No sound from Polk center channel! CS175i

is3finallymd

I am very frustrated with polk products to say the least.. I spent a decent amount of coin around 6yrs ago on a complete polk speaker system for my home theatre and they have been lackluster reliability wise..

My psw100 (not 100% iirc if thats the model) blew within 2yrs.. Sent it to polk under warranty b/c it was humming, they sent it back and it did nothing afterwards (basically worse then when I sent it) waste of shipping to them and waste of my time

Now my Polk CS175i center channel has no sound.. I have unhooked the speaker wire and re-hooked it up to other ports (left speaker, right speaker, center again, re-ran new speaker wire/tested it on other speakers and receiver!, everything in the book) still NO SOUND! So I am assuming this center is now blown too?

I have been using a onkyo 5.1 500w reciever/monster speaker wire which also include polk fronts and bolkshelfs... Unbelieveable I can't get a $1500 stereo to last longer than 6yrs..

I have ALOT of stereo install experiance and knowledge but I'm still hoping someone will chime in with a suggestion that will hopefully correct the problem..Otherwise its another faulty polk product...

I have sold 10's of thousands of dollars of polk audio products and I get stuck with nothin but problems with my own personal set!!

I believe polks warranty on these are 5yrs so this center will be going in the trash if I cant resolve the issue..Not that polks repair center would fix it correctly as I already found out from my subwoofer repair..

leroyjr1

Maybe the product isn't the problem.:p

messiah

Welcome to the forums. You have to realize that sometime things happen, and not every product that leaves the factory works forever. I would contact the company directly, as their CS has an excellent reputation. Based on what you wrote I'm guessing you have a PSW10, and the CS175i is the problem center. What I don't understand, is after selling tens of thousands of dollars of polk speakers, you opted to buy the bottom of the line entry level stuff. Not dissing you, but curious what the rest of your setup is like. Also strange that both the woofer AND tweeter would blow at the same time.Perhaps it's as simple as one of the wires coming off of the connectors on the back of the cabinet has come loose.

McLoki

so when you hooked up the center channel to the left speaker and the left channel to your center speaker - the problem stayed with the speaker correct? (did not hear anything from the center channel speaker - the left channel speaker - hooked up to center channel on your avr - played fine?

I would pull the crossover, take a picture of it - and post it in this thread. Maybe it is something simple. would be odd for both internal speakers to go out at the same time....

is3finallymd

leroyjr1 wrote: »

Maybe the product isn't the problem.:p

your absolutely right!

the problem is the people who post in threads with useless comments to rub their E-ego

is3finallymd

messiah wrote: »

Welcome to the forums. You have to realize that sometime things happen, and not every product that leaves the factory works forever. I would contact the company directly, as their CS has an excellent reputation. Based on what you wrote I'm guessing you have a PSW10, and the CS175i is the problem center. What I don't understand, is after selling tens of thousands of dollars of polk speakers, you opted to buy the bottom of the line entry level stuff. Not dissing you, but curious what the rest of your setup is like. Also strange that both the woofer AND tweeter would blow at the same time.Perhaps it's as simple as one of the wires coming off of the connectors on the back of the cabinet has come loose.

Of course I realize that, nothing last forever..

I should have been more clear the powered subwoofer blew a couple years ago..The center channel has just recently stopped working

I wouldnt call it entry level, except the subwoofer which certainly was but this center and the bookshelfs and front floor standing speakers were not at the time..

is3finallymd

McLoki wrote: »

so when you hooked up the center channel to the left speaker and the left channel to your center speaker - the problem stayed with the speaker correct? (did not hear anything from the center channel speaker - the left channel speaker - hooked up to center channel on your avr - played fine?

I would pull the crossover, take a picture of it - and post it in this thread. Maybe it is something simple. would be odd for both internal speakers to go out at the same time....

Yes I tried all the other speakers ports (fronts, rears, center) and vice versa with the other speakers to make sure I ruled out a defect in the reciever and speaker wires as well.. I even bought a yamaha reciever today (for other reasons of course) to verify it is the speaker not the receiver..

