Official Elemental Designs Subwoofer Thread - Page 504

your coil is not fried. that is the standard black rubberized glue that is on all of them to hold the coil in place. i have seen a few ( out of hundreds ) that the coil did overheat, and needed to be replaced, but that is extremely rare.

sounds like your speaker was on it's way out a month ago. i have heard that same story from quite a few people that have sent amps to me. funny noises, then pop. speaker takes out amp. a few have ripped the speaker apart, and found that the voice coil had actually come unglued from the cone. when it starts rubbing on the sides of the magnet and making funny noises, it shorts out and pops the output section of the amp.

you can replace the amp with whatever you want.... but without taking care of the real problem, it will just blow up immediately. careful... some of the popular amps people like to suggest, are much worse than the eD amps... i work on those too. i know... people think the eD amps were unreliable... but it really turns out that the crap speakers cause them to blow up. no amp in the world can survive a shorted voice coil. the Bash amp in my Klipsch has blown up 4 times... but... i admit, i abuse that thing. that said, i have been heavily abusing two LT500's for the past month and they are ok so far.

anyway, take a multimeter and measure the speaker at the wires going to the amp. ( with amp disconnected ) you should measure from 4 to 5 ohms. my bet, is you are going to measure much less.
also, lightly push on the cone of the speaker and see if it moves freely, or if it is scratchy.

Hmm, the amp is what smelled very strong of burnt electronics right at that coil, so I assumed it was the problem. Also, it was burnt through black on the back of the green board...

I have not removed the sub yet, but I'll try and get a multimeter. The amp is probably broken now after me taking it apart and tying to rebuild it. What is a good replacement woofer and amp combo for this box?

What is the displacement and tuning frequency of this box?

Thanks again,
Dan

no matter what you did to the amp, it is fixable. you should see some of the stuff that has been here... most would have thrown it away, but it left here working. besides, i have extra amps laying around.

Pm sent...

Who, Where, How much you think?

Thanks

me, Las Vegas, $55 to $65 plus return shipping.

you probably missed my original post in this thread way back... but i was doing the repairs for eD last year, and am still doing repairs for many other car and home audio companies. full stock of parts, same day or next day turnaround.

i'll send you a PM.

wait... yours is a LT200, correct ? in that case it is $45 to $55. the LT500 is $55 to $65.

I got an A3-300 back in 2008. Never had a single problem, ever. I could crank this thing up and rumble the room. Just recently it has started shutting down. I don't know if it's shutting down because it's getting too much input signal or if it's the amp over-heating or something. Sometimes it stays on for hours, sometimes it shuts down every 5 minutes. I have tried:
Setting the switch from Auto to Always On
Pulled the AC power plug several times on it and my Onkyo 5.1
Switching the RCA cable that runs from the Onkyo to the Sub
Turning the output of the Onkyo down
Turning the "volume" knob on the sub down

I don't know what to do. I've got it turned down so low that I can barely hear it and it's still shutting down.

sounds like you possibly have a speaker going bad... check the speaker with a multimeter. you should see 4 to 5 ohms. check if the speaker moves scratchy, or smoothly when you lightly push on the cone.
you have an LT350 amp, correct ? i would not use the sub at all until you find the problem. you do not want to hurt that amp, as parts for them are getting rare. i still have a limited supply of some parts, but most are just not available anymore. later models used the LT300, which i have both amps and all the parts for.

Thanks. It does have the LT350. I will do those checks today after work.

Little more info-
When it shuts down the light just goes red, no yellow. If I'm close enough to the unit when it shuts down, I think I hear a tiny relay click, it's more of a tick. Then I can either unplug the AC power or turn the power switch off/on then it comes right back on to green.
When it does work, the audio that comes out sounds fine to my ears- no popping or loose or muddy or scratchy sounds.

Just in case, any suggestions on shopping for a compatible replacement speaker?

Speaker- reads 5.0 ohms.
Pushing on cone- not scratchy.

I have been away from this thread for quite some time, but am very saddened to see this mess. I bought... damn, cant even remember the model.. 18 inch sub, was very popular model. Anyways, I am buying a house that has an inlaw quarters above the garage and was going to be turning that into my dedicated home theater. I was going to get me another one of these subs to go along with the one I custom ordered from ED several years ago........ I have had ZERO problems with mine an dit has been a great sub.

Really disappointed to see what happened to Ed, and more importantly, to those that got screwed.

Well, it happened again. My A5-350 amp refuses to turn on. The last time this happened, eD was still in business and they fixed it. I obviously can't send it to them again.

I am going to remove it to see if anything pops out at me (loose wire, burnt pieces) but I assume this is something a good audio repair shop can take care of if the problem isn't something I can fix.

Thoughts?

