A blown or damaged speaker has a distorted and crunchy sound that either has a rough reproduction of the signal you want to send through it or doesn’t make any sound at all.
Several scenarios can make your speakers malfunction. Speakers can sustain physical damage to the cone or the voice coil. The damage may be obvious at times. However, there are also instances when the speakers may look fine with very subtle distortion that you might even wonder if the problem was with your amplifier.
This article aims to share some tips on how to tell if speakers are damaged.
What Does Blown Mean?
Blown is the blanket term used for describing a speaker that is damaged or doesn’t work right. This may mean that the speaker reproduces scratchy signals at a lower volume. It is also possible that there are no sounds that pass through the speakers. You will be able to tell if you have a blown speaker if you try one or several tests.
How to Tell If You Have Blown Speakers
Many people use the word blown for every aspect of poor or low sound quality in relation to a speaker. But this is not really true.
As you might already know, different components or parts in a speaker may be damaged, worn down, or faulty. This can make the speaker become defective, although it doesn’t automatically mean that you have a blown speaker.
A blown speaker is a speaker that doesn’t produce any sound at all, produces distortion regardless of the set volume, and has a damaged or torn cone that affects the sound of the speaker to some extent, resulting in an unpleasant sound or distortion.
How Do Blown Speakers Sound Like?
Blown speakers produce a sound that is often likened to that of buzzing bees. Popping, hissing, crackling, and distortion are also among the common sounds you will note if you listen closely when trying to determine if you have a blown speaker.
One important thing you should remember here is that sometimes, these sounds are not apparent at all, and again, you will have to listen more closely since the distortion might have been embedded in the rest of the audio.
Aside from this, depending on how the speaker is blown, only a few frequencies might be affected, with the distortion occurring only within a particular power range, which doesn’t automatically mean volume. This is something you should watch out for.
Symptoms of a Damaged Speaker
The following are some of the tell-tale signs that your speakers may be damaged or blown:
Absence of Cone Movement
The speaker’s cone must always move no matter how low the volumes may get. If there are no movements at all, it is a surefire indication that there is a component that hinders the power of your speaker. In cases like this, you can still repair your speakers with no need for any replacement.
Distortion at All Volumes
You will always notice distortion if your speakers are blown, irrespective of the volume you set them at. Even when the volume has been set low, the issue will still persist, and once you turn up the volume, the problem will only worsen.
Sound Blackout or No Frequency Response
There are times when your speaker may be working just fine but at one point in the middle of a song, you hear severe amounts of distortion or even total silence.
This usually happens if you try increasing the bass frequencies and suddenly, you don’t hear any bass at all. It can take place with all the frequencies, yet it typically happens with the low and high frequencies.
Annoying Noises
Distortion is probably the most common sound that you will hear coming from a damaged speaker. But there are still a lot of less common noises that a blown speaker may generate, such as rattling, scratches, pops, and hisses.
These noises don’t always need to come from the sounds that the cone reproduces itself because these can also come from within the speaker because of faulty or loose components.
External Test for Damaged Speakers
The easiest way to test and determine if you have damaged speakers is to examine and listen to audio playback on the speaker.
It will also help if you visually examine the cone and the rest of the external parts of the speaker. You can then playback audio familiar to you, or a song that you memorize well and know how its sound goes from start to finish.
It will also be best if the EQ range is flattened and set the volume low when you play the audio, increasing it little by little before you push it up to the maximum volume of the speaker.
Take note that you should pair your amplifier with your speakers to handle similar watts, allowing you to push the speakers to their full volume. Whatever the case is, even if the speakers are at their total volume, you can never expect them to work exactly at their maximum capacity.
It is due to the audio range, or the range of frequencies and their volume, that is being played. The only way to push the max capability of a speaker is if you play an unaltered sign wave. You can effectively tell if a speaker is damaged or not if you use this method to analyze your speaker.
Internal Test for Damaged Speakers
Testing a speaker’s internal workings is a bit more complex and even easier said than done. You need several instruments like a meter gauge paired with some knowledge of the circuitry and design of the speaker.
If you are knowledgeable about it, you have to inspect the speaker and its components systematically, watching out for faulty parts, worn wire, broken fuses, and the like.
It is also best to let a professional examine your speaker if you have no idea what to do and you cannot identify anything wrong after doing the external test.
Use these helpful tips above to determine if your speakers are damaged or not.