Problem with Polk RM3300 speakers

chris73

Hello, I am helping a friend with a problem with with his Polk RM3300 Home Audio speakers. His receiver kept clicking off due to thermal protection issues, and it finally died today. He is planning on purchasing a new receiver tomorrow, but I sent him home with my digital multimeter to verify the resistance of his polk speakers. Funny thing is that he could not get a reading on the DMM at all. He checked another brand of speaker he has and got an 8 ohm reading. I had him test the speakers with a AAA battery and they would make a pop, but only once.

Here is the question, do these speakers have some sort of crossover that would prevent getting a normal reading, or do they sound shot? They do work when connected to an amp. I am confused.

I have seen this strange behavior with the battery test in the past where a speaker would make a pop only once when repeadedly tapping the battery contacts to the the speaker input using wires. It must have something to do with the crossover, but is this normal, or an indication of a problem for this model speaker?

To be clear, I am talking about the satellite speakers, not the powered sub. And yes, he did check the resistance at the speaker input terminals.

[Deleted User]

Hello,
Welcome to Club Polk! The satellite speakers have a built in high pass filter preventing them from playing frequencies below 120 Hz. This is what is preventing your meter from making a resistance measurement.
The best way to test the speakers is to play them at a low volume and listen for any distortion and make sure both the tweeter and midrange driver are working.
Regards, Ken

chris73

Thanks for the info. I had a feeling that it had something to do with a x-over/capacitor/filter issue. I will test them out myself today. Also, thank you for the quick reply. Most of my experience is in troubleshooting full-range speakers, not satellites.

[Deleted User]

No problem, glad to be of help.
Take care, Ken