Heh... I remember doing installs like this. Actually, for the system being this old, the wiring looks fantastic! I'm used to it being heavily mutilated over time by various people. It's actually not a bad install for its age. Bypassing power switches was something I've done on occasion on installs where tampering is expected. Tampering is VERY expected at a school. Even more important if the PA system is tied into the fire alarm. Although, we always placarded modified equipment for safety. I probably still have a few more "switch disabled" placards in my drawer somewhere. I used to keep one of the small Mackie / Behringer mixers around for times like this. Now it's a cheap Chinese mixer with built-in MP3 player and built in wireless mic receiver, USB-C powered no less. If I approached this system, I would have started at the amp like you did, but I would have used my own cheap Chinese mixer with my own source and work backwards from there. I find it hard to believe that all 5 amps would die at the same time. UNLESS they were dying over time or something very bad happened electrically (lightning, utility overvoltage, etc.), but the school would have mentioned that.
I will admit this was a nice install for its time. I couldn’t find one of those power switches if my life depended on it! Maybe on Ebay lol. This system has been dead for years. When they asked me if it could work I couldn’t believe they even asked. Everyone that knew anything about the system had moved on, and we lost all real information with them years ago. I hope to put a couple of amps in and get the system going for them. They never use it, so they are not sure if money should be put into it. Thanks for watching another video and being here in the comments!
A pair of headphones, a 3.5mm aux cable and a bunch of different connector converters is a decent set of tools for probing and injecting signals while dealing with audio system problems. Wondering whether signal exists on this cable? Hook it up to headphones and listen. Wondering whether the input is working? Pump some signals in directly with a cellphone and the aux cable.
@@DCAVL Yeah. That would be better especially while tinkering with old sound systems in unknown condition. At least there's no risk of toasting an expensive cellphone or, to be worse, detonating the Li-Ion battery if abnormally high voltages exist on terminals. A cheap Bluetooth receiver would do the same.
I've long lost count of the number of time's I've just bridge sleeve and ring to pins 2 & 3 of an XLR to check a line level signal or just popped bare wires out of pheonix connector so I can test with headphones. For a signal generator, my Sound Bullet has saved me so much time.
should have tested from the signal wire that went to the old amps to a known good amp to see if the problem was the amps taking the xlr frlom the desk you only tested the desk and one box. i doubt all the amps are broken especially as none are in protect
That was really interesting. (I might be the only one :) I remember doing that kind of work not long ago. My first guess was the DSP. Those seem to fail more frequently than amps and speakers. They musta pushed it way too hard to fry the amps, I thought the amps would have been the most robust part of the system. Guess not those. Also kinda surprised it didn't take out the speakers too. Any idea what speakers they had? Looking forward to see what you do for upgrades, if you make a video on that. - Tim
Hey Tim thanks for watching and leaving your comment. I’d love to rebuild this system with modern gear today and I’m waiting for them to decide if they want to do that. The room has 3 EAW boxes hung in a cluster over the stage. Then around the Basketball court smaller EAW boxes. Now I don’t remember what the speakers are but they are the size of EAW KF850’s or 650’s for sure. I’ll be back if they want it rebuilt. I might have been able to get the DSP to work if I had the RS232 adapter, However, I’d rather replace it with the amps to something with just a USB or IP connection. Thanks again for being here.
Hi, you should have tested if the new amp worked with the same jumper cable you used for bypassing the dsp. The issue could now also be in the cable run from the mixer to the dsp.
Well the first thing I did was send signal to the dsp and channel A showed it had signal. I could turn the main output down and the dsp A channel signal light would go away. This made me think signal was getting to the dsp from the mixer. When I went to test the amp I didn't want to build a phoenix to xlr cable to save time. Plus thinking all the amps need to be replaced we would put in amps with dsp built in or replace the old dsp with a modern dsp with usb/wifi connection. This venue is one I will work in a lot, so replaceing this gear with gear I know how to opperate is best for me and the venue. They will replace these and leave them until they no longer work again in another 15 years. All so the dsp had a yellow flashing light on the outputs without signal being sent. Sound like a fault to me. Those are my thought... Thanks for watching! I'm installing new floor monitors and removing older amps out of another venue today for a video.
This is a really interesting video. I'd love to see more details on this gym configuration!
Hopefully I'll get to do the upgrades to bring the system back to life.
Heh... I remember doing installs like this.
