Speakers - Montana Owners Club

adelmoll · 05-21-2005, 01:28 PM

OK guys. I have done several searches on the lousy stereo system and can not get what I want. Our 2005 3475 has three speakers that do not work and we can not figure out how to get to the wireing behind the speakers. I know some of you have taken the system apart but how did you get to the system

Can't wait to hear from you.

campbud · 05-21-2005, 02:36 PM

Our tech guy had ours all set when we picked up the Monty. I guess we were lucky. The tech was into surround systems and fine tuned ours. Sorry I cant tell you anything but your dealer should be able to get everything connected or I am sure someone will be along shortly to tell you!

stiles watson · 05-21-2005, 02:42 PM

Not sure how yours is mounted, but ours has four screws underneath. Loosening those screws should let you slide the unit out to get to the wiring behind.

adelmoll · 05-21-2005, 03:12 PM

We can not find any screws. Thought we could remove the TV and get to it that way but the TV is screwed down and we can't find a way to get to that either. Bill likes to do everything himself but I guess he'll just have to swallow hard and let the techs do it. Thanks anyway. Helen

Trailer Trash 2 · 05-21-2005, 06:47 PM

the screws go up through the face frame on mine

Montana Sky · 05-21-2005, 07:13 PM

In my opinion it is not your speakers it is the dvd player. Many folks have had nothing but trouble with them including me. I have had mine replaced again last month and this is no better than the others. I would try your dealership and have them order you a new player before you go tearing the speaker wires out. This is going to be one of my major projects this summer, replacing the unit with a quality one.

rames14 · 05-21-2005, 07:15 PM

We are going to be tearing into ours soon. I replaced the two rear speakers already with a pair of Cambridge speakers from Fry's Electronics. The Qwest stereo was replaced by a Yamaha surround sound receiver. I believe that on the 3400 you need to take out the electronic equipment and work your way down.

Parrothead · 05-21-2005, 08:15 PM

I don't know what your unit has but let me tell you what we found and what we did. We decided to go the easy way first. We replaced the unit since we found it did not work well. Also after reading many post on this forum we decided we were in good company thinking the unit was bad. We replaced it with a Sony. I don't remember the model number but it is a 5 disc player. It does DVD's, CD's and plays the sound for the TV wonderfully. We decided not to replace the speakers unless we felt it was needed. At this point we don't think so but may replace the rear ones since that will be easy. To get to our 3 speakers above the TV, we have to remove the fireplace and unscrew the TV from the bottom. There is one screw in the top of the TV that is covered with a wood plug. The plugs that cover the four screws holding the fireplace are in really deep and we are afraid it will never look the same. Our sound is really good now and the new unit is not hard to use.

Montana_1240 · 05-22-2005, 03:03 PM

Adelmoll,

We have a 2005 3475, as well.

The Qwest system in ours is mounted in a special plastic tray/plate thing that seems made for it. The feet of the Qwest go into depressions in that tray/plate. The system is held down by a two-sided Velcro strap.

There could just be loose wires on the back of the Qwest. It’s hard to believe three speakers would be bad, or that three separate runs of speaker wires are broken. I’d check that before trying to remove the TV.

We had the left rear speaker, (over the couch, at the back side of the living room slide,) that wasn’t working when we got it home. The dealer tracked down a place where a screw had been driven through the wire. The dealer repaired it.

If you don’t have that method of strapping holding your system down, then it might just be screwed from beneath…Over the top of the TV. If that’s the case, you’ll have to pop the little wooden screw covers out from the fireplace front trim. (I drilled teeny little holes in mine, and then uses a jewelers screwdriver to pry them out.) take out the four screws, and the fireplace is held in by two screws on either side, (inside edge,) of the fireplace mechanism.

(Edited to add: Once you remove the two fireplace mechanism screws, slide the fireplace back into the entertainement center housing, rather than attempting to take it out. Saves you disconnecting the power. And don't get fingers all over the glass. Saves you having to clean a lot before re-installing it.)

Once you get that loose, you’ll see the two bottom screws that go up into your TV set. Loosen them about three inches, and make sure the TV can move slightly.

Look in front of, and in the middle of the shelf the Qwest is on, and you should see a plastic cover over a screw head. That goes down into the center speaker. Let the speaker hang while you look under the speaker’s original position and note the last screw holding the TV in. Once you get that screw loose, place a chair in front of the TV, and slide the TV out, and set it on the chair. That way, the wires attached to the back of the TV won’t be strained. With the TV out, you can see the wires that run to the three front speakers, and make sure they’re connected. If one or both of the rear speakers aren’t working, definitely take it to your dealer for warranty repairs. That’s a big job, and frustrating. Especially if you find they were damaged at the plant, rather than simply being loose.

Good luck. Let us know what happens wit it. I’ve had a new TV and new Qwest installed, after blowing out the S-Video Input on the TV, and the video output on the Qwest. It’s not the greatest system, but it was free, and worth what I paid for it!

There are other home theater systems that have all those features, and probably better sound. But you’ll have to be handy and cut different size holes for those speakers.

