Difficulty

Difficult

Steps

3

Time Required

                          20 minutes

Sections

1

  • L/R Speaker Selector
  • 3 steps

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Introduction

It is a known issue that the Powered Speaker Select switch often goes bad, resulting in no audio out of one or both speakers. You should try using some contact cleaner first, but that can end up being just a temporary solution.

This fix makes your selection of Left or Right powered speaker permanent, but apart from the Aux in on the front, it is easy to just plug in your audio cables ‘backwards’ to have the audio come out of the correct speakers if you want to change your setup later.

If you are halfway competent with a soldering iron, this is a quick and easy fix. You’ll need to supply your own wire for this.

This is my first guide, and I didn’t plan on making it when I did the fix, so sorry about the lack of photos and details. Nothing would make me happier than for someone to take this info, fix their own speakers, and put together a better version of this guide while doing so.

What you need

Step 1

              L/R Speaker Selector
  • Turn off your powered speaker, Unplug it, and remove the 8 short Phillips head screws on the back.
  • Once removed, you can pull out the electronics from the casing pretty easily. A little care is required, as there is cabling connecting it to the speaker front, but there is enough slack that you don’t need to worry about disconnecting for this fix.

Turn off your powered speaker, Unplug it, and remove the 8 short Phillips head screws on the back.

Once removed, you can pull out the electronics from the casing pretty easily. A little care is required, as there is cabling connecting it to the speaker front, but there is enough slack that you don’t need to worry about disconnecting for this fix.

1024

Step 2

              Examine your board
  • Arrange things so you have easy access to the underside of the circuit board, and the back panel to the right.
  • The contact points we need to work on are the bottom 4 in the cluster of 6 directly left of the switch on the back.
  • For the Powered speaker on the right, connect the top and bottom connections in that group of 4.
  • For the Powered speaker on the Left, cross the top and bottom connections in that group of 4.

Arrange things so you have easy access to the underside of the circuit board, and the back panel to the right.

The contact points we need to work on are the bottom 4 in the cluster of 6 directly left of the switch on the back.

For the Powered speaker on the right, connect the top and bottom connections in that group of 4.

For the Powered speaker on the Left, cross the top and bottom connections in that group of 4.

Step 3

              Get Soldering
  • Solder two short wires to bridge the connections to hard wire your powered speaker to either Right or Left as desired. Finished result should look like the photo, (Right powered speaker selection) only cleaner, with no hastily added electrical tape shielding, because you are better at soldering than I am.
  • Do make sure your wires lay pretty flat to the board so it won’t get in the way when you slide it back in to the speaker casing.

Solder two short wires to bridge the connections to hard wire your powered speaker to either Right or Left as desired. Finished result should look like the photo, (Right powered speaker selection) only cleaner, with no hastily added electrical tape shielding, because you are better at soldering than I am.

Do make sure your wires lay pretty flat to the board so it won’t get in the way when you slide it back in to the speaker casing.

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

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                                                                                      7 other people completed this guide.

Author

                                      with 2 other contributors 


                    David Krug

Member since: 01/01/2020

316 Reputation

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Quentin Little - May 27, 2022

Reply

You have saved my bacon in spending extraneous money on something so simple to fix. Thank you so much!!!

Mario Marin - Jun 27, 2022

Reply

Just wanted to say thank you for creating this. I did my fix slightly different than how you outlined yours by just bridging the solder points in the parallel “right” configuration with bare stranded wire. A bit neater than doing it with larger loops of insulated wire….possibly a little more unsafe? but the strands aren’t touching the circuit board that is insulated anyway so im fairly confident its fine. Speakers work great now

Mark Micallef - Jul 1, 2022

Reply

Tight space to work on but worked perfectly. Thanks David

bketchen - Jul 13, 2022

Reply

Thanks for thisI Thoug I have to start over. Indeed a tight space to work with and i’ve been soldering since I was 14 (50 now). A magnifying glass light would be handy. Also, for me I had to really pull on the back as it was tough to pull out after I took out all screws, without really having something to grip on to.

bketchen - Jul 14, 2022

Reply

I initially cocked it up and there was only sound but staticy and very low volume in which speaker was selected. So I think I got the polarities crossed. So I did it again. The left speaker is restored like it was, so i’m back to 0 (not negative results). So I believe, as per another youtube that we need to remove the switch which is the problematic issue. Apparently relatively easy to do and hopefully I can heat up the backside of the circuit board and removing the switch entirely without disrupting my jumper connections if you are following me.

Another wonder is, can we replace the faulty DPDT switch with a proper one? I have tons of them including small ones that the toggle will probably fit the initial hole. Just a thought, could be a crap shoot. But clearly, for me, the switch still in place creates the issue of sound in only one speaker.

cheers. Brad