Sunday

Faulty CX2310 mute switches

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Just a warning that the push button, channel mute switches (two of which are arrowed above) can be temperamental.  

Click on the image for an enlargement. Back click to return to the text.

Last night we watched a film on TV and we could hear no bass at all. Since we couldn't pause the film we watched it to the end and then went to bed.

Checking the next morning, we had completely lost one channel of bass and what remained was scratchy as hell. As if all four drivers had bottomed out on that channel! Which should have been impossible given the usual tiny excursions on an eight x 15" driver subwoofer.

I turned everything off and pulled every plug in the entire system and reinserted them all to clean the contact surfaces. That is quite a lot of plugs!

Then I switched everything back on and twiddled with every knob. I waggled every driver connecting wire and speaker cable. Nothing made any audible difference.

Time to get serious! So I took off the organ CD I had been playing and put on Bass Outlaws. Just to ensure I had a strong and continuous bass signal to play with.

Finally, I found that one CX2310 mute switch was electrically stuck in the mute position despite the light being off. It was very noisy when pressed in and out. While the other switch was scratchy and intermittent in its switching behaviour. It was this channel which was producing the rattly, scratchy noise in the bass.

A few repeated presses and both switch faults cleared. Suddenly all the bass came back with a vengeance! I often use these mute switches when testing individual channels with REW. So they may have had rather more exercise than is usual.

So now we know where Behringer saved the pennies on this inexpensive active crossover: On switch quality and reliability. Worth bearing in mind if you have similar symptoms.