I can take a couple pics and post them..

nooshinjohn

is3finallymd wrote: »

your absolutely right!

the problem is the people who post in threads with useless comments to rub their E-ego

Leroy isn't the trouble either... we are all here to help each other. Your initial post was as much looking for help as it was trashing the brand. All of us have had occasion at one time or another, to call upon the folks at Polk for assisance. Did you know they STILL support products that are pushing 35 years old.. and that still function as the day they were new?

I cannot help with your particular situation as I have no experience with teh trouble you seem to be having. Give the folks at Polk CS a chance, and give the forum an opportunity to do the same.

Welcome to CP! Just relax a bit and enjoy the music!;)

leroyjr1

is3finallymd wrote: »

your absolutely right!

the problem is the people who post in threads with useless comments to rub their E-ego

Calm down it was a joke. Did you try taking the mids out the cabinet, disconnecting them from the croossover and hooking them directly to the AVR to rule out a bad mid driver. If they do work then you can focus on the crossover.

is3finallymd

Just frustrating after already dealing with this in my car too..My rear infinity 682.7cf kappa speakers in my car after only a year of use, also blew this week.. Swapped them out for this year model 682.9cf equivalents and now they sound considerably better then my remaining 682.7cf fronts. So no now I will have to swap fronts to match them correctly...its been a rough week for me and speakers

leroyjr1

is3finallymd wrote: »

Just frustrating after already dealing with this in my car too..My rear infinity 682.7cf kappa speakers in my car after only a year of use, also blew this week.. Swapped them out for this year model 682.9cf equivalents and now they sound considerably better then my remaining 682.7cf fronts. So no now I will have to swap fronts to match them correctly...its been a rough week for me and speakers

What volume are you listening to music?

is3finallymd

leroyjr1 wrote: »

What volume are you listening to music?

home stereo not loud at all, just your usual levels for movies/baseball games/xbox etc.., car is a different story but nothing over the top..

comfortablycurt

Sounds like your blowing speakers left and right...are you sure you're not over driving them?

I wouldnt call it entry level, except the subwoofer which certainly was but this center and the bookshelfs and front floor standing speakers were not at the time..

For the record...that stuff is fairly entry level. The CS175i cost about 180 bucks new. It wasn't exactly top of the line stuff.



Like Lee suggested, try removing the drivers from the cabinet and connecting them directly to your amp. Keep the volume real low, and only play it for a few seconds.


As others have said, I'd give Polk a chance here. Their customer service is better than basically any other company I've ever dealt with.


Are you sure it's not your receiver? Have you tried hooking another speaker up to the center channel output of your AVR?

nguyendot

Also,

give us an idea of what you're working with.
Model of receiver, etc etc.

If your speaker is getting zero sound from a known good channel/speaker cable then more than likely the drivers themselves are receiving no current (bad crossover, or blown, or a lead came off). This was mentioned in earlier posts.

The only other way the speakers would not respond is if the drivers themselves were completely fused. This is highly unlikely, you'd have to hit them with lightning to have that happen, especially since both do not work.

Things happen, but if it seems the same things are happening all over, you might want to see if something else is causing it other than a "bad product". Speakers 9 times out of 10 are destroyed from misuse not poor build quality.

is3finallymd

my set-up off the top of my head...

42" panasonic plasma
Onkyo DRC500 receiver hooked up to directv H23 hd box, xbox 360
Rear bookshelfs rti28's hooked up with monster banana clips
fronts ?? have to look at the model
center cs175i
monster speaker wire, gauge??

I realize you guys are directing this to misuse which is what I would expect on a polk forum, however I can assure you I do not push my home audio speakers what so ever..

is3finallymd

comfortablycurt wrote: »

Sounds like your blowing speakers left and right...are you sure you're not over driving them?



For the record...that stuff is fairly entry level. The CS175i cost about 180 bucks new. It wasn't exactly top of the line stuff.



