Fixing Logitech Z623 speakers

toobladink · December 25, 2019

TL;DR in the middle

So I originally bought these refurbished, thinking it was going to be a great buy. And my god, it was a great buy. This is a fantastic speaker setup. I've mostly had it on like 30-50% volume, but over the past two months, I've been listening to music with friends and using these for parties about once a weekend so they get turned up pretty loud. Like three or four weeks ago, it suddenly got ridiculously distorted at high volumes. The bass heavy and songs with lower notes sound mediocre. The songs with lots of vocals just suck. Either way, it prompts me to turn it down until it isn't distorted. It gets distorted at around 65% volume I'd say (100% in windows or plugged into my phone). This is still somewhat loud, actually pretty loud for like listening sessions - but I want it like at 80% for parties.

Since these were purchased refurbished from newegg, I can't take advantage of logitech's 2-year warranty on the item AFAIK.

TL;DR

Suddenly distorted at loud volumes (70%+). Looked on google for speaker replacements, solutions, etc, but only found people with either the sub not working or the speaker system not working at all.

How can I diagnose what's causing it? I'm not afraid to take these apart and replace components - but I have never, and I mean never messed around with speakers before. Preferably, I would like to just replace the speakers themselves (not the sub) because these have been fantastic. I have a hunch that these were refurbished "for a reason" and wouldn't mind shelling out like $40-$60 to replace the drivers or the speakers themselves.

What if it's something as simple as the speakers not getting enough power? I guess I just thought of this - it is plugged in to a power strip which also has my PC and TV connected to it. But I've never experienced symptoms of "not enough power" on any of these devices before.

toobladink · January 7, 2020

In case anyone finds this in the future:

It mysteriously went away. I believe it had something to do with power - as the sound system was plugged into the same powerstrip as my PC and monitor, and I'm not sure the powerstrip liked that too well. I say this because I rearranged my room and plugged them into a lone socket in the wall and now I can blast these babies like I was before.

However.. very confused how this only started happening recently. Like, it's always been plugged into that powerstrip, nothing changed with my PC, and one day it just decided to be distorted.

Links to replacement drivers would be appreciated in case the satellites blow and I need some replacements

dalekphalm · January 7, 2020

It's possible the speakers were being starved of power, and therefore were getting distorted because they couldn't put enough juice to actually reproduce every soundwave correctly. Either that or your PC was dirtying the power and causing insane amounts of interference.

Either way, glad they are working again!

I have the Z5300's - they're the 5.1 cousins of these - the satellites are probably the exact same (both are 35W RMS each - though the centre channel speaker is like, 39W or something), but the sub on the 5300's is a bit less powerful (100W vs 130W). I know that with mine, I can crank them and it's insane - I don't think I've ever maxed them out before - even going above 50% gets pretty damn loud.