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?

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Showing 3 responses by jax2

Could be your crossover is not delivering the goods to the woofer and only delivering high-frequency signals (some of which are getting to the woofer). Just a guess, but that's where I'd look first. I'm assuming the obvious, that the driver itself is in tact and does not have any obvious damage to it.
I am all in, my brain hurts...

Uh oh; D.P. Gumby's stereo advice hotline...smoke and explosions are sure to follow.
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)

Just an addendum to Dan's advice...

If you have a tube amp you may want to touch the speakers to the woofer terminals before you turn the amp on. It's not the best thing for a tube amp to be receiving a signal from your source with no load on the speaker wires.