wicker_man Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 I have been noticing changes in the tone from my L3t whilst playing my JTV59 (acoustic and tele models mainly). One minute the sound is fine, then all of a sudden (and for no obvious reason) there is a bit of a pop and the tone gets very dark, losing all the high end frequencies. From what I can tell, only the lower driver is outputting sound from the L3t. If I take a DI from the POD's balanced output and feed that into the mixer input, I get the same result. The L3t is in PA/Reference mode and is connected to my POD via L6 link, and I am using a VDI connection from the Variax to the POD. I have tried feeding the L6 link into my DT amp head and the tone is fine, and the DI into my audio interface and monitors also sounds fine. Do I have a defective L3t, or is there some magic trick to make it sound nice again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicker_man Posted February 22, 2014 Author Share Posted February 22, 2014 Just spent the morning troubleshooting this issue to make sure I am absolutely clear on where the issue lies. After simultaneously recording direct out of the POD and from a condenser mic in front of the L3t, I can clearly hear changes in the tone from the L3t, whereas the direct channel is consistent. Just to be absolutely sure there was no issue with the variax, I repeated using the piezo output from my LP. Same issue, except the tone started off dark and then brightened up. It sounds like the tweeter in the L3t is performing intermittently, which is not very good from a piece of expensive kit that I have had for less than 2 months. Oh joy...warranty claim pending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dboomer Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Hello wicker First, it would be normal to hear almost all of the sound of a guitar through the bottom woofer as not much goes to the tweeter or to the top woofer which carries the lows. It also would be difficult to mic an L3 as you would need to back the mic up to about 3 or 4 times the distance that represents the height of the speaker cabinet. Close mixing won't work. What version of firmware does your speaker have? Have you tried switching speaker models back and forth and then coming back to reference PA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dboomer Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Btw... How does the speaker sound if you run pre-recorded music into it using the RCA jacks on the back? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicker_man Posted February 22, 2014 Author Share Posted February 22, 2014 Hi, thanks for the info. I was hearing most of the sound through the bottom woofer as you say, but whilst playing there was a marked change in tone - all the sparkle from the piezo was lost - then it came back, without me doing anything. I appreciate that I might not have mic'ed up the speaker properly, but I just wanted to compare the direct POD audio to the sound from the speaker to rule out the JTV and POD as being the cause. the change in tone is clearly audible when playing. I'm going to run some more tests this afternoon, so I'll be sure to check the other inputs. The firmware version is 1.03 (I held in the feedback suppression button when powering up, and when I released it the display flashed L301.030, I think) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicker_man Posted February 22, 2014 Author Share Posted February 22, 2014 The same issue is evident playing pre-recorded music back through the RCA jacks. Here is a recording - the transition starts just after 1 minute in. Cycling the speaker mode obviously changes the tonal qualities for each of the different modes, but when I get back to Reference/PA there is no change. It seems to be OK for a minute or so after powering up, but then it all changes. I have also performed the same test from power up in each of the speaker modes. They all exhibits the same issue - going between 'normal' sound and then gradually losing the high frequency content. Sometimes it gradually comes back after a little while, but not always. It's definitely most noticeable in the Reference/PA and Playback modes. The side inputs (with an acoustic guitar and the speaker in Acoustic guitar mode) seem to be OK - or at least the issue isn't as obvious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dboomer Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Stange symptoms that it works fine with the mixer but not with the direct speaker inputs. I can't tell anything from the recording that is useful. I guess you'll need to contact the service department and have them check it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicker_man Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 I get the same response from the mixer input on the back, but the side inputs seem to be OK, but that might be just because the issue is less noticeable in acoustic guitar mode. I've only had the speaker for 6 weeks and haven't yet made a great deal of use of it. I've got a call in with the shop that I bought it from, hoping that it will be replaced under warranty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admnovo Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 I'm having the same problem. Everything is fine just running strat with POD hd500 via l6link, playing along and then without any reason the sound suddenly