Only One Stereo Speaker Working?

[GTechGeorge]

So I've had a pair of Mackie CR3 Studio Monitors for about two years now but recently I've noticed some issues mostly including one speaker cutting out every so often. I have the powered speaker on the right side of my desk (the one with the volume knob as well as headphone input and aux output) and the passive speaker that connects with wires bridging from the powered one sits on the left. Normally, the left one will cut out but be perfectly fine the next day after I shut my system down but for maybe the last week or so it hasn't sprung back to life. There is a "Position Selector Switch" on the back of the powered one so if I had it on the left side, I'd flip the switch and it'd act as the left speaker. So I flipped the switch, and the left speaker which has been quiet until now sang loudly, but then the powered one stopped working. Does anyone have any kind of solution to this?

 

 

[twistedapple89]

Troubleshooting questions; are the chords under any kind of strain at all, are the monitors moved a lot, have you had recent power surges and if so are they plugged into a surge protector, have you looked at the connections on the speaker itself and see if the wires are properly pushed in or the clamps haven't failed?

[GTechGeorge]

The cords shouldn't be under strain at all. The positive (red) wire on the powered speaker was bent a little bit but I just bent back and nothing else happened even after unplugging them from both sides. I unplugged and replugged the RCA connectors on the back of the powered speaker also. The RCA plugs adapt into a 1/8" standard audio connector which I have plugged into my monitor and then the audio is just carried through my PC's DisplayPort connector, to the monitor, through the audio jack, and out of the speakers. I almost never move the speakers as they sit on top of the included foam dampener pads and sit under my monitor. As for power surges, other than a few power flickers from a storm, nothing really. And yes, the speakers are plugged into my UPS that has half of its plugs dedicated to to battery power while all of them have surge protection.

[EsaT]

36 minutes ago, StrikerX1360 said:

So I flipped the switch, and the left speaker which has been quiet until now sang loudly, but then the powered one stopped working.

That means fault is either in signal source, cable or then in left channel input/electronics of speakers.

 

Easiest way to further bracket fault position would be connecting speakers to other signal source like laptop, tablet, phone etc and with other cable.

[twistedapple89]

It sounds like a chord has failed somewhere or possibly the connection is just failing, it happens rarely but still happens. 

[GTechGeorge]

Okay, I took @EsaT's advice and unplugged the RCA to 3.5mm audio jack from my PC and used the included 3.5mm to 3.5mm aux cable to plug into my phone, and plugged that into the dedicated aux port on the front of the powered speaker next to the headphone jack. Suddenly, both speakers now work just fine so I'm wondering if it has something to do with that cable?

 

[EsaT]

That means left channel amplifier/output stage and left speaker are working.

Now try connecting phone with that 3.5mm-RCA cable.

[GTechGeorge]

2 minutes ago, EsaT said:

That means left channel amplifier/output stage and left speaker are working.

Now try connecting phone with that 3.5mm-RCA cable.

I did and it started making my Google Play Music freak out but I tried it again. Both are worked for a while. I even went and unplugged the right side of the RCA input and still got audio from just the left monitor. Towards the end of the song, the left monitor went dead again. However, I think I narrowed it down to the RCA to 3.5mm cable, because I plugged the right side (red cable) into the left channel (white port) and now the left one is working with no right audio. The same goes for when I switch the Powered Speaker Position Selector Switch. Right speaker works, with the left one being mute.

[EsaT]

New cable doesn't cost much so that's anyway logical next step.