Like Lee suggested, try removing the drivers from the cabinet and connecting them directly to your amp. Keep the volume real low, and only play it for a few seconds.


As others have said, I'd give Polk a chance here. Their customer service is better than basically any other company I've ever dealt with.


Are you sure it's not your receiver? Have you tried hooking another speaker up to the center channel output of your AVR?

Yes I did hook up another speaker to the center channel and it works fine..

comfortablycurt

Well then I'd try pulling the drivers and testing them individually. If they work, it can be narrowed down to the crossover.

Assuming that's not the case, it's time to upgrade. Polk may be able to provide you with replacement drivers or crossovers though as well if you'd prefer to go that route. Personally, I'd upgrade though.

I see you're running RTi28's for surrounds, are your front channels RTi series as well? If that's the case, I'd look into a CSi5, or the newer CSiA6.


As far as your issues with the PSW sub, that's not uncommon. The PSW series subs were fairly problematic, which Polk admits to. Their subs in the past weren't the greatest. They've remedied that with the fantastic new DSWPro and DSW MicroPro series subs though.

messiah

is3finallymd wrote: »

my set-up off the top of my head...

42" panasonic plasma
Onkyo DRC500 receiver hooked up to directv H23 hd box, xbox 360
Rear bookshelfs rti28's hooked up with monster banana clips
fronts ?? have to look at the model
center cs175i
monster speaker wire, gauge??

I realize you guys are directing this to misuse which is what I would expect on a polk forum, however I can assure you I do not push my home audio speakers what so ever..

No, not at all as far as the misuse issue is conserned. Not sure why you would think that you would expect that from a Polk forum, but that's ok. We are asking you questions so we can eliminate some possiblilties. Like I mentioned earlier, the likelyhood of both the tweeter and woofer blowing at the the same time is well....unlikely. If you're sure everything on the outside of the cabinet is correct, check the inside of the cabinet to make sure something hasn't come loose.

comfortablycurt

messiah wrote: »

No, not at all as far as the misuse issue is conserned. Not sure why you would think that you would expect that from a Polk forum, but that's ok. We are asking you questions so we can eliminate some possiblilties. Like I mentioned earlier, the likelyhood of both the tweeter and woofer blowing at the the same time is well....unlikely. If you're sure everything on the outside of the cabinet is correct, check the inside of the cabinet to make sure something hasn't come loose.

That's a very good behind. It's pretty uncommon to blow both drivers at one time. It's sounding like it may be something as simple as a loose wire at the input, or possibly a crossover issue.


As messiah said regarding the misuse, I don't know why "you'd expect this from a Polk forum".

nguyendot

So when are you going to try testing the drivers individually? Seems like the best bet so far.

McLoki

nguyendot wrote: »

So when are you going to try testing the drivers individually? Seems like the best bet so far.

I disagree. As others have said - it is very unlikely that all the drivers in a speaker would die all at the same time. Much more likely that there is something in the back of the terminal cup or in the crossover that that died or just came unhooked. I would pull the terminal cup and crossover first thing and look for any parts that appear burt or broken or any loose wires.

It certainly could be some sort of a spontanious driver failure - but unless the speaker was plugged into the wall - that is not very likely.

Michael

TECHNOKID

comfortablycurt wrote: »

Well then I'd try pulling the drivers and testing them individually. If they work, it can be narrowed down to the crossover.

Assuming that's not the case, it's time to upgrade. Polk may be able to provide you with replacement drivers or crossovers though as well if you'd prefer to go that route. Personally, I'd upgrade though.

I see you're running RTi28's for surrounds, are your front channels RTi series as well? If that's the case, I'd look into a CSi5, or the newer CSiA6.


As far as your issues with the PSW sub, that's not uncommon. The PSW series subs were fairly problematic, which Polk admits to. Their subs in the past weren't the greatest. They've remedied that with the fantastic new DSWPro and DSW MicroPro series subs though.

