Electro Voice ZLX12P issues

[BigYinUK]

Hi all

 

Nearly 3 years ago, I bought 4 x ZLX12Ps new from a reseller.

 

I've had what I think is quite a few issues with them, particularly when you consider that they are not that regularly used. I think I've done about 20 shows with them. They are never dry hired and I'm super careful with all my kit.

 

1. All four developed cracks in the DSP display lens. (More on that later).

 

2. I've had to replace the input combo XLRs on two of them as the release pin snapped, trapping the plug. BTW These are supposedly Neutrik XLR sockets, not cheapo "no-name" ones.

 

3. One of the DSPs has an intermittent issue with the backlight flickering and fading.

 

The first issue, the cracks in the display lens, appeared very shortly after I bought them and I contacted my reseller to get them repaired.

 

Unfortunately (my fault) I'd only kept one box, so was only able to send them back one at a time. They "repaired" one unit (laughs) and after about 4 weeks it reappeared with a fresh display lens but the backlight now flickered on and off.

 

I needed them for a few gigs so it was a while before we got around to sending the others back. They returned them (again after about 4 weeks) saying that the cracks in the display lens was rough use, so they weren't covered under warranty.

 

After I refused to send them back again just for them to take 4 weeks to do nothing, my reseller got in touch with EV and asked if they could send just the lenses - its only 4 nylock nuts that hold them on. The repair centre at Bosch in Germany whinged about it of course, but eventually someone fairly senior in EV got involved and yeah today!!!, only 2 yrs 8 months after I bought them, a pack of display lenses arrived - AND guess what, they appear to be plastic, whereas my original ones are glass. EV had denied that there ever was an issue with the display lenses cracking.

 

As they are readily available (CPC) I replaced the combo XLR sockets myself. Yes, I know that strictly it invalidates the warranty but I was in electronics manufacturing for 16 years so I'd be very surprised if anyone could spot the repair.

 

We're still trying to get them to repair / replace the one with the flickering display.

 

Not all that impressive after sales service really !!

 

Anyone else had similar issues?

[S&L]

Hi all

 

Nearly 3 years ago, I bought 4 x ZLX12Ps new from a reseller.

 

I've had what I think is quite a few issues with them, particularly when you consider that they are not that regularly used. I think I've done about 20 shows with them. They are never dry hired and I'm super careful with all my kit.

 

1. All four developed cracks in the DSP display lens. (More on that later).

 

2. I've had to replace the input combo XLRs on two of them as the release pin snapped, trapping the plug. BTW These are supposedly Neutrik XLR sockets, not cheapo "no-name" ones.

 

3. One of the DSPs has an intermittent issue with the backlight flickering and fading.

 

The first issue, the cracks in the display lens, appeared very shortly after I bought them and I contacted my reseller to get them repaired.

 

Unfortunately (my fault) I'd only kept one box, so was only able to send them back one at a time. They "repaired" one unit (laughs) and after about 4 weeks it reappeared with a fresh display lens but the backlight now flickered on and off.

 

I needed them for a few gigs so it was a while before we got around to sending the others back. They returned them (again after about 4 weeks) saying that the cracks in the display lens was rough use, so they weren't covered under warranty.

 

After I refused to send them back again just for them to take 4 weeks to do nothing, my reseller got in touch with EV and asked if they could send just the lenses - its only 4 nylock nuts that hold them on. The repair centre at Bosch in Germany whinged about it of course, but eventually someone fairly senior in EV got involved and yeah today!!!, only 2 yrs 8 months after I bought them, a pack of display lenses arrived - AND guess what, they appear to be plastic, whereas my original ones are glass. EV had denied that there ever was an issue with the display lenses cracking.

 

As they are readily available (CPC) I replaced the combo XLR sockets myself. Yes, I know that strictly it invalidates the warranty but I was in electronics manufacturing for 16 years so I'd be very surprised if anyone could spot the repair.

 

We're still trying to get them to repair / replace the one with the flickering display.

 

Not all that impressive after sales service really !!

 

Anyone else had similar issues?

 

a colleague of mine, whom I worked with has had a set of 6 for 3 years or so. I have borrowed them from time to time. Observations:

 

they sound nicer than some ev but still have that shrill top end

 

they work well with speech and recorded material but peak out quickly with live music.

 

The side walls of the boxes seem to be thin

 

The controls on the back don't correspond with each other, which is to say +1 volume on one isn't the same as +1 volume on another. In fact I have seen a fair amount of variation.

 

4 were eventually killed in action, 2 sold.None of the screens cracked, in fact the screens looked like new when sold and though the tops and bottoms were kept in their original packing foam they were never cased or covered.

 

They are not good for monitors but many multi use boxes aren't.

 

2 were blown up at an outdoor event by an unregulated generator 2 were killed on different dry hire jobs and had amp faults that were deemed not cost effective to repair. it was assumed too much input signal was the cause. 2 were sold off only in the last week or so. All six had paid for themselves via dry hire, corporate jobs etc.

 

I have seen neither cracked screen or flickering screen to those 6 units. I haven't seen problems with release catches either but then there aren't that many people handling these - I do know that those catches like some xlr's more than others.

[TomHoward]

We had a similar customer service issue - we have 8 units, two of which buzz. This is a buzz from the circuit board, rather than the audio output, one of the components is physically buzzing. They weren't forthcoming with any info about what the problem could be, whether they've seen it before, and they wouldn't let me ship back just the amp module for repair, they wanted the whole speakers. I couldn't be bothered chasing it and wasn't able to identify it easily enough myself so we live with it.

 

I can't say I've seen any of the issues you've described, and ours take some heavy abuse. Our cabinets have been used in rain, have a fair few grill dents from being knocked over, only have thin slip-on covers and regularly get lent out blind to amateur users where they get absolutely thrashed, but it's usually iPod or laptop source so input signal isn't likely to be a real issue. Some of ours must also be approaching 3 years old with this abuse and the performance is actually pretty good, no failures. My biggest worry was snapping the gain pots off as they are fairly tall but it hasn't happened yet (touch wood)

 

In terms of audio performance, again they seem to perform for us on playback than live event on FOH, I find they aren't that directional they feed back much earlier than our HK systems, and they do peak out with dynamic live content. We find them okay on monitors as they are fairly harsh so they cut through for vocal mons though they are sometimes limiting. For DJ/playback systems they're outstanding for the price though and look more corporate.

[dickiefunk]

I know a few colleagues who own the ZLX 12p's and they all had variety of failures with these speakers. I had a pair of ELX 118p subs and both failed on me at different times. One of my colleagues had both his ELX118p's fail on him to! As a result I'm very nervous about buying EV stuff again. I have been using Alto TS110a's, TS112a's and TS210's for dry hire, small acoustic gigs and as wedge monitors and I've not had a single issue over the past four or five years. The TS210's are new so haven't had these for a long time to comment on their reliability.

[BigYinUK]

The cracked display thing is very odd as everyone says the same, ie that they've not seen the problem, yet EV clearly have had a problem as they've changed the design of the lens.

 

The cracks in the glass appeared after the very first show we used them on. Admittedly it was a whole evening long tribute bands event and they worked pretty hard, but my gear is ultra carefully handled so I was gutted to see the multiple cracks in the displays at the end of the night.

 

The main problem in getting this resolved seems to be a total lack of communication between Bosch's service dept in Germany and EV in the UK.