Mike Rivers wrote:

kurt writes:

They're a little limited in the bass department, but that's to be expected

Anything new on the noise issue that Hank was complaining about a
couple of months back?

Mackie provided a mod kit and instructions - been done. While the
retro**** did lower the spurious racket from the woofer it didn't get
near acceptable levels. But the new ones I auditioned at a GC in Austin
earlier this week are dead quiet, wooferly speaking, with a remaining
low level tweeter hiss. All in all the current production seems ready
for primetime.

I cannot overemphasize my appreciation of the crossover region and the
horn's dispersion.

And a way to defeat the built-in dynamics
booster thing?

Wire snips; takes out the problem and your warranty all in one move. But
I'd have to do this. The automatic loudness compensation is knee'd at
about 157 Hz, Q of 1.1 and boost of _8 dB_. I used a pair for amping
jazz guitar at two gigs; while hitting little high note chords all was
tasty. Drop onto all six strings for a fattie with moving bass line and
the ALC made me louder on the bottom than the bass player, for the first
chord shot. EQ upstream doesn't solve it. Imagine using these for stage
mons with truly acoustic music of sufficient dynamic range to have the
speakers helpfully turning the bottom up and down for you.

This "feature" should be switchable.

--
ha

In article writes:

Mackie provided a mod kit and instructions - been done. While the
retro**** did lower the spurious racket from the woofer it didn't get
near acceptable levels. But the new ones I auditioned at a GC in Austin
earlier this week are dead quiet, wooferly speaking, with a remaining
low level tweeter hiss. All in all the current production seems ready
for primetime.

There was a time when Mackie would replace your speakers with new
ones. Have you asked?

The automatic loudness compensation is knee'd at
about 157 Hz, Q of 1.1 and boost of _8 dB_.

If you know what to snip, you know what to switch. Is there a place
you could mount a switch? On the other hand, it sounds like either
you'd want it or you wouldn't, so you could take it out and never miss
it.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Mike Rivers wrote:

walkinay writes:

Mackie provided a mod kit and instructions - been done. While the
retro**** did lower the spurious racket from the woofer it didn't get
near acceptable levels. But the new ones I auditioned at a GC in Austin
earlier this week are dead quiet, wooferly speaking, with a remaining
low level tweeter hiss. All in all the current production seems ready
for primetime.

There was a time when Mackie would replace your speakers with new
ones. Have you asked?

That swap is currently in process. (I reiterate that these are not mine.
However, I might well get a pair now that the noise is whupped and the
ALC can be disabled.) Mackie is smart enough not to try to claim that
the sound presently coming from this pair is close enough to their
advertising claims and published specs to avoid trouble. g

The automatic loudness compensation is knee'd at
about 157 Hz, Q of 1.1 and boost of _8 dB_.

If you know what to snip, you know what to switch. Is there a place
you could mount a switch? On the other hand, it sounds like either
you'd want it or you wouldn't, so you could take it out and never miss
it.

While I would generally agree that snippable = switchable, too, in view
of the fact that Mackie so badly screwed up revision of the input board
to accomodate a regular XLR instead of a combojack, resulting in the
previously referenced noise, I think there could be enough opportunity
for noise pickup inside that box that I wouldn't bother trying to have
it switchable. One might be able to move this function to the Smiley EQ
curve switch, and do without that touch of marketing brilliance.

I would always prefer not to have the ALC at all. If I am going to run
them at low enough levels to need to boost low end I would prefer to do
that with an EQ upstream.

--
ha

Hey Hank, can you get me up to speed on the issue you are referring to with
the older model 350's and some hum? I have noticed a fair amount of hiss and
some occassional liud hum from ours, which are about 2 years old. You said
in an earlier post that Mackie has replacement parts or even entire drivers
for these units?

-Ben

"hank alrich" wrote in message
.. .
Sugarite wrote:

I don't use plastic speakers so I wouldn't know which ones are less
hideous.

You can hear the plastic...

