Logitech Z623 - Dirty potentiometer.

[wyattzx]

Hey guys, hopefully some of you can help me out with this. 

(Note: I am not an audiophile, so some of what I say may not be on point.)

 

So, I've had a pair of Logitech Z623 desktop speakers for about two years now. They sound great, get plenty loud, and have more than enough bass for any and all of my music. My only problem? The volume knob is analog, and not digital, which means it uses a potentiometer. If you know speakers, you know what this means: they get dirty. When they get dirty, they often make hissing and scratching sounds when adjusting volume levels. I need to do this often, as throughout the day, volume levels go down as we approach night. Whenever I adjust the volume, the scratching, hissing, screeching, etc is awful. Often-times it will pop, and it gets surprisingly loud. I've heard of a few solutions to fix it, which 'do" work, but only temporarily. Such as turning them off, and turning the volume knob back-and-forth for a few minutes. it takes me about twenty or so, and it only fixes it for a day or so. Then it's back to banshee screaming. 

 

What I've heard you can do is spray the potentiometer with electronic lubricant. The only problem? In order to disassemble the speaker, I have to take off the front four screws, peel off the rubber feet to access those, and peel off the THX logo to access the one there. The feet and logo are glued on, and I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to put them back on. Furthermore, you have to pry off the power button, and you can risk breaking it. Only then can you access the internals of the speaker. Sure, I could spray it, and prevent the dust buildup for a few months, but it doesn't seem like a good payoff for risking permanently damaging the hardware. 

 

So what can I do? Would Logitech do anything about this if I contacted them? (Assuming it's within my warranty period.) Should I bite the bullet and tear it apart? Are there other options? 

 

Note: Turning them up all-the-way and using Windows is not an option. If it were to happen; the volume on Windows going up, these speakers could wake up my parents across the house at night. I can't have that. 

 

Help?

[pants18]

I also have these speakers but haven't noticed any significant buzzing popping or other artifacting at high volumes. I'll be sure to follow the guide though if such an issue ever arises. Could check about the warranty but since they're so old they may not still honor it

[wyattzx]

I also have these speakers but haven't noticed any significant buzzing popping or other artifacting at high volumes. I'll be sure to follow your guide though if such an issue ever arises

It's not a volume issue, and it's not a buzzing. It's a dust buildup on the potentiometer, which is what allows the volume to be adjusted. When you turn it, the dust is outputted as a signal, which is played through the speaker. it sounds like static when adjusting the frequency on a radio. 

[Aniallation]

I also own these speakers and have yet to experience any potentiometer noise. Volume adjustment is smooth and silent after 3 years.

[wyattzx]

I also own these speakers and have yet to experience any potentiometer noise. Volume adjustment is smooth and silent after 3 years.

It's your environment. As an example: My TV stand in the living room will get dusted at 7am, and be completely duty again by 7pm. Because we have a gravel driveway, and we're in the country, we're a lot more dust-prone. 

[SSL]

Sounds like the pot is going bad. Dirt pots are common, but yours sounds like a particularly bad case. Might we worth contacting Logitech, but if they don't help your only other options are opening them up or replacing them.

[KaminKevCrew]

If you end up opening it up, you could try to seal the pot better. Something like a rubber gasket around the volume knob or something.

[creatip123]

Contacting the vendor is the main and risk-less option. If they refuse to do anything, then you gotta do it yourself. If you're not confident, try finding someone who do electronic servicing. At least they know what they're doing. 

 

If you wanna do it yourself, just be sure you know the risks, from voiding warranty (if any), to bricking the speaker (maybe not totally bricked, just severed connection). But if you do decide to do it yourself, might want to change the pot altogether. In my experience, dirty pots can't really perform like it used to be. Cleaning it up (with sprays or alcohol) only last a while. Get a good pot, like genuine ALPS, from ebay or something. 

[Frabo]

Two years later what did you end up doing? I have the exact same problem and this post comes up in the top results

[wyattzx]

6 hours ago, Frabo said:

Two years later what did you end up doing? I have the exact same problem and this post comes up in the top results

Sadly, I disassembled the entire thing but it didn't help. I ended up replacing them with a pair of Mackie CR4s.

