I purchased a pair of La Scalas a few years ago with all the money I could scrap together (I'm a poor college student). Recently, however, in unrelated incidents both of them have fallen in combat. I have identified the woofer as the issue in one for sure, but the other is giving me problems. I don't know much about speakers or electronics in general, so please forgive my ignorance. My first thought was to check the fuse, but I can't seem to find it. Any help in that department would be appreciated. If/when I do find it, what kind/model of fuse do I need to replace it assuming (hopefully) that it is at fault? If its not the problem, how would I go about testing the crossovers to determine if they are faulty. Again, sorry for my ignorance, but I love these speakers and I can't afford to take them to someone who's going to charge me hundreds to fix them if I can fix them at home for a hell of a lot cheaper. I'd appreciate any help you can offer.

We can only be helpful if you can give us more information. If you do not see a fuse on the crossover, then there is not a hidden fuse.

1. Specifically, is there any output at all from the cabinet (bass, mids or highs)?

2. If there is output, is it "scratchy sounding" or muffled or what exactly?

3. What preceded the catastrophe? Was it being played loudly? Did this occur all at once?

4. Do you have access to a volt meter?

5. Have you checked to see if the connections on the crossover/drivers are secure.

6. Are you sure the amplifier is working?

Not to worry, things can always be fixed. BTW, once this is working again, you should consider protecting the drivers with a fuse or polyswitch or something.

Good Luck,

-Tom

Moer info would be helpful, but there is a procedure for chasing down these kinds of problems, especially when the problem is not obvious or experience dosn't indicate what to search for right off the bat. If you have a couple of tools and a notebook to keep track of it all you can do this:

Reverse the cables so the left and right channels go to the right and left speakers (trade channels) and see if the problem moves from one side to the other. If it does, it may be the upstream gear, not the speakers.

If the problem stays with the same speaker after trading channels, trade crossovers between the speakers and see if the problem moves to the other speaker. If so, it may be the crossover network is the problem.

If not, keep going and trade the woofers, check for problem movement to the other speaker.

Trade the mid horn, then the tweeter... basically, start big and work your way through down to the smaller parts swapping them back and forth to isolate the problem.

When you find that the problem reliably moves to wherever you place a particular component, that will be the component you want to look at as a possible problem.

If the problem might be in your electronics gear, depending on what you have, you can use the sme kind of process of trading signal paths back and forth to isolate some poblems there, too.

Just work methodically and keep a notebook listing all the changes you make (so you can put them back) and record the results carefully along the way. You will learn quite a bit about your system, have some fun, and may discover the problem.

Let me add that if you are very carefull in how you keep a record of the connections and tests, you may not really have to remove the crossovers or the drivers themselves, just use long wires to make the changes to the connections. If you are totally unfamiliar with electronics you might want to get a knowledgable friend to help out with the wiring changes as it can get a little complicated...

 These are easily repaired speakers, but to diagnose the problems, you need to be methodical and scientific.

 Let's start with the one with the blown woofer.

Remove the leads to the woofer from the crossover.  Use a 1.5V battery ONLY, I like AA. and test the woofer by holding one lead to the battery and rubbing the other terminal with the other lead.  You will hear obvious scratching if the woofer is good, none if it is bad.  If it IS bad, I'd recommend Bob Crites Aluminum frame woofer.  It is tougher than the stock woofer (150 watts) and has the proper Fs. 

For the other speaker, it is rare that all of the drivers would go out at once.  

Test all of the drivers individually with a 1.5V battery, as above and report back.  I once bought a pair of La Scalas, cheap, because a wire was loose in the crossover. 

Also, what are the serial numbers of your speakers and what crossover Type does it have?