , if direct to it without crossover, so ....

Maybe some DJ found his cabinet dull sounding, noticed the horn muted and solved it by direct connection

Just for kicks, publush a couple pictures, but mainly of the horn driver.

And measure its resistance although I guess it will be above 1M

And what about the speakers?

Check the piezos also.

Is this a standard job or are you helping a friend, School or Church which deserves an extra effort, besides the $$$ reward?

FWIW I'm repairing a Catholic School for Girls PA system.

Since the Sisters do a great job helping homeless people, teen single mothers and their babies, etc. , I'm not charging a cent.

So far I found their PA amp has one channel dead (a single TDA 7294 each) , 20/30% of the pots are scratchy/noisy, 10% turn loose and some have pulled wiring, some shafts are broken at the neck, the speakers in the columns are a non standard size so I'll have to custom wind 4 x 16 ohms coils (I'd straight replace the speakers but standard ones don't fit, they are cast square frame like Peavey Scorpion or some JBL and slide in the columns like in a glove) , 2 piezo horns and 4 piezo tweeters are open or with wires pulled or cracked terminals, so that's what you find when sound equipment is operated daily by people which has absolutely no clue.

After it's working I'll do a house call at the School/Church to rewire the distributed speakers along corridors and patio: half a dozen 8 ohms speakers ... all in parallel without 70V transformers or at least in series/parallel, so now you know why that TDA7294 exploded into tiny bits, it expected 8 ohms and was asked to drive about 1.5 ohms or less.

Oh well.

This is belonged to a guy who is a musician.....probably running a 2-piece and dj'ing weddings and the like.....one cabinet only seems to have a bad input jack...the horn driver in that one works...I'll measure the resistance of both the good and bad one....now.....for the cabinet that has the defective horn....also has a bad input jack....the piezo's are fine....woofers work.......If he is running mpe files or worse, using his iphone for music(which is what a lot of them do these days), with everything cranked up, then the horn would definately blow out....with every transducer wired in parallel directly to the back panel jack, the amp must be seeing 1 ohm or less......he also told me he had bought them used from somebody else......and needless to say, somebody else could have been inside at an earlier date....I will get those measurements and some pics for you if not tonight, tomorrow and will post them here for you......
Cheers,
Bernie

[Enzo]

Pyle has been around for decades, it is an inexpensive line often found in home made PA speakers and car stereos.

[bsco]

Ok. Here are a few pics of the horn driver.......
Cheers.....

[J M Fahey]

Well, a big honkin'ceramic, so no opiezo there.
Very Chinese looking, by the way.
Measure DC resistance in both drivers, I expect one working (hopefully) and the other open.
The 3 pictures taken from same angle and distance so one would have been enough, it would be intersting to have a sideways one and a 3/4 frontal one, showing how it's attached to the horn:
* bolted? ... if so how many screws and in what pattern?
* screw on? ... if so throat driameter and pitch.

The idea is first to find a replacement and if we are very lucky, a diaphragm replacement to keep cost down ... not sure about that.

The driver, specially at this price point, should be quite generic.

[g1]

Maybe some pics of the diaphragm too, someone may recognize it.

[The Dude]

That's a P Audio driver. Used in lots of cabs these days. They have a few different sizes of voice coil models, but if you measure the coil diameter and then Ebay search "P Audio diaphragm", you'll find them. You need to take it apart and look at the diaphragm in order to size it up.

[bsco]

Well, a big honkin'ceramic, so no opiezo there.
Very Chinese looking, by the way.
Measure DC resistance in both drivers, I expect one working (hopefully) and the other open.
The 3 pictures taken from same angle and distance so one would have been enough, it would be intersting to have a sideways one and a 3/4 frontal one, showing how it's attached to the horn:
* bolted? ... if so how many screws and in what pattern?
* screw on? ... if so throat driameter and pitch.

The idea is first to find a replacement and if we are very lucky, a diaphragm replacement to keep cost down ... not sure about that.

The driver, specially at this price point, should be quite generic.

Thanks for the reply...I can get you those other pics and the measurements...The defective one is "open"....I will measure the dc resistance of the good one and post it here for you....it is threaded into the horn throat so I'lll get that measurement for you as well......
Cheers...

[bsco]

That's a P Audio driver. Used in lots of cabs these days. They have a few different sizes of voice coil models, but if you measure the coil diameter and then Ebay search "P Audio diaphragm", you'll find them. You need to take it apart and look at the diaphragm in order to size it up.

OK. Thanks...I'll check that out as well.....

[bsco]

Maybe some pics of the diaphragm too, someone may recognize it.

..I didn't take a pic of that...I will do that today.....
Cheers