Troubleshooting marine stereo?

[Kupe]

Hey gang-

Okay, I hate to trouble our experts but my wife says I need to escalate this above my minor diesel engine concerns!

The left rear cockpit speaker of our onboard Sony stereo receiver on our Tartan 28 is not working. It hasn't worked since we bought the boat in March, but just now getting to it.

Can anyone tell me what to check for with my multimeter when checking to see if the wires into the speaker are live when the receiver is playing? I'm guessing some small DC volts, but given that the source is music, it could be wildly variable I'm sure. Any cautions or caveats in case the receiver doesn't like a multimeter on it?

Thanks gang!

Kupe

[belizesailor]

Start simple, check the connections on either end, and the balance/fade settings on the stereo. If all looks good then, do a continuity test on the wires, if good, hook up a known good speaker to test.

Just testing the voltage may show a variable voltage, but that wont tell you much unless you hook an osciloscope up to it...hooking up a known good speaker is more straight forward.

[Kupe]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Start simple, check the connections on either end, and the balance/fade settings on the stereo. If all looks good then, do a continuity test on the wires, if good, hook up a known good speaker to test.

Just testing the voltage may show a variable voltage, but that wont tell you much unless you hook an osciloscope up to it...hooking up a known good speaker is more straight forward.

Perfect- I'm on it! I know Balance/Fade are good- I checked those but the rest is now on my list. And thank you!

Kupe

[smac999]

Swap 2 speakers. And see if it works or not. Or if the same speaker doesn't work on the other side.

[senormechanico]

First, disconnect the bad speaker at the speaker and using a 1.5 volt cell, momentarily connect and disconnect it to the "dead" speaker.
When you touch the connection to the speaker you should hear a thud.
You will hear it again when it's disconnected.
If you don't hear anything, it's got a bad voice coil, or possibly the wire from the coil to the speaker terminal.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Kupe

The left rear cockpit speaker of our onboard Sony stereo receiver on our Tartan 28 is not working. It hasn't worked since we bought the boat in March, but just now getting to it.

If you find you're getting power to the speakers... just replace it. They're consumables, in an kind of semi-wet environment.

-Chris