When a speaker does not sound right, how do you know which part is wrong?

Craigs list home of junk and scammers.

@ihcho

I bought Polk LS50 from craigslist for my kids. One speaker produces some static noise and it sounds much weaker than the other.

It wouldn't hurt to open it up and check the wiring. If it's a loose (or bad/ pitted) connection then that should be easy enough to remedy.

It wouldn't hurt to have a quick look.

It might just be connection wire that's come loose in transit.

If you haven't opened up a speaker before it can be quite daunting.

Nevertheless, with a bit of care and a good torch you should be able to check the obvious. It might be a good idea to use tape to mark the driver position before removal and also try to replace the wood screws into the same holes (same tightness) they were in originally.

Perhaps take a picture too to remind yourself later and avoid checking again.

If it's not that, then why not give Polk a ring?

If anyone's familiar with that issue then it will be them.

The real nightmare is if someone has futzed with the crossovers.

That's always a worry buying used.

Swap each driver one at a time to the working speaker. That will verify which driver is the culprit. If the drivers are good then you will know that it is the xover!

Put your ear next to the tweeter, 95% chance the tweeter is blown...50% of the time. 

Thanks for excellent ideas.

Bad tweeter and they are good about parts.

REW and a UMIK microphone would be an objective way to start.

Sniffing the cross over parts with the nostrils will likely need to happen at some point. But it be a driver.

One could swap the crossover between left and right. If the problem moves sides then it is the passive XO. If it is not moving then it is a driver. And it could be a bit of both.

Russ, I loved your Yogi Berra comment