M-Audio Audio Players & Recorders - Recent Questions, Troubleshooting & Support

Remove the six hex screws from the plastic front speaker housing. It\'s the piece with the speaker\'s make and model imprinted.Gently pry the cover off. The blue LED light can be easily freed by gently prying it loose from the back of the plastic housing. You\'ll notice the two wires connecting your tweeter. Don\'t pull too hard on the cover while the tweeter is still attached to prevent detaching the wires. Instead, take very short, stubby Phillips head screwdriver and remove the two screws holding the small plastic brace against the back of the tweeter. It\'s a tight fit. Don\'t pull too hard on the wires! Next, push the tweeter out from the front, touching only the extreme outer rim. Or, use needlenosed pliers to grip the heat sink on the back of the tweeter and gently pull from the back. The tweeter has a very powerful magnet. Find a small but robust rectangle made of ferrous metal. Large enough to span the front diameter of the tweeter. When the speaker magnet grabs the little metal plate, adjust the plate until the buzzing stops. This means of course that you have to turn the power to the speaker on.

Yes, my M-Audio BX-5's power on and look fine but there is no sound. The system output goes to other monitors just fine, so I've narrowed it down to the BX-5's. The answer is: Sometimes you get what you pay for. This isn't one of those times. Get better speakers next time. I'm now realizing how many of my older M-Audio devices am I still able to use. 0

Background 50 or 60 Hz buzz can be radiated from nearby wiring or conducted. Grounding is important but that can also be a cause. I suggest you search accidental hum loops. Poor or faulty power supply regulation or smoothing can inject a mains hum into audio. This would need checking with an oscilloscope which could also be used perhaps to help search for the source. Radiated hum can be picked up and injected into high gain amplifier inputs and long leads, poor screening and impedance mismatch can make things much worse. I haven't helped much but I hope I have given you food for thought and further research.

Little goes wrong with a speaker unless it has either been overloaded or subject to damp, extreme dust or has sustained physical damage from some sort of accident. A rough test is to move the speaker cone gently through most of it's travel using an even pressure simultaneously on various places around the cone, I use my fingers. It should move smoothly without any resistance and most importantly it should be completely silent through the largest or smallest movements. If it sounds scratchy, the speech coil is either off-centre or it has suffered damp or dust and dirt has ingressed into the air gap or the chassis has become distorted. If it is silent and electrically sound it should produce normal volume. There was a time when loudspeaker repair, overhaul or adjustment was routine but these days it isn't economic except for the highest quality and replacement is best. After gaining access to the interior wiring of the speaker cabinet I suggest further testing it by wiring it direct and leaving out the crossover if it has one.