What's your commission rate ?

nguyendot

Well with a driver removed he'll be able to see in there anyways. Testing the drivers will require him to reseat most of the connections - which would solve that issue, and take the next step without really taking that much more time.

is3finallymd

So I I did not see any loose connections on rear terminal or speakers.. I took speaker wire and hooked it up directly to the speaker itself at low/medium volume and the speaker did nothing..

is3finallymd

I'm thinking about going to smaller satellites like the RM85's, anybody have experiance with those?


As for the psw series subs yes polk customer care admitted they have had a series of problems with them so I would stay far away from that line..

TECHNOKID

comfortablycurt wrote: »

Well then I'd try pulling the drivers and testing them individually. If they work, it can be narrowed down to the crossover.

Assuming that's not the case, it's time to upgrade. Polk may be able to provide you with replacement drivers or crossovers though as well if you'd prefer to go that route. Personally, I'd upgrade though.

I see you're running RTi28's for surrounds, are your front channels RTi series as well? If that's the case, I'd look into a CSi5, or the newer CSiA6.


As far as your issues with the PSW sub, that's not uncommon. The PSW series subs were fairly problematic, which Polk admits to. Their subs in the past weren't the greatest. They've remedied that with the fantastic new DSWPro and DSW MicroPro series subs though.

What's your commission rate ?

On the serious side;

1. check your drivers with a 9 volts battery first,reverse the polarity of the battery, driver should respond with inward and/or outward movement depending on the polarity used...

2. If at all possible, use a multimeter/ohmeter to check that the ohmique value matches the specs of the speaker (otherwise 0 ohmns would mean coil is shorted while infinite would mean coil is open)...

3. Once you have proven your drivers to be operationnal, you can then hook them up straight one at the time to your receiver speaker output.

4. Once the drivers are proven to be operational, you could do some testing to the driver as I suspects some potential cold joints or worse condition could be an open component such as the cetraminc resistor.

5. Feeding a tone or very low audio signal, you could use a small speaker to try to trace the faulty component by hooking-up the negative lead and moving the posistive lead on different points (components sides) of the crossover.

6. I would surely check the ceraminc resistor but in order to do so, you need to un-solder one side and lift it up in order to measure it with an ohmeter/multimeter.

If you can not do those steps or having someone to do it for you, you would either get an estimate from your local repair shop or send to Polk for a repair estimate(whichever is the most affordable). By the way, since you sold so many Polk speakers, I am convinced you must have some repair shop contact(s) which should be able to do the work for fairly cheap as I don't think they'd risk loosing a valuable customer (store??) just to get you, right? I would tend for your local repair shop, afterall there are no warranty issue no more! From there, it would be at your discretion to see if it is worhtwhile getting repaired or replaced. Once minor Xover problem(s) are resolved, the speaker can still last you many more years (Polk speakers are good product and as some mentioned some vintage speakers are in the area of 35 years)!

Good luck!
TK

TECHNOKID

is3finallymd wrote: »

So I I did not see any loose connections on rear terminal or speakers.. I took speaker wire and hooked it up directly to the speaker itself at low/medium volume and the speaker did nothing..

Try the 9 volts battery test in order to completely isolate the speaker from your receiver! Like I said, the speaker cone should move inward or outward depending on the polarity applied to the speaker. Do the same with reverse polarity. Make sure you open from the front, not the back and physically disconnect any circutry from the drivers... Use different cable for testing. In order to properly troubleshout, isolating to the bare minimum component will give you the most accurate results. I still can't believe 2 drivers are faulty at once... I am not sure how many chances in the million such would happen (some in the Xover would fry before this happens)??????????????/

is3finallymd

on that note anybody want a cheap cs175i that is in need of repair??

TECHNOKID

Have you ever heard of recycling? You do not list where you live, if it where cheap to send it to me in Gatineau, I would be happy to recycle it for YA

is3finallymd

located in Maryland

TECHNOKID

Too bad, if you were closer (sorry if I was...) I would have gladly recycled it for you Now, if you are concerned a little, I would suggest you start a Karma thread offering it to some eager Polkie that lives close by and could easily fix it