New speaker not working

[Tedsec]

I just received two Polk 265-LS speakers and a 255c-LS speaker from my brother as a gift (ie brand new and unopened).

I’ve installed the two 265’s In my wall and connected them to a Sony STR-DH5550 receiver. Problem: only one of the 265-LS speakers is working. The front right speaker works great, but the front left isn’t producing any sound

I think I’ve narrowed it down to a faulty speaker, as I took the center speaker, connected it to the front left wires as a test, and sound came out. But when I plug the 265 back in, I get nothing.

Due to some odd circumstances, I can’t really return the speakers from where they were purchased. Is there any additional troubleshooting I can do to try and determine why the speaker isn’t working?

 

[Ponzio]

Not unless you want to take it apart and void the warranty.

 

[Mikado463]

well if you can't return them I guess the warranty is moot. Dbl check your connections and if that doesn't resolve the issue, examine the speaker itself or start over.

 

[TLS Guy]

I just received two Polk 265-LS speakers and a 255c-LS speaker from my brother as a gift (ie brand new and unopened).

I’ve installed the two 265’s In my wall and connected them to a Sony STR-DH5550 receiver. Problem: only one of the 265-LS speakers is working. The front right speaker works great, but the front left isn’t producing any sound

I think I’ve narrowed it down to a faulty speaker, as I took the center speaker, connected it to the front left wires as a test, and sound came out. But when I plug the 265 back in, I get nothing.

Due to some odd circumstances, I can’t really return the speakers from where they were purchased. Is there any additional troubleshooting I can do to try and determine why the speaker isn’t working?

This is your speaker.

So this has to be child's play to sort out. If there is no sound at all, then the problem has to be between the input terminals and the crossover, other wise at least the woofers or the tweeter would produce sound.

A speaker is simplicity itself to sort out. Take your multimeter and see if there is connection at the terminals. It should read around 4 to 6 ohms. If it reads 0 ohms then you have a short, which would be highly unlikely. If it shows infinite resistance then you have an open circuit. So then take your multimeter and trace the two wires from the input connector to the crossover input, find the bad connection and repair it.

 

[Tedsec]

Yup! That’s it! When I touched the two connection posts with the multimeter on the good speaker, I registered resistance (aka - “it beeped”), when I touched the connection posts on the bad speaker, no resistance (aka - it didn’t beep).

knowing Very little about speakers (I’m much more familiar with computer networking than speaker wiring), any suggestions on which parts I should test next to isolate the issue?

This is your speaker.

So this has to be child's play to sort out. If there is no sound at all, then the problem has to be between the input terminals and the crossover, other wise at least the woofers or the tweeter would produce sound.

A speaker is simplicity itself to sort out. Take your multimeter and see if there is connection at the terminals. It should read around 4 to 6 ohms. If it reads 0 ohms then you have a short, which would be highly unlikely. If it shows infinite resistance then you have an open circuit. So then take your multimeter and trace the two wires from the input connector to the crossover input, find the bad connection and repair it.

 

[TLS Guy]

Yup! That’s it! When I touched the two connection posts with the multimeter on the good speaker, I registered resistance (aka - “it beeped”), when I touched the connection posts on the bad speaker, no resistance (aka - it didn’t beep).

knowing Very little about speakers (I’m much more familiar with computer networking than speaker wiring), any suggestions on which parts I should test next to isolate the issue?

Since you have open circuit conditions, the problem has to be between the connecting terminals and the crossover board, or at least on the very first part of the board.

So take your multimeter and see if the -ve terminal connects with the ground plane of the board. There should be a connection between the -ve terminal and the -ve terminal of both woofers at least. If not then that is your problem, and you need to trace where the circuit is interrupted.

If that checks OK, then take your meter and check between the +ve terminal and the +ve terminal of each woofer. There will be a very slight resistance here due to the DC resistance of the inductor in series with the woofers.

One or other of these circuits has to be open, for you too have the results you are getting. So now you have to use common sense and logic to see where the interruption is and correct it. This is all very, very simple stuff only requiring a couple of neurons and half a synapse. So you will solve this easily, no doubt about it.

 

[Paul DS]

Due to some odd circumstances, I can’t really return the speakers from where they were purchased. Is there any additional troubleshooting I can do to try and determine why the speaker isn’t working?

Simply get a battery and a couple pieces of wire. Connect wires to speakers and then one end to either terminal of the battery and then touch the other end of the battery. You should hear a healthy click (this won't hurt your speakers in any way). If no click, then the speaker sure has a problem.

 

[TLS Guy]

Simply get a battery and a couple pieces of wire. Connect wires to speakers and then one end to either terminal of the battery and then touch the other end of the battery. You should hear a healthy click (this won't hurt your speakers in any way). If no click, then the speaker sure has a problem.

He already knows it has a problem. It will be a problem with a very simple solution however. It will require that rare commodity "common sense.".

 

[TLS Guy]

Here are some better pictures. For some totally bazaar reason Polk seem to have used identical bass/mids and made the thing a three way design. The top woofer is a mid, and the lower one a bass driver. Now there are two set of wires coming from the input terminals, I suspect because the mid has a phase reversal.

So when you test with your meter you will only get continuity to the +ve side of the lower driver.

The fact that none of the speakers produce sound tells me that there is either a dry joint at one of the input terminals, or on the underside of that crossover board. There may be a break in the printed circuit board.

I suspect you are going to have to remove the board. This should be easily removed by taking out those four screws.

I also suspect that soldering skills will be required to repair this speaker.

This is not going to be difficult to diagnose, but some technical skills I suspect are going to be required.

If you think you have them, then go ahead. If you can't return this speaker, you can PM me and arrange to ship it to me. I'm sure I can get this unit up and running very easily, if you do not have the tech skills to do this.