HELP with WL6000

I had the same problem with my WL6000 speakers. They'd sound good when i first turn it on, but after about 10 minutes, they would crackle with static that would get louder and louder after another 10 minuters.

When opening it up, I noticed that it was quite hot inside and suspected a few capacitors. Looking around the area near the 2 large 3300uf / 35vdc capacitors I found that freezing a couple of the smaller capacitors nearby eliminated the noise. Since the board was slightly "browner" in the area of those small electrolytic capacitors, I decided to just replace all of them in that area. Here's a list of the electrolytic capacitors I replaced:

2 x 3300uf @ 35vdc  (These are the very large ones for the power supply)

2 x 4.7uf  @  50vdc

3 x 1uf    @  50vdc

1 x 330uf @ 16vdc

1 x 22uf @ 50vdc

1 x 100uf @ 16vdc

All of these were rated for 85 deg C, but I replaced them with capacitors rated at 105 deg C. I paid about $13.00 to replace all ten of them and now the speakers work like a charm.

More info: When a few of the capacitors go bad, they get affected by the magnetism from the woofer speaker. Slide the main board out of the cabinet, and you will notice that the static / crackling goes away. Put the board back in and then the noise returns. This was a weird problem but fun to solve and easy to replace the caps. Good luck on yours.......Danko

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These speakers are horribly designed. As a later poster in this thread has indicated, the manufacturer used cheap capacitors that are subject to magnetics and they burn out. Dell should be offering replacements for customers that purchased these. I'm only posting now because I pulled these out of storage to plug into my laptop while I am working out on the pool. They were fine for about ten minutes then went south, which was the original reason that I shelved them in the first place. They are now going into the trash.

Shame on you Dell for having such Profane word removed as per TOU> Q&A and not offering replacements to your customers. People shouldn't have to re-solder capacitors into circuit boards to make you Profane word removed as per TOU> design work properly.

Hey I know your post is old, but I recently purchased the speakers used and I am having the same issue. I just wanted to know if replacing the capacitors is difficult? Does it require soldering? And also are your speakers still working  for you today? Thanks

I have never tried. I got so frustrated and upset over the lack of support on a known problem. I just noticed you said used....if you haven't had them too long...get a refund!  Mine have been in a box in storage since my last post here.  Good luck!  I hope if you get them going you will share what you did,because I bet they are siting in boxes all over the US!

At least on my version of the WL6000, it is really painful to get the board out. All the connections are soldered, so you will have to cut wires or desolder things. I don't think it's worth it. What I have tried is just to have the back cover off (which is easy). This allows cool air to keep everything within the design spec, and has worked for me so far. Your "sub" won't be as loud without the bass tube and the enclosure being closed, but it wasn't so great anyway :)

If you really insist on opening it up, here's how:

You need to remove all (15+) external screws, including one under one of the rubber feet. Then you need to remove the volume knob on top, remove all those screws, then pry the silver plastic surround off, undo 5 more screws to remove the black plastic covering the speaker, then remove the speaker to get to one last screw holding the board in (next to the heat sink, accessible only from above through the speaker hole). You will then find that the board is still hard to get out. That's because the transformer block (hidden behind the heatsinks) tends to interfere. Once you lift the transformer, you'll get the board partially out, but if you want to solder on it, you'll need to cut or desolder some wires to fully remove it.