M-Audio BX5a making noise

[Padraic482]

Hey,

I'm a voiceover actor with a small home studio.  I've got a pair of M-Audio BX5a monitor speakers.

When I took them out of the box three years ago, one of them made a crackling noise during playback.  Turned out to be a shielding problem and M-Audio fixed it under warranty.

Three years later, I'm having the same problem with the other speaker.  Calls to M-Audio proved fruitless.  Despite the fact that I'd already had the same problem with other speaker and that these speakers are completely stationary and used for nothing more than playing back single, mono voiceover tracks, the folks at M-Audio have nothing more to say than, "Warranty's up... it's your problem."

So far, the only place I've been able to find in the NYC area that can fix it wants to charge nearly as much as a new pair of speakers would cost.  And sending it back to M-Audio and paying them to fix it means packing it up, shipping it, and waiting weeks to get it done.

Is this something I could possibly tackle on my own?

Can anyone tell me how to diagnose the problem and fix it?

Thanks!

[stainless]

after 3 years, I suspect it's not a shielding problem but a problem with one of the speakers or the internal bi-amp-  if it has a single bi-amp that feeds both speakers, skip the next step

 to rule out the source being the problem, you should switch leads from your mixer/soundcard, whatever your using to mix through, to make sure the problem IS with the monitor -.if that checks out OK... meaning the cracking stays with the monitoring regardless of whether its

try and determine if it's just coming from one speaker- if so, before running out and buying a new replacement speaker, swap speakers from the 'good' monitor. This may require a soldering iron, but may simply be 4 screws/nuts and a couple of plugs- IF the wires are not color coded, mark which wire goes to which terminal (polarity is important)

If the speaker is the culprit, look for a replacement, either from M-Audio, or one of the audio electronics outlets (Parts Express, etc)

If the speakers all seem to pass muster, then the bi-amp is likely the problem.... either take to the tech, or buy new monitors, unless you have enough electronics skills to trouble shoot circuit boards

Good luck!