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ADS L/1290 issue

DavidEngland

DavidEngland

New Member
Hi everyone!

I have a pair of 1290/2's powered by my Pioneer SX-1250. Two weeks ago I left my home in the hands of my stepson while the rest of the family went camping. On my return, we found out he had a pool party etc. A few days went by and I eventually went to listen to some vinyl... When the needle hit, all I heard was a faint sound coming from left side tweeter, nothing else. Of course, they sounded brilliant before we left and clearly 'someone' had done something in our absence.

I checked the wiring, receiver controls etc. and nothing was out of place. I did however, notice a faint, 'burnt' electronics smell I had not smelled before, seemingly radiating from my speakers. I also noticed tears in the driver surrounds that were not there previously.

One last thing, I did pull the 4 allen screws out of the crossover cover and pulled it away about 3/4 of an inch, at which time the smell got more obvious and a liquid (color of motor oil) dripped on to the floor. I put the screws back in and so it sits.

I am not experienced and I need help figuring out what might be wrong here and what remedies there are....

What would the liquid be? Is this potentially an easy fix for someone like Richard So whom I read about everywhere? Obviously the speakers being rebuilt is a must at this point, but this is more than that, I get literally no sound, no speaker effort, nada..

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. I'd hate to have to replace these awesome speakers with something else.

Thanks in advance.
 
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Stuff is blowed up. You need to figure out what is damaged. The speakers can be repaired but we don't know everything right or wrong with them yet, as it may be the receiver.

Does the amp come out of protection as it should? If so, maybe you can check it with another pair of speakers. If it works, good. If not, more investigation of this unit is in order.

On the speakers, it seems the crossover is burned up, maybe one of the capacitors spilled its guts but the rest of the stuff either won't burn easily or won't leak if it does.

The drivers can be checked individually, removed, unhooked and then tested with a volt meter. If that says things might be good, you could put speaker output to the woofers to see that they work, reduce bass completely, low filter on and test the midrange at lower volume and with the treble cranked test the tweeter at low volume, too. Drivers that do not provide a resistance of a few ohms, 4-8, I'd guess and just show OL on the meter might be blow and looking for a Richard So treatment. Drivers that have a resistance (the mids should be similar, the tweets should be similar and the woofers should be similar) but don't sound right, scratchy or something else may have issues but they really should be tested in the speaker with the crossover. But those need work first it seems.

Let us know how you move forward. Good Luck.
 
A suggestion. It won't help your speakers but you will feel way better -

2015-08-20-1440035992-140621-caning.gif
 
DavidEngland said:
One last thing, I did pull the 4 allen screws out of the crossover cover and pulled it away about 3/4 of an inch, at which time the smell got more obvious and a liquid (color of motor oil) dripped on to the floor.
Click to expand...

That's actually a new one for me. Usually when an electrolytic cap goes it's like party popper confetti shot around the inside of the cabinet. The liquid is likely the dielectric from one or more of the electrolytic capacitors in the crossover. In unburned form it has the consistency of paste. I'd gather the caps got hot enough to melt that, burn it up, then extrude it out. At the minimum one or both crossovers will need rebuilding.

What usually happens is that the tweeters and/or mids exit from either the fuses blowing or the polyswitches kicking in. Then, Einstein continues to drive the crap out of the speakers taking out the next thing in the chain, the crossovers. I've actually seen them with the solder melted off the traces. The good news is that everything is repairable.
 
This is why I never let my kids near my gear! They weren't the have a party while the folks are away type, but they knew not to mess with my gear. Another reason to get them their own systems.
I feel for you, but it is all repairable. How old are your kids? Did they fess up? Maybe they should cover some of the repair costs to teach them a lesson, a very expensive mistake!
 
Reminds me of a real-life story a co-worker shared with a group of us about 25 years ago when he and wife left for vacation and left teen son and daughter home alone. Let's just say his son is lucky to be alive today. My sympathy goes out to the OP. As the others have said- they can be fixed, but it's going to cost you a significant outlay. Maybe unplug your stuff and pull internal fuses before your next camping trip?? Good luck.
 
we need pics first and foremost here, really we love to help but post some pics, for all we know some one could have had inappropriate relations with s ADS speaker, you never know
 
You and your stepson will laugh about it someday. Painful though now.

You've come to the right place for both empathy and advice. I'm more in the empathy category but there are definitely some folks in the know around here.

There's an ADS merit badge of some type for overcoming this situation I'm sure.
 
Hi everyone, thanks for the thorough responses and the humor.

Here is what I've done so far:

Speaker 1: I removed all the drivers and tested them for resistance and the entire set rate between 3-8 ohms. I removed the crossover and while there is no visual damage (naked eye), there is a smell to it.

Speaker 2: I removed the crossover (not speakers, got late). The crossover has some serious visual damage. One of the coil spools is melted, the base of the crossover is melted and there was that liquid visible all over it. I can provide pics later because it's pretty amazing that it didn't catch fire or something! It got hot enough that the back of the crossover, where the speaker connections are, is pretty warped.

I also reached out to Richard So, I will be sending everything to him. Even if the speakers are 'fine', I will need to have the surrounds replaced and I feel like I can use this opportunity to have them rebuilt to like new condition. I am a little worried about the crossover as the 'chassis' for the crossover is pretty messed up and I am not sure if has those just kicking around.

My step son is 21 years old and typically responsible. We gave him keys to feed the cat (lives with friends in apartment) He has NOT owned up to doing this and even stated our neighbors were right, there was loud music, coming from his buddies Bose Wave? My wife was not sharp enough to ask him how many of these units he would have been using to fill the street with music! She is now wondering if lightning might have struck our house:bs: Anyone with step children can related, I'm sure.

I do have one more question: Other than hooking up another set of speakers to my 1250, which I don't have readily available, is there another way to rule out damage to the receiver?
 
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@DavidEngland

Unless Richard has a spare crossover carrier (he may) you need to watch ebay. Complete crossovers w/ that carrier come up often and the swap is straightforward.

Lightning strikes typically take out whatever is plugged in the wall and not the speakers. This however is a fairly uncommon event and can probably be ruled out.

Heard your scenario described many times in my career as well as read about similar here. With 99% certainty you can also rule out BOSE Wave as the loud music source.
 
Did you open up the receiver yet to look for visual damage and any burn odors? I like the headphone idea for testing, and then test on some cheap crap speakers. Easy to find at yard sales thrifts, Salvation Army etc... I keep a pair of Minimus 7's on hand for just this that I paid 10 bucks for at a thrift.
Good luck!
Richard will get it back to new condition!
 
To test the receiver, connect the friends Bose wave radio to it. The only way to know will of course to be to turn it all the way up through the range of volume.
I read this thread to my kids so they "get it".
 
Ha! Glenn, I also have and use Minimus 7's for my bench test speakers.

Actually the ripped surrounds I find to be crazy.
 
Parents go on vacation, son has party, blows up speakers with monster receiver. It's like the good old days!

Do you have another set of speakers to verify the Pioneer is ok? It really sounds like the crossover took the hit but definitely get it fixed.
 
Drugolf said:
To test the receiver, connect the friends Bose wave radio to it. The only way to know will of course to be to turn it all the way up through the range of volume.
I read this thread to my kids so they "get it".
Click to expand...

Ha! Great idea, but I suspect the Bose system is mythological!
 
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