[rickkuy]

Hi All- I got a little carried away with the volume control feeding my Adcom 585 the other day and one of my RM30C's paid the price.
The ribbon tweeter ripped in half. I've replaced the ribbons before, so know I can handle that. What's concerning is that the midrange panels on that speaker seem to be dead as well.
I'm wondering if I blew something in the crossover? From what I understand, the L pads can be a weak link.
I took the passive radiator off the side, peaked in as best I can and there's nothing obviously wrong with the crossover.
Kind of looks like the crossover would be a bugger to remove.
Bottom line, I'm hesitant to just replace the ribbon if there's more to the issue. More than just overpowering the speaker that is.

As an aside, I have the de-horned (I think that's what it's called) tweeters with the CDWG. It's always bothered me a bit having the ribbons somewhat exposed. Which is why I had to replace them years ago-- curious fingers during a kid's birthday party. I'd like to have screens on, but can't imagine there's a source, so I'm assuming I'd have to purchase new G2Si tweeters to make this happen?

Any help is much appreciated!
--Rick.

[davidc1]

I don't think you have anything to worry about regarding the crossover. A bunch of capacitors, inductors and resistors could easily handle all the power that you throw at it. If there's any problem, it got to be the mid-range panels themselves. It is possible that you could have overheated a resistor, but I seriously doubt it

[John Casler]

Also, it may be an overheated L-Pad.

I have both burned a few and seen a few burned. 

Gently turn the shaft and if it turns roughly, or sticks, or the Neopanel cuts in and out, it will need to be replaced. (Parts Express)

[rickkuy]

Thanks much for the responses.
The larger L pad, which I assume is for the mids, was so stiff I had to turn it with a screwdriver. It's very rough and makes an audible grinding noise when I turn it, so evidently kabutz.
The one on the speaker that still works is somewhat stiff, but I could turn it by hand.
The other two (smaller) L pads turn pretty smoothly.
I'll replace both, but how the heck do you get them out? I've got the 10" PR hole opened up-- are they glued in, or is the tiny nut on the shaft holding them in place, or both?

Parts Express has 3 different listings for a 100W 8ohm L-pad, Eminence ($35), Parts Express ($16) and generic ($17). I'll gladly pay a few bucks extra for quality, but all three appear to be identical.
Any thoughts?

[GeorgeAb]

To verify if it is the L pad, you can jumper past it, by placing a wire between the two red wires on the L pad (red wire coming from capacitor bank and red middle wire going to inductor which goes to drivers). If you then have output from the mid panels you know the panels are good. Fingers crossed that is the case. Not a bad idea to replace the L pad regardless as they can get noisy over time. Remove the nut on the L-pad and you may have to tap the shaft in to get it to release from hot glue. I have used generic or parts express L-pads.

If you jumper past the L pad, and you get no output, you will have to determine which panel is bad. They are wired in series so if one opens up all will stop working. You can jumper past each one at a time to determine which panel is bad or you can remove the wires coming from the L pad going to the mids and measure the resistance. Should measure approximately 8.5 ohms across all three as each panel is around 2.8 ohms. If one measures open, it is bad. As a note, if your panels came from VMPS manufacture around or after 2005'ish they will be 2.8 ohms. Before that they are closer to 4 ohms each.