Actually, for the system being this old, the wiring looks fantastic! I'm used to it being heavily mutilated over time by various people. It's actually not a bad install for its age.
Bypassing power switches was something I've done on occasion on installs where tampering is expected. Tampering is VERY expected at a school. Even more important if the PA system is tied into the fire alarm. Although, we always placarded modified equipment for safety. I probably still have a few more "switch disabled" placards in my drawer somewhere.
I used to keep one of the small Mackie / Behringer mixers around for times like this. Now it's a cheap Chinese mixer with built-in MP3 player and built in wireless mic receiver, USB-C powered no less. If I approached this system, I would have started at the amp like you did, but I would have used my own cheap Chinese mixer with my own source and work backwards from there. I find it hard to believe that all 5 amps would die at the same time. UNLESS they were dying over time or something very bad happened electrically (lightning, utility overvoltage, etc.), but the school would have mentioned that.
I will admit this was a nice install for its time. I couldn’t find one of those power switches if my life depended on it! Maybe on Ebay lol. This system has been dead for years. When they asked me if it could work I couldn’t believe they even asked. Everyone that knew anything about the system had moved on, and we lost all real information with them years ago. I hope to put a couple of amps in and get the system going for them. They never use it, so they are not sure if money should be put into it. Thanks for watching another video and being here in the comments!
A pair of headphones, a 3.5mm aux cable and a bunch of different connector converters is a decent set of tools for probing and injecting signals while dealing with audio system problems. Wondering whether signal exists on this cable? Hook it up to headphones and listen. Wondering whether the input is working? Pump some signals in directly with a cellphone and the aux cable.
I still have a Sony Walkman for when I need to test a lot of signal cables. lol
@@DCAVL Yeah. That would be better especially while tinkering with old sound systems in unknown condition. At least there's no risk of toasting an expensive cellphone or, to be worse, detonating the Li-Ion battery if abnormally high voltages exist on terminals. A cheap Bluetooth receiver would do the same.
I've long lost count of the number of time's I've just bridge sleeve and ring to pins 2 & 3 of an XLR to check a line level signal or just popped bare wires out of pheonix connector so I can test with headphones. For a signal generator, my Sound Bullet has saved me so much time.
should have tested from the signal wire that went to the old amps to a known good amp to see if the problem was the amps taking the
xlr frlom the desk you only tested the desk and one box. i doubt all the amps are broken especially as none are in protect
Well, i see a lot of mistakes from his side, but it is what it is...
@@marisbalodis6228 all amps could never die all at the same time
That was really interesting. (I might be the only one :) I remember doing that kind of work not long ago. My first guess was the DSP. Those seem to fail more frequently than amps and speakers. They musta pushed it way too hard to fry the amps, I thought the amps would have been the most robust part of the system. Guess not those. Also kinda surprised it didn't take out the speakers too. Any idea what speakers they had? Looking forward to see what you do for upgrades, if you make a video on that. - Tim
Hey Tim thanks for watching and leaving your comment. I’d love to rebuild this system with modern gear today and I’m waiting for them to decide if they want to do that. The room has 3 EAW boxes hung in a cluster over the stage. Then around the Basketball court smaller EAW boxes. Now I don’t remember what the speakers are but they are the size of EAW KF850’s or 650’s for sure. I’ll be back if they want it rebuilt. I might have been able to get the DSP to work if I had the RS232 adapter, However, I’d rather replace it with the amps to something with just a USB or IP connection. Thanks again for being here.
Hi, you should have tested if the new amp worked with the same jumper cable you used for bypassing the dsp. The issue could now also be in the cable run from the mixer to the dsp.
Well the first thing I did was send signal to the dsp and channel A showed it had signal. I could turn the main output down and the dsp A channel signal light would go away. This made me think signal was getting to the dsp from the mixer. When I went to test the amp I didn't want to build a phoenix to xlr cable to save time. Plus thinking all the amps need to be replaced we would put in amps with dsp built in or replace the old dsp with a modern dsp with usb/wifi connection. This venue is one I will work in a lot, so replaceing this gear with gear I know how to opperate is best for me and the venue. They will replace these and leave them until they no longer work again in another 15 years. All so the dsp had a yellow flashing light on the outputs without signal being sent. Sound like a fault to me. Those are my thought... Thanks for watching! I'm installing new floor monitors and removing older amps out of another venue today for a video.