Testing speakers with multimeter?

Figit090

Member
I tested some Klipsch Forte II speakers with a multimeter and one of them registered around 10 ohms while another around 4.7. After I powered them up to test them, both speakers were around 4.7 Ohms (unhooked from amp again).

Is the change in resistance indicative of anything? Or did I just wake up a dormant capacitor?

Is this even a worthwhile test for a speaker cabinet, or just testing a whole cabinet circuit with crossover installed pointless?

The speaker with the 10ohm starting value had some odd rubbing noises that I thought was a blown woofer but turned out to most likely be a really bad connection when I hastily plugged in my amp. I had limited time to test the speakers but at 20 Hertz the questionable woofer sounded like it was rubbing at first. Both put out good bass after I fixed the wire on the amp from what I could tell.

I was concerned about a partially blown voice coil but I don't know. The cabs are in good shape and I think you'd have to really abuse these top pop them.
 
Everything pretty much need to be out of circuit to test with a DMM, and even them the resulting data is meh. Good enough for testing if something is open or not.
 
Putting an ohm meter across the terminals of a speaker will only give you the DC resistance of the woofer and it's filter inductor. Because capacitors won't pass the DC from your meter, nothing with a capacitor in series with the driver (high-pass tweeter and band pass midrange) be be part of the read-out. The only thing a VOM is good for in diagnosing speakers is looking for breaks in a circuit.
Regard your before/after readings as some sort of fluke
 
Back
Top Bottom