Fixing a blown out speaker

[79wjd]

My left speaker is no longer working -- if I play content I hear it perfectly from the right speaker, but the left speaker sounds like a quiet whisper. I noticed it after I accidentally had the volume set to max, so that's why I think something blew. The speakers are M-Audio AV30s and I already emailed their support to see what my options are, but it's out of the 1 year warranty, so I don't expect anything to happen there. 

 

Anyway, what is likely the problem/is it fixable? I plan to open the speaker up and see if I can see any damage after I hear back from their support (if they say they won't take care of it for free).

[johnt]

How do you know it's blown? Did you play it too loud?

 

it could be a failing weld inside the speaker. Could be a bad wire if it's a poor or cheap design. 

[bcguru9384]

2 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

My left speaker is no longer working -- if I play content I hear it perfectly from the right speaker, but the left speaker sounds like a quiet whisper. I noticed it after I accidentally had the volume set to max, so that's why I think something blew. The speakers are M-Audio AV30s and I already emailed their support to see what my options are, but it's out of the 1 year warranty, so I don't expect anything to happen there. 

 

Anyway, what is likely the problem/is it fixable? I plan to open the speaker up and see if I can see any damage after I hear back from their support (if they say they won't take care of it for free).

go into sound manager and make sure audio is centered between right and left

check all physical knobs as well

[79wjd]

Just now, bcguru9384 said:

go into sound manager and make sure audio is centered between right and left

check all physical knobs as well

I ran a speaker test (that plays audio to each speaker independently), and all the settings are normal/as expected. The left speaker is nearly silent while the right speaker sounds normal. 

[bcguru9384]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

I ran a speaker test (that plays audio to each speaker independently), and all the settings are normal/as expected. The left speaker is nearly silent while the right speaker sounds normal. 

is this a 3.5mm stereo plug to speakers(how does speakers get signal from pc)

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, bcguru9384 said:

is this a 3.5mm stereo plug to speakers(how does speakers get signal from pc)

3.5mm to right speaker, and then speaker wire from the right speaker to the left speaker. 

[bcguru9384]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

3.5mm to right speaker, speaker wire from right speaker to left speaker. 

try rotating 3.5 plug(twisting it) and see if left speaker comes back

make sure this plug firmly seated (see bing images for these plugs pin outs) to do continuity tests of left channel(also known as mono)

have you physically looked at speaker yet?

[79wjd]

Just now, bcguru9384 said:

try rotating 3.5 plug(twisting it) and see if left speaker comes back

make sure this plug firmly seated (see bing images for these plugs pin outs) to do continuity tests of left channel(also known as mono)

have you physically looked at speaker yet?

I haven't opened up the speaker yet as I'm waiting to hear back from M Audio support -- I didn't want to potentially run into issues with them if they did decide to help even though it's out of warranty. 

[79wjd]

38 minutes ago, bcguru9384 said:

try rotating 3.5 plug(twisting it) and see if left speaker comes back

make sure this plug firmly seated (see bing images for these plugs pin outs) to do continuity tests of left channel(also known as mono)

have you physically looked at speaker yet?

I opened up the speaker and took what pictures I could.

 

[bcguru9384]

you may have truly blown the speaker as these are self ampliphied(powered) speakers and almost all the mobo today are powered outputs(easy to over power speakers)

why i have my audio go thru hdmi to my display then from displays headphone out(headphones are passive circuit) to my creative labs 2.1 speaker box (5" woofer with left right stereo chans)

this why windows has audio settings for head phone, small speakers, large speakers is to know how much power to put into audio outputs

irregardless of speaker configuration (2.0 2.1 4.0 5.1 7.1 etc)

other than a hair on transformers backside of pcb with discolorization to pcb at transformer(electroplating the pcb with copper atoms from over currenting the transformer) im not seeing any thing wrong with hardware 

is speaker wires still attached at speaker itself(is cone wires ripped from cone)

[anothertom]

2 hours ago, bcguru9384 said:

<snip>

That is the biggest load of horse shit I think I've ever read. Not a single thing you said there is in any way correct.

[79wjd]

12 hours ago, bcguru9384 said:

is speaker wires still attached at speaker itself(is cone wires ripped from cone)

The wires between the board and the speakers are connected -- if they weren't connected I wouldn't be able to hear any sound.

9 hours ago, anothertom said:

That is the biggest load of horse shit I think I've ever read. Not a single thing you said there is in any way correct.

 

[79wjd]

bump 

 

M Audio support has told me to contact a third party service center....and I highly doubt it's going to be a price that makes any sense. So any thoughts on how I could go about finding and then fixing the problem? 

[bcguru9384]

19 hours ago, anothertom said:

That is the biggest load of horse shit I think I've ever read. Not a single thing you said there is in any way correct.

please tell I where and why i am in correct

please prove your statement

[bcguru9384]

10 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

The wires between the board and the speakers are connected -- if they weren't connected I wouldn't be able to hear any sound.

well grab a multimeter and probe the circuit paths as we have already

A. checked sounds left right balance

B. eyes inspection of pathways

now its probing time as we do not have ability to read driver code scripts to see if an error has occured there(although windows event viewer should show some data)

[anothertom]

23 hours ago, bcguru9384 said:

you may have truly blown the speaker as these are self ampliphied(powered) speakers and almost all the mobo today are powered outputs(easy to over power speakers)

The amplifier in the speaker will be matched to the drivers, or more likely slightly underpowered, so it's usually not possible to blow the drivers in them. (And you would hear the driver distorting before it went).

