litesnsirens Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I played a gig Saturday night and after setting up my system I ran some canned music through the system just to make sure everything was on and working. I noticed that the L3t on the left side of the stage had a kind of static sound coming out. The sound was still kind of clean so it didn't sound like a fried speaker. I swapped out the cable from the L3s to the L3t and it seemed to go away. Part way through the night one of the employees came to the stage and notified us that there was a bit of a static sound in the system. Nothing I could do at that point. No audience members said anything and some friends in the audience said they never noticed it. After the gig we spoke to the employee about it in more detail and he said it was intermittent. Which may explain the cable swap fix add just coincidence. I put some canned music through again and cranked it. I didn't notice anything, so if the problem is there for sure is intermittent. This means of I take the speaker in for repair, they may not be able to diagnose or perhaps it's not the speaker. I'm wondering if this is something that is cable related. I'm not using aes/education but I'm willing to invest if anyone can verify that this may be the issue, if this is what you could expect as a symptom of less than optimal cabling. I use regular xlr for the shorter runs and dmx for anything over 20 feet. Any input would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxnew40 Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Intermittent cutting out of the signal could be the cable. You should be using AES/EBU type digital cables for the L6 Link. If you are using regular microphone cables I would expect this to happen at some point as your number of speakers or length of cable increases to point where the digital signal becomes too degraded to be reliable. -Max Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litesnsirens Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 I would tend to agree although according line 6, the number of speakers or number of cables makes no difference as each speaker in the line 6 link acts as a kind of regenerator of the digital signal before sending it to the next. So in other words if indeed my issue had to do with cabling it would have been at a single point in the chain not a culmination of the cabling. Have you had this static problem? I'm leaning towards a cabling issue, but I would like some sort of confirmation (if possible) before deciding if I may be barking up the wrong tree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotterp Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 I had something similar happen. We took an early break and checked all cables. I had one cable, short run from L3t to L3s that was a standard XLR cable. The L3s then ran to another L3t which is the speaker that was having problems. Problem went away and has never returned. I now use the recommended cables to all speakers. One speaker seemed to be affected and it kind of sounded like a blown speaker but not quite. Kind of a fizzy buzz mixed in with the regular sound. Was it the cable? Don't know for sure as I never really went back to recreate it. All I do know is that it works every time now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litesnsirens Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 That's almost exactly what I experienced. And a good description of the sound. I've ordered a bunch of mogami eas/ebu 110ohm cables of various lengths to use only for booking up line 6 link. Hopefully this will eliminate this issue from recurring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotterp Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 I have done at least a dozen, if not more, shows since this happened without the issue recurring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litesnsirens Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 Thank you scotterp, that news brings optimism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dboomer Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 An easy test would be to power on the speaker by itself with nothing connected and check for hiss/hum/clicks. There will always be some amount of hiss and it should follow turning up an down on the level controls. That would be normal operation. Then plug in the cables and check again. If there is an increase in noise then the problem is not in the speaker itself but somewhere else in the system. Usually it will turn out to be bad cables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litesnsirens Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 Hi Don, I appreciate you weighing in on this. I've tried to some of this testing at home, except that I have tried running some canned material through it. The problem is, that even at the gig it was intermittent, so it's not easily diagnosed. That said, if it's the cables I would probably have to use the same cables in the same order to make it happen. The good news is that I have ordered all new cables so maybe it will all go away. I even ordered from a company that will put coloured relief collars on the cables so these special cables will be easily identifiable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litesnsirens Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 As a final update to this thread, the next gig after this happened, I reverted to my previous wiring set up and there was no issue. Then my new AES/EBU 110 ohm cables arrived, still no problem even though it's a longer run of cables, I think that kind of staticky sound is for sure a cabling issue and an indication that you need to check the length of cable runs and or the type of cables you are using. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mncanuck Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 We've been using the Line 6 cables ever since we purchased the system. No problems for the 1st year. However, within the last couple of months we're starting to have intermittent problems with static and then the speakers cutting in and out. This usually happens during a session where the speakers have been on for 2-3 hours. I've tried re-plugging the cables into the speakers or into the M20d. Sometimes that takes care of it for a bit, but, then it seems to return. This is definitely Link related as I run a pair of studio monitors out of the mains and there's no static or intermittent cutting out with the main signal. Overall, the system has only been used a half dozen times or so for gigging. Most of the time, it's set up in my furnished basement and used for rehearsals. I also cover the cable with a channel protector so that it does not get stepped on inadvertently. I'm about to just forgo the whole digital link and go directly out of the mains just to avoid this happening during practices/gigs. Very frustrating... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dboomer Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I would check the jacks on the speakers and the plugs on the cables. It sounds like you have a loose connection somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mncanuck Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Don, Appreciate the advice. However, since you had indicated that the 1st time I brought this up, I have been using velcro to hold the jacks in place (as someone else suggested). But, I will check to see if the actual speaker jack is loose. I'm still wondering if there's a limiter kicking in somewhere in the speaker chain, but, you didn't think that was the issue before either. I've also got a back up set of cables that I can try. We'll see if it returns. These intermittent issues are certainly frustrating in an otherwise awesome system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dboomer Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 You should try using an analog hookup and see if the same problem comes back. It is possible that it is not related to L 6 link but could be some other issue with the speaker. Do use the same AES cables as possible. You should also record at the same time and then check the recording for noise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxnew40 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 I experienced a static noise from one of my speaker this weekend. It turned out to be one of the cables feeding the audio signal to the speaker. The problem was solved as soon as I replaced that cable. -Max Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BucF16 Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 I've had this exact same thing. It's not the speaker although it sure initially sounds just like a blown speaker, it's an input on the M20D. Especially if you have something grouped in stereo. Next time you have this happen, mute your input channels one at a time and I'll bet you can isolate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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