Are my speakers dead?

[gride]

I just pulled all of the Polk 650's out of my boat and ohm'd them. They all read 4 ohms, but only one set of terminals or other showed anything, and it was not always the same side i.e. one side has a clear/red wire showing on positive and a clear/green wire connecting to the negative. The other set of terminals is marked +\-, but no wires visible from the outside.(black wires can be seen inside the speaker) so are they dead? All the amps are already out of the boat.

[EarmarkMarine]

If they read 4-ohms then they should at least play. Remember that you can't read the DCR of a tweeter if there is a series capacitor.

David
Earmark Marine

[Michael Richter]

One set of terminals is the woofer and the other side is the tweeter. Agree with Earmark, they will play. Weather or not they will sound good or clear is another story... specs show that speaker impedance to read at 2.7 ohms but will definatley still play at 4.

[gride]

The manual said nominal impedance is 4 ohms.

[EarmarkMarine]

gride,
The only 2.7 ohm fullrange speaker in the Polk line should be the MM651 (non UM version). All others should be a nominal AC impedance of 4 ohms. However, you cannot read impedance, just the DC resistance. So don't be alarmed if the speakers read a resistance of 10 to 20 percent lower than the specified impedance. That would be the norm. As long as you get a consistent +/- 5% reading among all speakers then they are unlikely to be damaged in an electrical respect. There still could be physical or mechanical damage which can generally be revealed by a quick listen or visual inspection. If they sound funny then I can tell you exactly what to look for. You can also do an easy speaker 'pop' check with a small 1.5 volt battery. Just limit the test to a split second and take a several second pause before a repeat.

David
Earmark Marine

[gride]

Ok, so the impedence is actually closer to 3.3, and 5/6 speakers have working mids, but not tweets. Since one works I'm assuming there is not a series capacitor.

[Michael Richter]

I was referring to the MM651 my apologies, The best way is to honestly hook em up and listen. Most likely one tweet will not work not the other way around tho each case is different.

Its only 4 screws per spkr so it not like you killing an hour by hooking up and listening after amp install. That will be the only true test! Internal corrosion and so many other issues may result in improper spkr function as David was saying

[gride]

Thanks. I'm waiting on 2 amps to get here, hopefully by next weekend. Quick question, one amp is a syn 6 I tried having repaired, but only 1-5 work. Can I run the in high pass on channel 5 with my bow speakers in parallel? If they sound too bad I'll have to have just tower speakers for a while. Thanks again for the help.

[Michael Richter]

So the Syn 6 is temporary? How old is the amp? They warranty up to a year old and you can also send them into Wetsounds for repair at a really reasonable price. Did you send it back to Wetsounds for repair?

I normally run the 4 back interiors on 1 & 2, fronts on 3 & 4 so you can put a little more power to them ( as I feel they need to be louder due to distance and wind noise )
then I run my Towers or Sub on 5 & 6. Its possible to run the way you saying just not the most efficient in my opinion.
Running 2 interiors per channel in any case has never posed a problem for me!

[gride]

Ya, I sent it to wet sounds. The cost to repair was not feasible so i bought a new syn 6. Being familiar with it and loving wet sounds stuff i just decided to go that route. I had 4 amps, but two is where i want to be considering simplicity, comsumption, and space. My thinking about running the bow pair on ch 5 is to get them a little more power, but I do get stereo stuff mixed up from time to time. Now I'm thinking it be be better to do as you said and run the 4 cockpit speakers on ch. 1-2 and the bow speakers on ch. 3&4, leaving ch. 5 unused. I have to get a dual 2 xs-12 to use on the new syn 6's channels 5/6 in low pass. So my goal is to run those two amps(new syn 6 & syn "5") I'm trying to figure out if I should change my battery setup from two deep cycles on a perko to a starting battery on post 1, and the two deep cycles on post 2 of the switch. I rarely sit and rest listening to music for more than 20 minutes.