The SRM350's, if of current manufacture which lacks the hum and buzz of
some of the earlier units, are silly good for their size and weight,
nevermind their cost. The horn/tweeter match to the woofer and
smoothness of dispersion are truly outstanding, IMO. Lots of speakers
costing plenty more don't handle that transition as well as the SRM350's
do.

The problem of the automatic loudness compensation remains, but can be
disabled with small wire snips. I just did a small gig using a pair
along with a 2x12 Bag End sub. Plenty of clean SPL for about 300 folks
at a dance showcase, and excellent room coverage.

--
ha

there's no such thing as 2 year old srm350s - - maybe 450s?

"Ben Hanson" wrote in message
...
Hey Hank, can you get me up to speed on the issue you are referring to
with
the older model 350's and some hum? I have noticed a fair amount of hiss
and
some occassional liud hum from ours, which are about 2 years old. You said
in an earlier post that Mackie has replacement parts or even entire
drivers
for these units?

-Ben

"hank alrich" wrote in message
.. .
Sugarite wrote:

I don't use plastic speakers so I wouldn't know which ones are less
hideous.

You can hear the plastic...

The SRM350's, if of current manufacture which lacks the hum and buzz of
some of the earlier units, are silly good for their size and weight,
nevermind their cost. The horn/tweeter match to the woofer and
smoothness of dispersion are truly outstanding, IMO. Lots of speakers
costing plenty more don't handle that transition as well as the SRM350's
do.

The problem of the automatic loudness compensation remains, but can be
disabled with small wire snips. I just did a small gig using a pair
along with a 2x12 Bag End sub. Plenty of clean SPL for about 300 folks
at a dance showcase, and excellent room coverage.

--
ha

Yep, I meant 450's indeed

"skhoover" wrote in message
...
there's no such thing as 2 year old srm350s - - maybe 450s?

"Ben Hanson" wrote in message
...
Hey Hank, can you get me up to speed on the issue you are referring to
with
the older model 350's and some hum? I have noticed a fair amount of hiss
and
some occassional liud hum from ours, which are about 2 years old. You
said
in an earlier post that Mackie has replacement parts or even entire
drivers
for these units?

-Ben

"hank alrich" wrote in message
.. .
Sugarite wrote:

I don't use plastic speakers so I wouldn't know which ones are less
hideous.

You can hear the plastic...

The SRM350's, if of current manufacture which lacks the hum and buzz
of
some of the earlier units, are silly good for their size and weight,
nevermind their cost. The horn/tweeter match to the woofer and
smoothness of dispersion are truly outstanding, IMO. Lots of speakers
costing plenty more don't handle that transition as well as the
SRM350's
do.

The problem of the automatic loudness compensation remains, but can be
disabled with small wire snips. I just did a small gig using a pair
along with a 2x12 Bag End sub. Plenty of clean SPL for about 300 folks
at a dance showcase, and excellent room coverage.

--
ha

hank alrich wrote:
Mike Rivers wrote:

walkinay writes:

Mackie provided a mod kit and instructions - been done. While the
retro**** did lower the spurious racket from the woofer it didn't
get
near acceptable levels. But the new ones I auditioned at a GC in
Austin
earlier this week are dead quiet, wooferly speaking, with a
remaining
low level tweeter hiss. All in all the current production seems
ready
for primetime.


There was a time when Mackie would replace your speakers with new
ones. Have you asked?


That swap is currently in process. (I reiterate that these are not
mine.


Right, they're mine.

IIRC the Fc on the bass boost is 87 Hz. I for one can live without it
at all--can't think of a single situation in which I would want or need
it. The mod I came up with involves removing (via soldering or
snipping) a couple of SMT resistors from the input board and would be
simple enough to reverse if the need ever came up.

Another thing worth noting is that the SRM-350 is quite efficient--five
of them can be safely run from a single 15A circuit. My only current
regret is that (due to the slightly curved top surface) there's no real
way to stack them. OTOH their size, shape and weight means it's quite
easy to carry a pair (one in each hand) even up a flight of stairs.

Once modified, I can't think of anything anywhere near their price that
does as credible a job of reproducing the sound of an acoustic
instrument at small venue performance levels.