AL III Plus issue with Emotiva Amp.

That should help Paul out. Thanks mbskeam.

so if I read this right, it plays if the woofers are unhooked? does not clip the amp.
well if thats the case I bet the woofers are shot....
I have 2 sets of the, and all 4 woofers had issues, 2 fully blown,(rubbing VC, and melted)
the other set the spiders had busted loose, letting the VC rub the pole, making noise, and a short.....

OR, the crossover section for the woofers (pot specifically; they are the weak link in the crossover) is toasted. That's my guess.

Everything seems to work fine, both woofers and ribbons, unless I try to play them loud, at which point my amp goes into self protect mode.

Unless someone has other ideas, I will assume that these speakers were designed with nasty impedance curves that the Emotiva XPA-2 can't handle. I will continue to restore the speakers and then find them a new home.

Paul

The AL III Plus does not have L-Pads.

Paul

BTW my definition of loud is, I normally play the system for HT and moderately loud music at -15 DB on the processor (Pioneer Elite Receiver) the last failure point for the speakers was at about -3 DB.

I have played my KEF's in the +DB range with no failure. I do not do this very often, usually when showing off.

Paul

Keep us posted of your dilemma Paul. The AL's are great speakers but do require great power to get loud.

OK, I have run the tests as described and have what I consider odd results. The good news (hopefully) is that both speakers exhibit the same wierdness.

First, I checked all fuses, and they are 4A 250V fuses, and test good.

I disconnected the jumpers and tested the woofers, and they are reading 4.9Ohms. When I tested the ribbons, the meter registered for a second, and then read open. Everytime after that the meter read open with no flicker. It did the same thing on both speakers. So, I decided to play some low volume sound through the drivers, I hooked up the woofers only, adjusted the volume to pretty low, and then moved the wires up to the ribbons, and low & behold they worked. I said to myself "HUH?" so I tried the meter again and it did the same thing it did the first time, only this time I was prepared, and the meter settles on about 5.32 Ohms before displaying open. So I put the wires back onto the ribbon connectors from the amp, the ribbon worked, I took them off and tried the meter and got the same results.

So, anybody got a clue as to what is going on? My thought (and I know squat about electronics) is that a capacitor in the Xover doesn't like the DC used when measuring ohms, and says, "I ain't gonna play this game..." and goes open. Why sending a music signal through it, fixes the problem, I haven't a clue.

Does this explain anything?

Paul

What kind of multimeter are you using? If it has discrete resistance ranges, range lock it on the lowest range to avoid possible errors due to autoranging.

The woofer resistance seems a bit high. Did you 'zero out' the lead resistance prior to making the measurement of the woofers?

Update?

I still think you have issues with your crossovers. the AL-III + crossovers were, by Bob's admission, among the shittiest mess Carver ever put in the Amazings. This was cost-cutting measures after they kicked Bob out & ran the company into the ground.

Having gone back & read your other post about your AL-IIIs: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=14065 it appears the previous owner may have screwed your crossovers; one of the caps was TWISTED in?!? LOL~

Mike, if you are getting over 6 ohms on the ribbon side of the crossover, there's a problem.