^^^
PM daveds50. He used to do repairs for eD and can likely fix your amp.

well... if you have a time machine, set it back to 2011, and then send it in to eD, they will then send it to me. unfortunately, my time machine is broken, so you would have to wait till now for me to receive it. on the bright side, i would send it to you direct after it was fixed. at least that is how it worked between me and eD back in 2011.

can you tell that i am currently reading a science fiction novel ?

thats an LT500 amp, right ?

I currently have a dead LT500 and one that hums. Since the last one also hummed before dying, it appears its on the way out too.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

Quite funny, I was looking for picks of the old LT/550 amp to see if it had a 3 prong on it to see if that is why I am having a huming with the new LT500 amp and I ran into this post I previously posted through google. Pretty funny, anyways, I need to figure out this hum and I don't want to use a cheater 2 prong plug.

send me the dead one. also, humming does not mean the other amp is about to die. it could be multiple things if the proper cord is being used.


like almost all amps, the LT500, LT300, and the LT200 need an earth ground, otherwise there will be noise... do not use a cheater plug... use the proper cord. all the cord is, is a standard computer power supply cord. most people with computers have a few laying around. but if not, they are around $3-$4 at your local Walmart or whatever.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9714618&findingMethod=rr

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tripp-Lite-P006-004-GN-18AWG-Power-Cord-with-Green-Connectors-4/20574986

Thanks to Daveds50!

Replaced my LT350 that was shutting down with an LT500 in my A3-300 (130v.2 speaker). Working great!
Had to cut the hole in the box a little to accommodate. I'm not much of a woodworker. Using a jigsaw, some 1/4inch moulding, & some wood glue I was able to seal it up. Had to mount the amp sideways because no clearance to make a cut along the top/bottom edge. If I had a router and a rabbet bit, it would have been done "right". But nobody's gonna see that side of the box anyways.



Found the original website for my A3-300 from Dec 2008:
Elemental Designs A3-300 Wayback

Hoping to get another 4 years out of this box!

Anyone wants an old LT350 for parts?

i have a question for these of you you that had the amp go out, did u have your subs connected to a surge protector/monster clean power surge protector? or u just had it plugged into the wall?

I havent looked on here in a while, but it seems quite the mess has happened with ED! My kids just screwed up my LT300 on my A5-300 by breaking off the rca deep in the LFE/Mono input, so the amp wont do jack. Does Dave still repair these amps? I was also wondering if someone has a working LT350 they'd like to sell. I wouldnt mind sticking a bigger amp in there.

no problem, enjoy ! however, like i mentioned before, use care... that extra 200 watts can be hazardous to the drivers health...

power strip, surge protector, should not be a problem. it is only a varistor to absorb large voltage spikes. in fact, could be a good thing.

some power conditioners could be a bad thing though. however, there is confusion caused by the manufacturers of what exactly a power conditioner is. ones that filter the AC power are not really needed though, as the amps already have that built in.

the most common reason these amps blow up, is not because of the amp. a very large percentage of the people sending me amps, have found that the drivers have cooked the voice coils. no amp can survive that. i just repaired a Behringer amp... and sent a cheap Harbor Freight multimeter with it with instructions of how to check a speaker. all signs of damage to that amp, said shorted voice coils. and no... a 9 volt battery test is almost useless, contrary to what people think.

darn... i have no suggestions on how to get a broken RCA pin out... that RCA casing is totally sealed, so there is no pushing it out the back in this case. tiny dremel drill ? while i can replace the RCA set, there has to be a way for you to get it out... suggestions anyone ?

the LT350 and LT300 are the same wattage... contrary to how they were marketed. the 300 is actually a better and newer amp anyway. but you are correct... it is a bigger amp... ( physically )

Thanks for the quick response. I can try the dremel idea for sure, but the light on the amp is red as well. I don't remember, but isn't it green when working?

Wow thank you so much and disregard my past comment. Dremel worked! You are my hero right now Dave!

no problem ! just send large box of cash, or a new Corvette my way...

Sigh... My A2 300 still sits there dead. Just don't know if it would be better to try and fix it or buy a BIC f12 or Dayton Audio sub1200...

depends... is the driver still good in the A2-300 ? got multimeter ?

is it the old amplifier with the big heat sink on the back ? or is it a LT200 with no heat sink ?

if both the speaker is bad, and the amp is the one with the heat sink, then i would start over with something else. the cost for a new speaker plus amp repair would not be cost effective.

dont know about the BIC, but the Dayton is a pretty low powered sub. a friend uses one for a computer sub and it works well, but for HT in anything but a tiny room, i cant see it making anyone happy that is used to the output of your sub you have now.

It says Lt200, but there is a sizable heat sink on back. I don't own a multimeter.

Anybody want a large plant holder?

old style LT200. limited parts availability... some are available, but not all.

get a multimeter. everyone that is into audio should have one. cheap one on ebay around $4. cheap one at Walmart around $12.

if your speaker is good, it is worth saving. can fix amp, or replace for not much money. if it is bad, then shop for a whole new sub. you should measure around 4-5 ohms at the speaker wires going to the amp.