goes dark, slightly tinny, and volume drops considerably. Oddly if I play some chords with lower bass tones or low notes it seems to kick it back into a normal sound......but sometimes it doesn't. It is very strange. How do you load firmware to this speaker by the way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverhead Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 .. How do you load firmware to this speaker by the way? You need the M20d mixer to update speaker firmware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admnovo Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 I don't have the mixer but will the firmware change solve the problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicker_man Posted May 3, 2014 Author Share Posted May 3, 2014 admnovo - I sent my L3t back to Line 6 under warranty for repair. It was a bad speaker connection. Problem described on the repair form as 'Intermittent HR speaker function: loose speaker connector @ J2'. Now fixed and working fine, but I was without it for 6 weeks. edit: sorry, I clicked 'solved' by mistake against that post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverhead Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 I don't think the firmware update addresses the problem you describe. I think it's a bad cable or loose connection. You can check the version of the installed firmware by holding down the Feedback button while you power the speaker up. The firmware version will display briefly in the lcd window. The latest speaker firmware is v1.05. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admnovo Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Thanks, does loose speaker connection refer to internal speakers in the L3T or connections going into the L3T? I can't wait to have ship an 80 lb speaker to gosh know where. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverhead Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Both are possible causes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicker_man Posted May 4, 2014 Author Share Posted May 4, 2014 Thanks, does loose speaker connection refer to internal speakers in the L3T or connections going into the L3T? I can't wait to have ship an 80 lb speaker to gosh know where. It was an internal connection in my case. I only had my L3t 4 weeks before it had to go back for repair, so I still had all the packaging. It was collected and the shopping cost covered by the shop that I had bought it from. I suppose you could say I was lucky :unsure: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphodboy Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 I have been noticing changes in the tone from my L3t whilst playing my JTV59 (acoustic and tele models mainly). One minute the sound is fine, then all of a sudden (and for no obvious reason) there is a bit of a pop and the tone gets very dark, losing all the high end frequencies. From what I can tell, only the lower driver is outputting sound from the L3t. If I take a DI from the POD's balanced output and feed that into the mixer input, I get the same result. The L3t is in PA/Reference mode and is connected to my POD via L6 link, and I am using a VDI connection from the Variax to the POD. I have tried feeding the L6 link into my DT amp head and the tone is fine, and the DI into my audio interface and monitors also sounds fine. Do I have a defective L3t, or is there some magic trick to make it sound nice again? I have had the exact same problem but luckily only had the L3m for 48 hours before it happened. I have contacted the vendors Guitarguitar who are arranging pick up and sending a replacement. Not a great start but I think it's worth persevering because it sounded awesome before the fault. The smart speaker mode set to 'electric guitar' really brings the POD alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicker_man Posted May 27, 2014 Author Share Posted May 27, 2014 It's a simple fault to fix, but if they are sending you a new one as a replacement that's good news. You're right about the electric guitar speaker mode, but if you play acoustic try out the side input with the acoustic modelling and acoustic speaker mode. Utterly fantastic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphodboy Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 It's a simple fault to fix, but if they are sending you a new one as a replacement that's good news. You're right about the electric guitar speaker mode, but if you play acoustic try out the side input with the acoustic modelling and acoustic speaker mode. Utterly fantastic. I was playing around with the acoustic models on my JTV in acoustic guitar mode on the L3m and completely agree with you. Some of the tunes we play need both acoustic and driven electric patches so I was going to buy an L6 link cable so the L3m could be made to swap modes. These are pretty pricey, upwards of £35, but I have been reliably informed that a decent DMX cable will do the same job at a fraction of the cost so I have one on order. I'll report back with the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicker_man Posted May 30, 2014 Author Share Posted May 30, 2014 Yes DMX are fine. I use them for L6 link with my DT head and L3t and the mode switching works fine with one or the other (not both together though). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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