nolanator19

So I recently bought some RF-3 II's on craigslist and I am pretty sure something is wrong with them. I tested them on a receiver and also on an amplifier and in both cases at a fairly high volume the receiver cut out and went into protection mode and at pretty low volumes the amplifier cut out and and a light turned on in the front which I assume is also protection mode. I have already tried switching the polarity and both speakers cut out when only one speaker is connected. I am a poor college student with a busy schedule and I don't really want to pay for a professional to look at them. I will gladly supply more info. I was thinking maybe something electrical in the speakers or I am super unlucky and both the amplifier and receiver I have are messed up or it could be my wires. Any guesses as to what the problem could be? Thanks.

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So I went to go see them and they looked ok. The cabinets had a fair amount of scratches and the corners were pretty worn. When he played them for me I could hear all the drivers but there was a hiss when nothing was playing that was barely audible. I am guessing it was the receiver he had or the fact that he was using the headphone output of a ghetto blaster to use its cd drive. I will post more pics. I did not realize how massive these speakers were. There were 2 holes drilled in the top of each cabinet because it was hung from a ceiling from a hotel from which it was rescued by the owner. My gut is telling me that I don't want to spend $500 on something this banged up and this used. What do you guys think is a fair price? The serials are consecutive. Would it be very hard to sand and refinish these? Thanks again.

Thanks for all the feedback. I just emailed them to see if I could check them out before the sale and even pick them up. I saw a pair of Fortes for $450 on craigslist. For a college student seeing as how it looks like they have a better low end do you think they might be a little better or do you think if I just added a subwoofer with the La Scalas that it would be fine?

I am 18 and will be a sophomore at University of Washington and have just recently gotten really into the Klipsch sound. My first pair were the promedia 2.1 then I convinced my parents to buy the RF-25's when they were on Woot. I have been scouring craigslist for the past 2 months looking for some good Klipsch speakers and today a pair of La Scalas were posted to be on sale at a garage sale on Sunday for $500. What should I be looking for if I audition them? I will be powering them with a Onkyo TX-8511. Thanks.