Steve

adelmoll · 05-22-2005, 03:47 PM

Wow: Thanks Gyro. I printed this out for Bill to follow. Great instructions. I'll let you know what happens. Helen

Montana_1750 · 05-22-2005, 06:47 PM

We have ours in at the dealer right now as we speak and one of the things that are on the list is the rear speakers
all they do is make a humming noise and i have tried to adjust the stereo but it make on difference
When i talked to the service writer a couple days ago he said they where going to replace the rear speakers

Parrothead · 05-23-2005, 06:02 PM

adelmoll
If you do all that Steve is suggesting, then replace the unit and speakers while you have everything out. The replacement units are not that expensive. $299 or so. I know some here have replaced with a unit from Sears that I think was less. Do a search here on the MOC on DVD or Quest or Stereo. You will get some good information. This has been going on for quite a while.

Montana_1424 · 05-23-2005, 06:14 PM

I replaced mine with the Sony unit, and have some very nice pics of the whole project, if anyone wants that, let me know and I will meail it to you, just shoot me a message. Also, I was able to contact Keystone about my quest system, and they authorized me to send it back to them, and they cut me a check for about $200, which I put towards my new untit. FYI, if you replace your untit, you should also do the speakers, I found that they have no power at all, and while that might be fine while watching TV, you will notice a big difference while listening to music.

Parrothead · 05-23-2005, 06:26 PM

Ed,
My music sound fine with the old speakers. We did use the woofer from the Sony unit. Of course I'm not playing classical and I don't have perfect pitch so maybe I'm not that picky.

On The Road Again · 05-24-2005, 08:55 AM

I really think Keystone should be ashamed for putting such a "cheap" DVD/Radio as Qwest in their units. Mine has never worked well and just recently my remote quit. Had to wait for at least a month for my dealer to get Keystone to send them one. Eventually, I'll just repalce the Qwest with a comparable Sony unit. Plus, my radio only works when my TV "booster" is in the "on" position.
Sure hope Keystone reads all of these problems and makes some future changes.

pound99 · 05-24-2005, 11:44 AM

Hi, I have the same system. I always thought the speakers on the back wall are surround sound speakers. They only work when I have this being used. When I watch TV I never hear the back speakers. Is this the way it's supposed to be. Thanks for the help.

On The Road Again · 05-24-2005, 12:55 PM

I think they are suppose to be a surround sound system, however, they don't work all the time, just sometimes with certain DVD's. They do work with the radio on, however, the reception is sooooo bad it's hardly worth trying to use the radio.

Montana_1240 · 05-24-2005, 05:55 PM

Adelmoll,

You're welcome. I've gotten pretty good at taking the TV out. I started when I wanted to connect my VCR to Audio/Video 2, and use an S-Video for the DVD player on Audio/Video 1.

Once I burned out the audio/video stuff on the TV and DVD, Keystone replaced both in short order.

The fact that the Qwest was free played into it. Plus, I don't know how the two-speaker system I was thinking of getting, (because it's low-priced but high quality,) would have meant that I'd have been cutting different holes in the entertainment center.

Now I'm not even afraid of doing that! If this Qwest gets to sounding like the others are saying theirs do, I'll take the leap to a newer system.

Oh, and if someone has a problem with the rear speakers, it truly is because they only function when a DVD with 5.1 sound is playing...And they may have to make sure the speaker settings are set correctly. The instructions regarding settings on that unit are cryptic at best, with terms I'm sure are "proprietary" for Qwest. Lots of acronyms that don't mean diddly to me, so far. But I've played with the settings a bunch, and made sure they speakers function. Even a tech at RV Connections couldn't understand that, until I loaded one of my movie DVDs, and he took out his test DVD.

Edited to add: Do NOT press the "PS" button on the Qwest remote control when playing a DVD! It's the button just a few buttons above the blue "TITLE" button near the red "OK" button. That turns the DVD output into Progressive Scan. The Toshiba TV, as good as it is, cannot cope with Progressive Scan, and the screen will blank out. After which time, I had to punch a bazillion buttons a hundred times to finally get a picture back. I must have stumbled on whatever it took to disable Progressive Scan in the Setup menu. While a lot of DVDs can output Progressive Scan, the Toshiba can't use it for an input. So be awfully careful if anyone has fat fingers. That might have precipitated my Video failure....

Oh, and there is a built-in test for each speaker, by the way. Check the manual, and audio settings, and you'll see how you can get it to send a tone, (sounds like static, actually,) to each speaker, so you can hear is all the speakers, and associated wiring is correct. I did that to make sure I exhausted all the steps in troubleshooting the broken wire to my left rear speaker.

My guess is that Keystone pays about $50 for the Qwest units. They're worth every penny!

But, then, I'm so deaf that I can't hear the deficiencies in it. I have to listen to Kim tell me when something truly grating is going on with some DVD sound, or whatever. Thankfully, the DirecTV works great, and has kept us both occupied, and away from playing any of the stack of DVDs we've been collecting.

If you have any more questions, do get in touch. We don't have Wi-Fi here in Williamsburg, but I try to be on each night.

Steve

Montana_3968 · 06-16-2005, 11:46 AM

So, anyone who is near their camper. Could you remove the speaker cover (should pop right off) on any one of your surround speakers and tell me the size of the speaker itself. I wonder how easy it would be to replace the speaker component so you don't have to worry about finding new speakers (enclosure and all) to fit in those spots above the tv..

Montana_1424 · 06-16-2005, 11:59 AM

Danno, it is not that hard to replace all the speakers and make the holes bigger. I have picturs and step bt step tips already made up from when I did mine. I have a 3650 RK, whihc is probably slightly different from yours, but it might help, if you want, email me and I will send you the file, it is in MS word format.

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