Selling Damaged Magicos

Yes, excellent advice from George. What I would suggest that you do first, though, assuming the speakers are in your possession, is to do some basic troubleshooting with a multimeter. If you don’t already have one, the cost of a decent multimeter would be fairly minimal, and it may prove to be useful for other purposes in the future.

What I would do first is to measure the resistance between the + and - terminals of each speaker, with the speaker disconnected from the amp. Under normal circumstances I would expect to see a resistance of something like 2 or 3 ohms or so, given the speaker’s nominal impedance of 4 ohms. If the reading is an open circuit (i.e. an extremely high or infinite resistance), then remove the woofer as George suggested, but before disconnecting it prop it up on something and measure the resistance across its terminals. Again, I would expect to see no more than a few ohms. If you again see an open circuit it would be indicative of a blown driver, probably due to exposure to excessive DC as George stated.

And, while the driver is removed, to whatever extent may be possible examine the interior of the speaker using a flashlight, looking for wires that may have come loose, or anything else that looks amiss.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

What does the meter indicate on the 200 ohm scale when the test leads are removed from the meter altogether?

Assuming the answer is something other than the very low numbers mentioned in your last post, but instead is perhaps an indication such as "199" or "err" signifying "error", given the limited resolution and rated accuracy of the meter those results seem likely to be consistent with a resistance of a couple of ohms or so. Which seems normal and NOT consistent with a burned out voicecoil on the woofer. But I guess the next step, if necessary beyond Peter’s good suggestions, would be to remove the woofer and proceed as I suggested earlier, without disconnecting it. Also, when you do that measure the resistance between the + terminal on the rear of the speaker and each terminal on the woofer itself, and also between the - terminal on the rear of the speaker and each terminal on the woofer itself.

Regards,
-- Al

Yes, it does seem very unlikely that physical mishandling could have caused this problem on both speakers. But it would also be unusual, although not unheard of, for an amp to put out large amounts of DC on both channels. And if perchance it was a tube amp, in most cases it would be nearly impossible because DC would be blocked by the output transformer most tube amps utilize. So before sending the woofers cross-country it would make sense to make the measurements I suggested, which may provide added confidence in the diagnosis that is being presumed, or might point in a different direction.

I found some information on your meter. The 200 ohm scale is the correct choice. As you probably realize, one test lead should be plugged into the black "com" jack, and the other into the red jack that is just above it (and not into the uppermost red jack). Also, look to see if "BAT" appears on the display, which would indicate that the battery should be replaced.

Then touch the two metal ends of the test leads together. The meter should indicate "000" signifying zero ohms on that scale, or perhaps "001" which signifies 1 ohm but would be within the meter’s expectable accuracy tolerance.

Then proceed as I indicated in my earlier post.  Be sure to disconnect the amp from the speakers when making the measurements, as I indicated.

Regards,
-- Al

There is no change. It stays at 1.

I'm not sure, then, that the meter is working properly.  It might pay to put a new battery in it, even if the low-battery warning is not being displayed.

Regards,
-- Al
 

I am getting various readings from 1.0 - 190.0+ when I touch the leads.

Then it sounds like something is wrong with the meter.  It should read very close to zero ohms when the leads are touched together, and the reading should be steady aside perhaps for a fluctuation of 1 count in the least significant digit.

All I can suggest at this point is to try the suggestions made by Peter (pbnaudio) and Paul79.

Good luck.  Regards,
-- Al