aslan7

What L_t said Pmat ? Wow

Fill, my trumpet playin' son loved that. His fav is Doc Severinsen. Btw, lately he has been playin' a TON of SPG after you introduced us to that.

Man that's fun playing "papa was a rolling stone" from that album, Z! Thanks for posting ;-)

Oh I got to try that Russ!! They scared me on my iPhone when I played it just now. Jumps right into it!

The Air Force damaged them when they moved me from Pittsburgh to Oklahoma for pilot training. They paid for new ribbons and an install.

That is well said Nick. Thank you for the post. I am going to recap these as I believe that's a fairly simple refresh. In the meantime, I keep plenty of 3.2V fuses on hand and go thru maybe one every couple months. Like you said, probably just showing their age--had new ribbons installed in 1995 and new woofers in 2005 but original crossovers.

FUSE ISSUE: Well I did some troubleshooting today on left AL speaker. Still don't know why the left speaker fuse occasionally blows when pushed hard toward the 0db A500x meter level. As Doh-r says, just don't play them so loud. To address Loner_t, both speaker wires from each A500x are the same length--10 foot on each side. So much for shorter speaker wire theory blowing a fuse first on left side. I was incorrectly remembering the old speaker wire which was of different length and run to a passive BSR sub in the old days before going to the Amazings (when I was a poor college grad). That old subwoofer and wire are no longer used in my system. I did check the PDC board and connections. They are nice and tight with good solder welds holding the positive & negative wires securely. BUZZING ISSUE: As far as the buzz goes, I was able to find the vibration 1/3 - 1/2 way up the ribbon in a 2 inch section. It is fairly easy to find with a flashlight. I could see the clear "cellophane" in the middle on each side of the silver foil vibrating during playback of the Ballad of Bill Hubbard 60-90 second mark. There should be no movement at all of course. Pmat mentioned he had some debris (piece of foam?) lodged in his ribbon that was causing the buzz. I did not see any debris after extensive searching. I then CAREFULLY used a can of compressed air which I streamed in SMALL gentle bursts to dislodge anything that my be suspect on the left, right and center of the ribbon. Then, using a heat gun, I CAREFULLY, heated that section moving the gun up and down so the ribbon would not be damaged. Certainly a nervous feat. Then I re-torqued the screws on the back side of the ribbon where the offending vibration was emanating. Maybe 1/3 - 2/3 turn each. As the AL Service Manual says, if tightening those screws does not fix the buzz, the driver will need replaced. For now, the buzz is gone! This could last for 6 seconds or 6 years. Who knows. Now I need to buy a spare ribbon just in case Maybe the BobFather has a secret stash!

Speaker blowing fuse also has slight buzz. I'm going to check PDC today Russ per our PM. Also spoke to PMAT last night. Maybe that's the issue.

One is longer by about 3 feet maybe. Is it the speaker with shorter length wire that blows fuses? I believe it is. That might be why it blows the fuse first. Did not consider that L_t. I may just switch the wires around to check. Thank you! (although I'm surprised 2-3 feet would make a difference).

No One is longer by about 3 feet maybe.

"IIRC Carver reduced the fuse size in later revisions to further protect the speaker components (not sure what the final size was spec'd at but you can find it in the ALS service manual)." Yes, the service manual states on 26 January, 1989, the fuse value was changed from a 4 amp MDQ to a 3.2 amp MDL. The reason for the change was because the fuse value was too large for proper WOOFER protection. My AL's have always run 3.2A slo blo 250V fuses. I'm also allowing my SVS and Velodyne subs to do the heavy bass lifting so the woofers are not "overtaxed" so to speak. Funny the service bulletin statement toward the end of the manual talking about amp Wattage: "If you are pegging the meters on your A-500x amps you are probably sending at least 600WPC to the speakers so that means the fuses will blow if they are at that level for a sustained amount of time." The A500x meters are close to the 0db mark (about 3/4 up) when playing hard and the fuse blo's. They are not pegging to the right lest I melt something. "With the possibility that you are easily exceeding the design spec of your Silvers in delivered power, I'd be wondering why the speaker that does not blow it's fuse isn't, as much as why the speaker that's blowing it's fuse is." I'll also try a mono signal test (thanks Robert) as well as check the Audyssey XT32 settings. Maybe the left AL is set a little higher--not sure. Anyways, thank you all for your help!!

In 2015 he was placed at number 29 in Rolling Stone's 100 greatest guitarists list. Thank you for your influence and music Scotty. You will be missed.

FWIW I don't think AL woofer bass demand is causing a blown fuse as I checked the wiring carefully. In addition, the majority of bass is handled by the SVS PB-13 Ultra and Velodyne SPL 1200R subs. It's a conundrum I say.

Very promising young artist Kevin! Enjoyed it. Thanks for the music. ????

Help me out here Rod. If my Silvers are rated at 600 watts, 8 ohms--occasionally dipping to 6 ohms when pushed hard: Will the speaker fuse blow when paired with a bridged mono config 800 watt @ 8 ohm amp? Or Will the speaker fuse blow because the amp has issues keeping up when pushed in that config when the speaker drops to 6 ohms?

So even if the specs say theses are 8 ohm speakers, they may be pushing closer to 6?.. That might explain it UM. Thank you. So then what if I wanted even more volume (not that I do)? Let's say someone bought these AL's and had a gigantic room to fill with sound. What next? Plats? More efficient speakers? Klipsch horns?

Bismilah! No! We will not let you blow! Lol Thanks WrnO. Although I prefer YHWH

Neatness counts visually but messy wiring rarely affects the performance of the crossover. OTOH inductors can interact with each other electrically so their location and orientation is important. To avoid this place the inductors on opposite sides of the board and orient them at 90o angles relative to each other. Well when I look at my pictures, it appears to me like my coils are situated at the #3 postition in your picture Z--ie BAD. They are covered with what looks to be a hot glue type of substance so I do not think they are interacting with each other negatively. In any event, I did tidy some wiring up as per Rod's post making sure the copper wires were all about 1/2" from each other. Closed everything up and tested. Linkin Park's "Somewhere I belong" was played at ear splitting levels and the fuse passed the test as well as Rush's "Red Barchetta". Unfortunately about 3/4 the way thru Bohemian Rhapsody the slo-blo 3.2a fuse blew. . Replaced it and all is well for now--until I want to wake the neighbors. Thank you all for your suggestions. Just have to watch the volume level for now.

They are not bare, they are coated with enamel which acts as insulation. Note: It's best if the coil wires don't touch each other or anything hard or sharp so vibration doesn't wear the coating off and cause a short. Wow. Did not know they were coated. With how meticulous Carver products seem to be on the inside, I'm surprised those wires are all over the place. I'm going to try and make sure they stay separated from each other and a little more organized. Thanks Z!

Btw What is the purpose of just those bare copper wires? Is there a Crossover 101 explanation for that pic of wires?

Man you read my mind Rod and Phil! I was typing my question when Rod's post and your pic just came in Phil. I'll check it out. Have to look tomorrow as I just got called for a mission out at the base. Thank you though!!!