awdl22125 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 So, the drummer buys a used PA from fleabay, It's been used by it;s previous owners for years without problems. We decide to take it to our rehearsal space to test it out and figure out all the bells and whistles, we plug everything in and test the mics and run a cd player through the system, no problem so far. Then we leave the system playing background music while set up bass, guitars etc then suddenly smoke starts wafting out from the rear of the speakers with a nasty burnng smell. Has anybody any idea what this could be?. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brensabre79 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 (edited) Broken. Sounds like something overheated, depending on what type of amp it is it could be one of a number of things. First thing would be to open it up and see what's melted. When a solid state amplifier overheats, the transistors can literally burn out, leaving a caustic, powerful burned smell behind. When a solid state amplifier overheats, the transistors can literally burn out, leaving a caustic, powerful burned smell behind. I would not plug it in again. It may be repairable, but might well cost more than the amp to fix I'm afraid. Edited June 20, 2014 by brensabre79 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubit Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 (edited) I would get on to the seller and complain. You buy audio equipment and it should work! If it don't, you have been ripped off. As was said, take a look, but if something has burnt out, chances are the seller knew this was an issue and offloaded to you. Did he state that it was in perfect working order? Was the amp well packaged or did you pick up? If you picked up, then he knew there was a problem. Mail order could be a bit trickier as he will say it was working when he sent it. It's his problem if something is goosed, so exercise your rights! Just re read that you said smoke coming from speakers! Are they active speakers! If so, same as before, if passive , then gawd knows what's smokin! Edited June 20, 2014 by ubit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger2611 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Yeah smoke from passive speakers would be a bad thing.....very off the wall question but any power amp you are running wouldn't be a Harrison amp would it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awdl22125 Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 Thanks for the replies guys, the guy who sold us the system said was in fully working order, and in fact it was working perfectly fine for about 15 minutes. The smoke was coming from the speakers and not the amp. they are passive speakers and the amp is an old Carlsboro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubit Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 If they are passives, are you sure it's smoke and not just steam. There is no circuitry in a passive speaker, maybe it's just dampness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subrob Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 [quote name='ubit' timestamp='1403296017' post='2481681'] If they are passives, are you sure it's smoke and not just steam. There is no circuitry in a passive speaker, maybe it's just dampness [/quote] It might just be knocking a bit dust off, but smoke and a bad smell probably means either toasted voice coils or crossover. I'd open the cabs up if poss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 An amp usually puts out an alternating waveform, but certain faults can cause a DC component to be sent to the speakers. It's a bit like connecting your car battery to the speakers (don't do this..! ). They do not like this at all, and will most often produce palls of 'magic smoke' and a horrible burning smell. It's not unlikely that the amp is 'naff'. Don't plug any more speakers in until it's been checked over by a decent tech; that's my advice. The speakers are almost certainly toasted paperweights, I'm afraid. I hope I'm wrong in all respects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raymondo Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Almost certainly what dad says!....we had a Peavey amp go rogue during sound check and because we were trying to test to see why we had lost sound leads were switched around and in the end both tops,both bass bins and all four monitors were toast! Fortunately it was a new system,only used twice before and Peavey accepted that because(one of) their amps was faulty it was understandable that we were confused and toasted all our speakers. They re-coned them all and replaced the amp .It was a nice day out at the Peavey works in Northants waiting for them to repair the things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 ^ Good on PV... I am not always kind to them sound-wise, and there is a pricepoint to consider but this sounds like very good service Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raymondo Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 ^ yes I was impressed. It was a while ago.....late nineties,when the new 2000w power amps came out. Agree on the price/sound consideration but we played many gigs with the Peavey set up and it coped well with all types of stage and room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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