How to Test a Woofer

Test your subwoofer to see if the speaker is blown.

Faulty subwoofer components interfere with sound quality. Some low-quality woofers are made with paper parts. The sound quality of these speakers is decent when the music is played low. However, when you play the music at a high level, the paper can become torn, and the music sounds awful. The voice coil can also heat up and clip. High-power levels are thrust back and forth and produce high-force sound. The damage to speakers varies, as some might only sound bad under certain sound frequencies. High-quality woofers usually are made from high-quality fabric or metallurgic material.

Instructions

1. Inspect the cone on your woofer for any cracks. The cone is located at the front the speaker, where sound is emitted. It looks like a hubcap. A blown woofer usually has cracks in this location, but a normal-looking cone may still be blown.

2. Push the woofer in with your hand onto the cone, using all your fingers, Don't push in the center. There could be a problem if the woofer doesn't smoothly move in and out. Be gentle with your woofer. Compare the movement with your woofer to a properly working woofer.

3. Inspect the rest of the equipment. Secure all the wires, amplifiers and connectors correctly in the woofer. A faulty connection often is the problem source.

4. Listen to your woofer. Play an MP3 or CD with a 182 kilobytes per second-(kbps) rating or higher. Listen for sound distortion. Crackling, scratching and popping sounds indicate a blown woofer.

Tips & Warnings

• Even if you do detect problems, your woofer might not be fully blown. Only particular frequencies trigger crackling, popping and scratching.

• You can buy a subwoofer test track from a stereo store. This track plays a wide range of low frequencies so you can isolate the issue.

References

• Top Bits: How Speakers Blow
• Prillaman: Speakers