focal twin problem

[jhol]

what a terrible night last night

a friend and myself are building a bit of a home studio at his place.
most of the building is finished... and i had just finished making up the looms to get into the desk

fired up the focals for the first time since we got them in january... they havent been moved in that time either - and i think only 8 hours total playing. On one of the twins the woofer was extended all the way out. im guessing a dc current from the amp to the speaker.

a friend told me to contact the distributor directly, i really dont want to be without them as i was supposed to have guys coming in for a mixdownsnext week. Anyway after that conversation i was left in doubt as to weather it would even be under warranty as the distributor said he had never heard of that happening and i must have put a dirty signal into the speaker. I know that i havent and im pretty sure its an amp malfunction anyway.
has anyone heard of this happening to the focals? I am trying to find the link i was looking at last night that discussed this, also one of the guys at the local music shop today told me that he often saw the twins coming back in for warranty work.

am i justified in wanting that speaker (as well as the amp) replaced?

i was really looking forward to breaking them in over the next few days whilst relaxing with a few beers... i think ill have to have a few more now

[rob]

I'd say that if the woofer slams hard forward ( or backward ) when the monitor is powered up, then the amp has gone DC. If the amp has gone DC, then it has failed. If the monitor is under warranty it will be fixed. Simple really. Dirty signal ... what the hell is that? The amp shouldn't fail regardless of what you put into it and claims such as this don't void the warranty. With speakers some manufacturers will void the warranty if the speaker has been over driven. The result of this is that the speaker fails, not the amplifier. A speaker can be disected to determine if it has failed due to being overdriven or failed due to a manufacturing issue. This doesn't seem to be the situation you are in anyway.

[jhol]

thanks for the reply Rob, i'm feeling better already.

I don't understand why some, but not all, people in music retail feel the need to make out as if the customer is an idiot. I get it quite frequently, perhaps it is because i am young and "don't know anything"?

i had an interesting experience the other day at a new music shop in my area, perhaps i should start another thread, at one point he was trying to sell omni directional instrument cables - but thats not the best bit. I will have to do it though, it is pretty funny.

I think I'm a little calmer now, its always frustrating after spending a few dollars, and a few more hours building and mucking around - after all that anticipation to reach such an anti climax. I still cant play with my new toys, and worse still who knows how long it will take with travel time checking/repairing.

thanks again Rob

[jhol]

Dirty signal ... what the hell is that?

his words, i'm not sure what he meant. I spent what is for me a fair bit of money on monitors, I am going to look after them.

unless he meant rebecca black?? (incidentally i think 'friday' is some sort of elaborate prank brilliantly pulled off - at least i hope so)

[rick]

unless he meant rebecca black?? (incidentally i think 'friday' is some sort of elaborate prank brilliantly pulled off - at least i hope so)

a dweeby guy told me it was proof of a glitch in the matrix !

[walding]

unless he meant rebecca black?? (incidentally i think 'friday' is some sort of elaborate prank brilliantly pulled off - at least i hope so)

a dweeby guy told me it was proof of a glitch in the matrix !

That is classic

[jhol]

three weeks later i get the focal back.

plugged it in, amp is fixed and speaker is blown and farting around in the bass

youd think seeing is it has to go between sydney and melbourne they would check that the speaker wasnt damaged by the amp failure....

[rick]

is it really blown or just rattling buzzy down low ?
you might be lucky if you reset the speaker and apply the same torque to each screw as if you were putting on a car tyre - some speakers "warp " when bolted in to tight the wrong way
and check the speaker leads going to that driver are firmly in as well

but if its actually fucked - well thats fucked

[jhol]

yeh i tried a few different things,
pretty sure its fucked, it moves in and out way too far, i have never seen anyones focal move so much.

its a shame really that a distributor represents a company so poorly - and the local music shop where we have bought a lot of gear over years isnt interested. in music retail, in my experience, it seems like the customer is always wrong.

[rick]

i can see an email to france going out tonight ...
it wont make you any friends locally but it will get your problem sorted
your "local" friends should know better
this is the stuff that makes the shop locally arguement hard to back up
bummer

[reddirt]

Who the ,,,, "fixes" a speaker and doesn't listen to it? If i was the focal company I'd be having serious doubts about who represents me in Aus.
Don't let it rest till you get it fixed.
Cheers, Ross

[jhol]

now ive had a chance to calm down and had a chat to the distributors im a lot happier.

what happened is that our music retailer didnt send it for 2 weeks or so and the turn around at the distributor end was pretty quick actually. to be fair the speaker freaked out on certain material that was pretty bass intensive, and not so noticeable on other material. i spoke to the repair guy and he assured me it was thoroughly tested and i do believe him. it looks like a speaker will be sent up and the local repair man is going to replace it for us.


all in all a good result.

[rick]

well good
i have always had good exchange with all of the australian importers
but i do wonder if sometimes is just me ?
And i dont want the forum to be the place you go to to "winge" without getting your facts right
that said but we are all in the same boat locally and from time to time things do get overlooked .. stuff happens
we all understand that
as long as you get the respect your local dollar buys its all good i reckon

if a post up here from time to time looks bad for somebody locally its unfortunate
and its only because we do have a local community thanks to the forum that we all notice
there is no advertising around here so everybody understands just how it works
there is no marketing agenda other then my big dumb logo

good to hear your focal problem is well on the way to being sorted now