Secondly, all outputs (bar those from some turntables) go through some amplifier or another. Those on computers are meant for headphones or at maximum line level output. This is the level powered speakers are designed to receive. No motherboard will have outputs designed for directly driving speakers.

 

23 hours ago, bcguru9384 said:

why i have my audio go thru hdmi to my display then from displays headphone out(headphones are passive circuit) to my creative labs 2.1 speaker box (5" woofer with left right stereo chans)

Headphones are passive but the outputs are most certainly actively amplified.

 

23 hours ago, bcguru9384 said:

this why windows has audio settings for head phone, small speakers, large speakers is to know how much power to put into audio outputs

irregardless of speaker configuration (2.0 2.1 4.0 5.1 7.1 etc)

Windows has settings for small/large speakers or headphones because it changes the eq on the output for each (not that that's a great thing). It outputs at exactly the same level for each option.

 

23 hours ago, bcguru9384 said:

other than a hair on transformers backside of pcb with discolorization to pcb at transformer(electroplating the pcb with copper atoms from over currenting the transformer) im not seeing any thing wrong with hardware 

is speaker wires still attached at speaker itself(is cone wires ripped from cone)

There will never be a transformer inside a speaker (thus it can't be 'over-currented', and would simply melt to a solid block rather than reaching temperatures needed for electroplating). The wires would be soldered to the ends of the voice coil, so would have had to have been physically ripped to be disconnected. Also, the term 'blown' traditionally refers to an ejected voice coil, rather than just a broken speaker.

[79wjd]

15 hours ago, bcguru9384 said:

well grab a multimeter and probe the circuit paths as we have already

A. checked sounds left right balance

B. eyes inspection of pathways

now its probing time as we do not have ability to read driver code scripts to see if an error has occured there(although windows event viewer should show some data)

Why would event viewer show anything about a hardware issue in the speaker 

 

And I don't have a multimeter with me -- I would have to bring the speakers home -- but if one of them is dead to the point where it's not an easy/feasible fix then I'm not even go to try to bring them home (on a plane). 

[anothertom]

I suppose I should start helping...

 

So the unpowered speaker is either really quiet or not making any sound, but we can (largely) rule out component failure. You've made sure all windows settings are correct and used a variety of software with known good content to eliminate it being a source issue.

 

One last thing to check on the speaker itself is that the driver is moving freely, if you gently press on the front of the cone it should move cleanly and return to it's original position. The risk with overpowering drivers is that the voice coil will melt (and jam) or it will be ejected from the magnet.

 

If you swap the inputs around does the other speaker become quiet/not working?

[79wjd]

15 minutes ago, anothertom said:

I suppose I should start helping...

 

So the unpowered speaker is either really quiet or not making any sound, but we can (largely) rule out component failure. You've made sure all windows settings are correct and used a variety of software with known good content to eliminate it being a source issue.

 

One last thing to check on the speaker itself is that the driver is moving freely, if you gently press on the front of the cone it should move cleanly and return to it's original position. The risk with overpowering drivers is that the voice coil will melt (and jam) or it will be ejected from the magnet.

 

If you swap the inputs around does the other speaker become quiet/not working?

It's a 3.5mm from the computer to RCA on the back of the speaker -- so I've tried flipping the red/white connectors around, still no sound from the left speaker. The cone does move freely and I pulled out the driver to see if anything looked bad around it, and it looked fine. However I did notice that now I hear static from the left speaker, which I didn't hear before (at least I don't think I heard it before -- but it is somewhat loud in my apartment, so it's possible I just missed it). 

 

I attached a video below -- the first sound is the bad speaker at max volume, the second sound is the good speaker at about 25% volume, and the third is the bad speaker at the same 25%. (The speakers are next to eachother, so the relative sounds are absolute). 

IMG_3562.mov

[Ahoy Hoy]

I think for the price of the speakers its probably not worth your time. Probably a better idea to look for a second hand one to just replace the broken one.

[79wjd]

44 minutes ago, Ahoy Hoy said:

I think for the price of the speakers its probably not worth your time. Probably a better idea to look for a second hand one to just replace the broken one.

I wouldn't put a lot of money into since they were cheap, but if there's an easy/cheap fix then I'd definitely try and attempt it. 

[79wjd]

@anothertom Any ideas/guesses as to what's wrong?

[anothertom]

It could be a loose connection on the driver, it could be a breaking cable somewhere else.

 

If it's not obvious then it's probably not worth the effort.

[NinjaQuick]

Speaker may have seized. How long did they run at max, what was playing, were they distorting.

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, NinjaQuick said:

Speaker may have seized. How long did they run at max, what was playing, were they distorting.

Not that long. I was trying to drown out my roommate, but I was more annoyed with the loud speakers in front of me then his loud nonsense. I was watching a movie. No, but there might have been a pop sound (that's also when I lowered them) -- but it also might have been part of the movie.