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My Woofer Sounds Like a Tweeter

I just pulled out a pair of mid-80's vintage Polk Audio bookshelf speakers from the spare bedroom and I wired them into a second system.

One of the speakers only produces the high frequencies from it. I opened the inside of the speaker enclosure and checked if any wires were loose or broken, but everything looked OK.

The tweeter seems to be operating normally, but the woofer is only radiating high frequencies.

These are not very costly speakers.
What is the problem and is it a worthwhile fix?

.
3zub

Showing 3 responses by danmyers

danmyers
135 posts
 
I would assume the woofer is toast before the xover is fried. Theo's advise is good, but not sufficient. If you can, remove (or just disconnect the woofer from the xover and connect it up directly to the amp (at low volume). If if sounds like a woofer, it's the xover. If it sounds like a tweeter, or nothing at all, it's the woofer.

Looking forward to continuing the diagnosis...
danmyers
135 posts
 
Theo is right - disconnect the speaker terminals from the speaker wire. Then just touch the speaker cable directly to the woofer (at low volume and don't let the speaker wire tips touch each other). Can't get any simpler than that: no jumpers required.

Theo - your turn :)
danmyers
135 posts
 
Nah, just:

1) put on some music at a low volume & turn off the amp
2) disconnect the main speaker wire from the main speaker terminals
3) make sure the speaker wire tips don't touch!
4) turn on the amp (repeat step 3)
5) touch the speaker wire ends directly to woofer terminals inside the speaker (repeat step 3)
6) listen: bass or no bass (repeat step 3)
7) turn off the amp (repeat step 3)

See mom - no smoke!
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