P-Audio Challenger 18-650EL

It was running from between 30-35Hz at 24dB/oct. Initially it was running off my Crest 8001 and was perfectly happy, however they blew when we changed over to Adams Proline. I don't think we reached full power on the amps.

I blew 3 V18-1000 in exactly the same way, a friend has had similar problems too. It seems doubtful that it's all down to bad batches of drivers.
If you've burnt out a coil then you've obviously been giving them a decent amount of juice.

That much power is enough to cause over excursion below the low tuning of the box which is what breaks the driver...

The answer is 48db slopes at 35hz+ and powered by decent amps running in stereo rather than bridged, with short thick cables so you get maximum control of the cone...

Yup, totally agree but I really don't think I was abusing the drivers.

I'd just like to reiterate the point that in this case there was no evidence of too much heat or physical damage to the voice coil former. It just looked as if the voice coil was never properly attached to the former.

This exact scenario was mentioned to me by young Paul at Wembley LS earlier this year when discussing P Audio.
Edited by: nickyburnell

can you find out the manufacturing date for the speakers that failed.

I think it can be linked to the RoHs restriction (many manufacturers had issues with their adhesives a the time)

I'm saying this because I never had any failures like those, ever


Mircea Bartic

Adam: can you have a look on the drivers for any date stamps?

will do... I seam to recall 2006 for some reason.

NeXuS_3 wrote: I think it can be linked to the RoHs restriction (many manufacturers had issues with their adhesives a the time)



Mircea Bartic

we've had a number of failures now, from various manufacturers, of exactly this type. and I had 16 p audio drivers for 1 1/2 years with no failures. a couple of opus boxes with p audio's in failed where the lead in wires were a bit too short, so snapped, but they were easily fixed, and are still chugging away somewhere.

we now check all cones & re-enforce the glue where necessary.
one of my pd 2450's came half unglued. luckily i heard it sounding wierd, & un plugged it for the night, so it was still repairable.
Edited by: opus jody

any news on the driver?

I don't see any excursion curve, but the xmax is very limited, almost down at 5mm
The new versions claim to be 1200W rms aes!
Wonder how they ever would eat that much power without over excursion or heating