[kasugatei]

Unless the pot has been completely destroyed, deoxit (or kontakt spray if you live in EU) sprayed inside the pontetiometer does wonders. Just give it a light spray inside, wiggle a pot for some time and you are good to go.

 

In order to spray the contact cleaner to the right spot, refer to this photo:

[mjflower]

Hi

 

I know this thread is old but it's one of the top results. I had exactly the same problem, it was annoying me so much as the op stated, at night especially. I referred to this video below (not mine), to get it open although it blanks out at the part where you remove the thx badge which in my case it snapped off and i had to gouge it with a screwdriver or a drill bit to make the hole big enough to get a slim screwdriver in. That screw and the two accessed from removing the rubber base strips are the three that allow it to come apart. The only other tricky part was the audio jacks need to be pushed a bit to get them to slip under the plastic and allow the circuit board to be free. I could not reuse the foam that was surrounding the offending pot so it may get clogged up with dust faster than before but at least I can always fix it again.

 

Once it was all open and the knobs pulled off (required a lot of force) I used the electrical contact spray to loosen it up and free the dirt. It took about 4 goes to be honest and a bit of spray. The final time I was a bit more liberal with the spray and now they work as good as new. I just used bluetac to reattach the thx badge as I'm not game to glue it in case it happens again

 

I hope this helps although I know its only works and no pictures/video.

 

cheers

 

 

 

[Kaspisb]

On 5/19/2015 at 5:03 AM, NonaHexa said:

Hey guys, hopefully some of you can help me out with this. 

(Note: I am not an audiophile, so some of what I say may not be on point.)

 

So, I've had a pair of Logitech Z623 desktop speakers for about two years now. They sound great, get plenty loud, and have more than enough bass for any and all of my music. My only problem? The volume knob is analog, and not digital, which means it uses a potentiometer. If you know speakers, you know what this means: they get dirty. When they get dirty, they often make hissing and scratching sounds when adjusting volume levels. I need to do this often, as throughout the day, volume levels go down as we approach night. Whenever I adjust the volume, the scratching, hissing, screeching, etc is awful. Often-times it will pop, and it gets surprisingly loud. I've heard of a few solutions to fix it, which 'do" work, but only temporarily. Such as turning them off, and turning the volume knob back-and-forth for a few minutes. it takes me about twenty or so, and it only fixes it for a day or so. Then it's back to banshee screaming. 

 

What I've heard you can do is spray the potentiometer with electronic lubricant. The only problem? In order to disassemble the speaker, I have to take off the front four screws, peel off the rubber feet to access those, and peel off the THX logo to access the one there. The feet and logo are glued on, and I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to put them back on. Furthermore, you have to pry off the power button, and you can risk breaking it. Only then can you access the internals of the speaker. Sure, I could spray it, and prevent the dust buildup for a few months, but it doesn't seem like a good payoff for risking permanently damaging the hardware. 

 

So what can I do? Would Logitech do anything about this if I contacted them? (Assuming it's within my warranty period.) Should I bite the bullet and tear it apart? Are there other options? 

 

Note: Turning them up all-the-way and using Windows is not an option. If it were to happen; the volume on Windows going up, these speakers could wake up my parents across the house at night. I can't have that. 

 

Help?

For this problem is very simple solution. You need to turn your volume knob fast many times left and right until grease that is inside is soft and all around where it suppose to be. I did it and no crackilng noise when i change volume on speakers. In my case i set 50% of volume on speakers and rest volume change is done in windows so this knob is not in use so grease hardens after a while. 

[franklhy]

On 11/21/2018 at 12:49 AM, Kaspisb said:

For this problem is very simple solution. You need to turn your volume knob fast many times left and right until grease that is inside is soft and all around where it suppose to be. I did it and no crackilng noise when i change volume on speakers. In my case i set 50% of volume on speakers and rest volume change is done in windows so this knob is not in use so grease hardens after a while. 

OH MY GOSH. YOU ACTUALLY SAVED ME!!!! I have a set of Logitech 2.1 Z623 speakers and every single time i turn the volume knob it makes that super annoying noise which is so loud! But with your solution i turned it left and right many times and the annoying sound is gone! I signed up for an account just to post this post lol. Thanks!!

