Obtaining my White Whale (25 Driver IDS-25 Line Array Build)

You were on MiniDSP right? To gain more focus in the phantom center you could try a bit harder to make the left and right speaker act similar in frequency and phase at the exact sweet spot. Covering the side walls with damping panels should help a lot to reach that goal.

The goal of my test was just to get both channels as similar as I could on the limited time I had.

Some of these other things will stew in my brain for a while.
 
The Yamaha M-85 amplifier is finally back from getting repaired/recapped. Working on redoing the eq for the arrays.

The amplifier definitely has a lot more detail and headroom. EQ is definitely necessary because the frequency response feels very off now. The highs are definitely louder and it feels like there are holes in other spots.

Definitely need to figure out the right gain structure for this new setup. While getting measurements last night, I was occasionally getting a crackling during a frequency sweeps. I know that the minidsp has an output voltage of 2V and the Yamaha's input voltage is 1.55V. Can I cause clipping by driving the minidsp too high?
 
One of the thing that's been so incredible about the line arrays is how much you can play with them to try out different sounds and they can just take anything.

Lately I've been pushing them to play down to 20hz and the sound was amazing. I did clip my amp one time which was quite concerning. That got me looking into amps again.

I picked with some Sonics 800x (rebranded Bryston 7b) bridged mono amplifiers at 500 watts each. Tested them out with separate cheap speakers first. They made a nasty pop out of the speakers when I turned them on and a nasty crackling/suckout sound when turned off. After reading alot about the issue with people saying its normal and have line array speakers that "spread the load" I decided to test them on the line arrays. They still made an alarmly loud pop on turn on but they still played fine. Later on during a loud, bass heavy portion, the left speaker cut out for a second. I muted everything, gave it a chance to rest as I have a self-resetting fuse in the speakers, and everything seemed fine. After using them on the line arrays once, I went back to the Yamaha M-85.

I have had the left speaker cut out for second since then and I do feel like the sound may be different now. Is it possible to "blow" a pair of speakers and still have them play?
 
I've had my Bryston 3B for over 40 years and it has been a stellar performer. That thing has grunt, and effortless power, so Sonics must cut some corners when they "copied" the amp.

It is possible that you've had some Xmax damage and things still play, but some stuff is out of whack from the original specs.
 
Yes, they still play but it seems like something is missing in the sound. They also don't seem to play as loud. The left driver is also occasionally cutting out for a second on heavy, loud passages. It originally cut out the first time with the new Sonics amplifiers, and has done it now twice now that it's been back on the original amplifier (Yamaha M-85).
 
I did some reading about these polyswitch resistors:

"Cooling and contraction is a thermo-mechanical process. Initial return to a low resistance state occurs within seconds to tens of seconds due to temperature drop but a complete return to initial resistance due to recrystallisation may take days weeks or months."

Sounds like U should have also had a light bulb in parallel with the polyswitch resistor.
 
Rated noise power was given as 5 watt for the TC9 (IEC 2685 18.1), and 10 watt for the TG9 in early data sheets. Newer sheets did have higher numbers.
(see this link for more background info on IEC 2685)

If you look at the newest sheets the 30 W is indeed mentioned: https://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/264-1062--tymphany-tc9fd18-08-spec-sheet.pdf

See also Tymphany's own data:
https://products.peerless-audio.com/transducer/193

And the TG9 (8 ohm model) is rated for less power handling these days:
https://products.peerless-audio.com/transducer/194

So all bets are off...
I've always considered the TC9 as about ~10 watt RMS power handling.
 

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I did some reading about these polyswitch resistors:

"Cooling and contraction is a thermo-mechanical process. Initial return to a low resistance state occurs within seconds to tens of seconds due to temperature drop but a complete return to initial resistance due to recrystallisation may take days weeks or months."

Sounds like U should have also had a light bulb in parallel with the polyswitch resistor.

With any luck the only thing holding back the performance is that polyswitch resistor. I've skipped that safety device in my setup.
(do at your own risk but I haven't witnessed any damaged arrays due to not having such a polyswitch resistor)
 
I took multimeter measurements of the individual polyswitch resistors, new in package as well as the ones in the speaker circuits. I also took a measurement of each overall speaker.

New unused 0.75A polyswitch resistor: .3 ohm
Left speaker resistor: .5 ohm
Right speaker resistor: .3 ohm
Complete left speaker: 7ohm
Complete right speaker: 7ohm
 
Because I was experiencing a few cutouts of sound from the left speaker and perceived muted sound, I'm trying switching right and left speaker wire to see if any issues switch sides.

Out the gate, everything sounds fine. Less than a song in, it did seem like the left side started to fade. I muted everything and waited a few seconds. It does subtly seem muted and frankly less loud.

By the time I unscrewed the back terminal plates, the resistors measured at 1ohm (left) and .9 ohm (right).
 
... in many ways the Aurasound and TC9 are very similar but playing side by side I found the TC9 to be much smoother feeling. The $1 Aurasound also distorted long before the TC9.

I am still a novice so take this all with a grain of salt.

I've had both and found that the Aurasounds basically sound like a full range that you'd pull out of a television.

The TC9 sounds "hifi"
 
I haven't gotten to changing out the polyswitch resistor yet.

On a side note, to eliminate the nasty pop from the monoblock amplifiers, I think I just need some sort of delayed switch or soft start something. When I ised the cheap switch that came with it is when the pop happened. Just plugging it straight into the wall did not make a pop.

Someone local has a Panamax 5300. Only issue I see is that it's a maximum of 1800 watts while the each monoblocks takes 1500 watts each. It would at least make a good test.

Furman and Monster Power also make products but I don't really know what I'm looking for.

On the simple side, I have 2 little Stanley outdoor remote outlets. I have no idea if they would prevent the pop sound or if it's thick enough guage wire.

...opinions? Anything you guys have used?
 
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