When it comes to great audio sound, no part of a home theater system is more overlooked than the speaker cabinet. It’s the last link in the sound chain and controls the final way you hear everything. The speaker cabinet reproduces the tone as sound waves in the air, creating subtle differences in the sound. What happens when you have a blown speaker in one of your cabinets? Do you fix it or just buy a new one?

Usually the answer to this question is a wholehearted yes, simply because those cabinets were built with your speakers in mind. That’s what they designed for. Think about the amount of math and engineering that went into building the cabinets with a certain amount of air space in mind. These cabinets were specifically tuned for those older speakers. Installing other speakers there will not sound the same as your previous speakers.

Here is a simple step-by-step process on how you can remove the faulty speaker from the cabinet and repair it.

• Take the speaker cabinet you will be working on and lay it on its back to remove the speaker grill. Some grids are different from others. Some simply snap into place, while others are secured with screws visible from the side or front of the cabinet.
• Now that you’ve removed the grille, unscrew the first screw on the faulty speaker and then the screw opposite the first. All screws must be removed in an order of opposing pairs.
• Now, carefully list the speaker outside the cabinet. It will still be wired to the other speakers and to the main unit. Some are linked by two cables, while others by four. There should never be a time when you remove a speaker and there is only one wire. If you see this to be the case, then you may be in luck and the speaker just disconnects and doesn’t turn off.
• Now take the cables hanging from the back and pull them out of the speaker tabs with the plastic connectors. Never pull on the cord itself. You will end up damaging it. Those tabs should be color-coded to help you distinguish between the positive (red) and negative (black) leads. If they are not, simply label them with a marker before removing them. Be careful not to let the cables fall back into the cabinet once you remove them by taping them to the sides.
• Verify that the removed speaker is actually blown and dead by determining the resistance between the two positive and negative connection tabs. If you get a meter reading of less than one ohm or more than twice the impedance rating, you have a bad speaker. If you get a reading between the two good zones, then there should be no problem with the speaker. Another way is to press lightly on the center of the speaker cone. The speaker burns out if it makes a squeaky sound or does not return to its original shape.
• Now that you have your new speaker ready to go, you will need to reconnect the cables by pressing the connectors on the corresponding tab. Place the speaker in the mounting hole and replace the screws in the same opposite pair as previously used.
• Lastly, you are going to tighten all of those screws, reattach the grille, and return the speaker cabinet to its upright position.