jclarkr6
Member
I've had my BCD396XT since July of 2009 (meaning there is no existing warranty) and today (1-9-13) I turned it on to find no audio coming from the internal speaker. The last time I used it was on Monday (1-7-13) and I did not notice it having any problems, although later in the night radio traffic seemed to stop, but I just thought it was a quiet night around town. Audio from the headphone jack still works and sounds great. I am aware that some people have had issues with the internal speaker in this model so I have always avoided turning the volume up past 12, even though some frequencies/systems and users are hard to hear at volume level 12. I'm not sure exactly when the internal speaker went out or why, but at this point that is less important to me than figuring out how to solve my problem. At this point, I do not want to send it in to Uniden for repairs because I believe that nothing was done on my end to cause this problem and that the internal speaker of a scanner should never go out if the volume never exceeds 12 out of 15 (that's only going up to 80% of max volume). Basically, I'm not going to pay Uniden money ($50+$10 shipping) to fix something that I believe is a manufacturing defect, especially when Uniden is just going to install another low-quality speaker that has the same chance of going out as the one that came with my scanner. I've always been a fan of Uniden products, which is why I own several of them, but this really upsets me because the scanner is only 3.5 years old and has been very well taken care of, so there is no logical reason why the internal speaker should fail. I believe Uniden dropped the ball when deciding what speakers to put in the BCD396XT. I still have scanners from the late eighties that have their original internal speakers and they work perfectly. If I drop over $500 on a scanner than it had better be a quality product with quality parts that will not fail after a few years, especially when I used extra caution with the volume after reading about others having their internal speakers fail. Heck, I would pay a little more to ensure that I was getting a quality speaker that would not fail after a few years of careful use. This experience has definitely affected my once positive view of the quality of Uniden products.
So, it looks like I'll be making this repair on my own. My first question is, where do I find a speaker that is compatible with the BCD396XT? I have looked all over the Uniden web site, but the only speaker that comes close seems to be for the BCD396T: Internal Speaker For BCD396T - Accessories at Uniden . Will this speaker work for my BCD396XT? If it does, then Uniden needs to update their website to reflect this fact.
I have also searched YouTube and RadioReference for instructions on how to install the internal speaker into a BCD396XT, but all I've come up with is this wiki page that applies to the "BCD396," no reference to whether it is supposed to be the T, XT, or both: Replace a Blown Speaker in the 396 - The RadioReference Wiki . Will these instructions work for installing an internal speaker into the BCD396XT?
I've seen other users refer people with the same problem as me to the above links, but no one has directly said that the above speaker will work for the BCD396XT and that the instructions on how to install a new speaker will work for the BCD396XT. I'm looking for confirmation of those two facts before I start tinkering with the internal parts of a $500 scanner.
I am also interested in finding out if anybody has found a better internal speaker for the BCD396XT than the one Uniden sells (assuming it works for the XT). I would like to only make this speaker repair once, so if a better quality internal speaker exists, I would like to know the name of it and where it can be found.
Thanks in advance to anyone that reads my whole post and responds!
So, it looks like I'll be making this repair on my own. My first question is, where do I find a speaker that is compatible with the BCD396XT? I have looked all over the Uniden web site, but the only speaker that comes close seems to be for the BCD396T: Internal Speaker For BCD396T - Accessories at Uniden . Will this speaker work for my BCD396XT? If it does, then Uniden needs to update their website to reflect this fact.
I have also searched YouTube and RadioReference for instructions on how to install the internal speaker into a BCD396XT, but all I've come up with is this wiki page that applies to the "BCD396," no reference to whether it is supposed to be the T, XT, or both: Replace a Blown Speaker in the 396 - The RadioReference Wiki . Will these instructions work for installing an internal speaker into the BCD396XT?
I've seen other users refer people with the same problem as me to the above links, but no one has directly said that the above speaker will work for the BCD396XT and that the instructions on how to install a new speaker will work for the BCD396XT. I'm looking for confirmation of those two facts before I start tinkering with the internal parts of a $500 scanner.
I am also interested in finding out if anybody has found a better internal speaker for the BCD396XT than the one Uniden sells (assuming it works for the XT). I would like to only make this speaker repair once, so if a better quality internal speaker exists, I would like to know the name of it and where it can be found.
Thanks in advance to anyone that reads my whole post and responds!