[StinkyToeJam]

On 11/20/2018 at 11:49 AM, Kaspisb said:

For this problem is very simple solution. You need to turn your volume knob fast many times left and right until grease that is inside is soft and all around where it suppose to be. I did it and no crackilng noise when i change volume on speakers. In my case i set 50% of volume on speakers and rest volume change is done in windows so this knob is not in use so grease hardens after a while. 

Wow! This worked for me as well. I bought these speakers in Feb. 2018 and they started making the same crackling noise in Dec. 2018. It's now May 2019 and I was just getting ready to send them back for repair (I have a warranty through Amazon). However, no need because this worked great!! Thank you or the simple solution!

[TechnoValley]

Hey there. i've just bought these speakers and when i read people were mostly saying it is dust so i said to miself what the hell lets try it, it probably won't work anyway, so i took the speaker, put my mouth like 1 cm away from the knob  and starter just rotating it and blowing between the know and the case in attempt to maybe get through with blowing the dust off without having to open it and strangely enough it worked completely! After the first try there was still some crackling left so i just repeated the blowing when the crackling occured and it seemed to clear itself out. I'm sure doing it with a compressor would solve this problem equally, as long as you keep slowly rotating the volume knob, enabling the dust the space to leave the unit. Happy listening!

[PriitM]

Yeah, sounds like a really bad dry/dirty pot. I suggest you replace it, I bet its either a old school carbon pot (should have some numbers on it to look up reference parameters) or a newer style green/blue pot. If its a newer style, then the electronic lubricant wont do anything since they are pretty much enclosed units. 

 

If you are under warranty, just RMA it. 

[Bilal440]

On 4/23/2020 at 1:12 PM, TechnoValley said:

Hey there. i've just bought these speakers and when i read people were mostly saying it is dust so i said to miself what the hell lets try it, it probably won't work anyway, so i took the speaker, put my mouth like 1 cm away from the knob  and starter just rotating it and blowing between the know and the case in attempt to maybe get through with blowing the dust off without having to open it and strangely enough it worked completely! After the first try there was still some crackling left so i just repeated the blowing when the crackling occured and it seemed to clear itself out. I'm sure doing it with a compressor would solve this problem equally, as long as you keep slowly rotating the volume knob, enabling the dust the space to leave the unit. Happy listening!

dude. your suggestion sounds interesting. will def try it out. up till now was doing the old 'rotate the volume knob several times' routine, which seemed to fix the problem for a day. then it was back to the crackle. maybe blowing air into the knob itself would help.

do you reckon using WD40 on it too? please do advise. thanks.

[CalypsoRaz]

On 11/20/2018 at 8:49 AM, Kaspisb said:

For this problem is very simple solution. You need to turn your volume knob fast many times left and right until grease that is inside is soft and all around where it suppose to be. I did it and no crackilng noise when i change volume on speakers. In my case i set 50% of volume on speakers and rest volume change is done in windows so this knob is not in use so grease hardens after a while. 

I've been turning my speakers off to adjust the volume for like 2 years now lol. I know this post is super old but  I was just about to take them apart to replace the pot when I found this. Thank you so much.

[Cromb]

On 11/21/2018 at 3:49 AM, Kaspisb said:

For this problem is very simple solution. You need to turn your volume knob fast many times left and right until grease that is inside is soft and all around where it suppose to be. I did it and no crackilng noise when i change volume on speakers. In my case i set 50% of volume on speakers and rest volume change is done in windows so this knob is not in use so grease hardens after a while. 

Man I did this too and it seems to have worked a treat! Thanks you very much, and like StinkyToeJam, I made an account to say thanks :)

[Tiemow]

Thanks so much for the solutions here, simply blowing and rotating fixed the issue for me.

Was considering buying a new set so thanks for saving me a few hundred bucks :)

[Nimrod1]

thanks.  you saved me with the dial turning and duster suggestions!

[SebBk]

This is indeed a very old thread but for the poor souls suffering of this crackling sound, it needs to stay alive!

 

I did the rotating fix suggested by Kaspisb and no more problem! Thanks a lot for this tip!