Speakers

[Floyde66]

After returning home from working overseas for 2 years - I find that my Z2300 speakers (on loan to my young nephew!) have been damaged. Both the left and right speaker jacks have been snapped off where they plug into the sub-woofer. Each cable is hard wired into the speaker. Is it possible to replace the jacks and splice into the existing cables? I also have to remove the broken bits from the plug socket in the sub-woofer. Any help would be appreciated!!

[BLH]

The Female RCA jacks on the sub-woofer are not broken just have parts of the Male RCA pin stuck in them?

Can you grab the stuck pin with maybe a small tweezers, needle nose pliers or work it out gently with a small pick?

I have some internal photos of the Z2300s sub and will see if they have speaker jacks with an open back so you could push them out but disassembly is not an easy task and trying to remove the stuck pins from the outside would be easier.

The Male RCA jacks are the broken part and the wires are physically OK?

You can get Male RCA connectors at most electronics shops and Radio Shack. 

If you are handy with soldering, new ones can be soldered on to the cables.

They  make solderless one though I have never used them and don't know how well they work.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062472

 The wire itself has a center wire with a wire mesh shield around it. Those are the two connections. Center wire goes to the male center pin of the RCA connector and the outer shield to the shell connection.

[Floyde66]

Thanks for the response BLH. Yes correct,  the female jacks have the broken part of male pin stuck in them. I have tried to extract using pins and tweezers without any success and have also removed the back of the sub-woofer to see if the female jacks are open back. Unfortunately this is not the case - as jack assembly has been plastic sealed. 

Yes, the cables from the speakers to RCA plugs are fine, so it would be possible to buy new RCA jacks and solder to existing wires as you suggest. Biggest problem still remains getting broken parts out of the female side of the jack. Let me know if you have a further ideas and I will post if I come up with a solution!

Many Thanks!

[Floyde66]

Update - Progress!

I have managed to extract the broken male pins from the female RCA socket in sub-woofer. The metal pin has an inner plastic core so I was able to use a 1/8" drillbit  to very carefully drill into this and extract the pin. All I have to do now is buy some new RCA plugs and should be back in business.

One last question - the speaker cable is duel core with red and black wires - do you know which should go to the centre pin and which to the outer ring contact?

[BLH]

OK it has two individual wires in the cable.

I have not seen anything relating to that exactly.

My electronic experiences would say Red would be on the + on the speaker and would be the center pin of the RCA  connector.

The most that would happen if I was incorrect is the Satellites would be out of phase with the Sub-Woofer and not sound quite as good.

[Floyde66]

Hi BLH - Well, have a partial fix so far!

Have bought new wired RCA plugs and simply spliced into the speaker cable. So far so easy!  Unfortunately it appears the female RCA plugs in the sub-woofer are either worn or damaged and give a very loose fit and thus a very poor intermittent connection.

Is there any way of sourcing the RCA plug assembly unit within the sub-woofer? As I recall (without taking it apart again) this is connected to the rest of the electronics by only 4 or 5 wires. However I imagine that finding this component would be very difficult. 

Any further thoughts would be much appreciated! Many thanks.

[BLH]

I don't have too much information on the satellite speaker connector subassembly. I know Logitech does not sell replacement parts.

I did see some photos of the Sub's insides from an online review. It does look like a small PC board with the connectors soldered to it. Maybe a few other components as the photo showed it partially covered with glue or potting compound. Yes it looks like maybe four or five wires on the subassembly.

Can't give you any specific fixes. Maybe you could find a way to gently squeeze the internal center connection so it contacts the male pin of the speaker plug.

[Floyde66]

Yes, as you say - subassemly covered with 'potting compound'!

Anyway - really appreciate all the feedback and will post if and when I find the final fix!

Many thanks!

[BLH]

Good luck on your fix.