I recently bought some Samson media one 4a's for use with my laptop whilst I am away from home. Bought them from a well known German music store, and have just plugged them in to find that the power light came on and then went straight out. I think the fuse blew, but have tried two other leads one did the same and the other didn't work. Is there a possibility I may have damaged them internally when the fuse blew? As they came from Germany they came with a European plug.

Dont think plugging in a Eurpeans power plug into American is a good idea...Not sure EXACTLY what happened but I'm pretty sure you've damaged them, yes. How much? idk

Good point, except he's not in America, he's in the UK

dangars, I'd contact whoever you bought them from & get them sent back

Reading the manual (did you read the manual first?) there is a voltage switch on the rear where you can select between 115V and 230V. The fuse needs to be changed according to the voltage.

It is possible they may be have been set to 115V not sure. The fact you had a European plug means they should have been set at 230V.

Possible good news is that if they were set at 115V the fuses may be blown and they protected the speakers from further damage. But further damage may have resulted also.

Can you check and see what the voltage was set to. If there is a warranty then you may have to send them back. You have done nothing wrong if they were set to the wrong voltage. Someone at their end failed to check this. They are a US company made in China but they may have been set to 115V before being sent to you. 

If they were set to 230V then you are also not at fault. There must be another reason they are not working. The fuse rating may be involved. The 115V setting has the higher current fuse. Explains the reason they stayed on maybe for a short time.


Actually are the voltages clear on the 4a's with respect to the switch. The 3a's have the switch vertical and the voltages look clear but the 4a's have the voltage selector switch horizontal but the voltage markings look the same as the 3a's hence the confusion.

Dangars, I'd take it up with the well-known German music store. If you're talking about who I think you are, they've sent me a clearly used item as new before now, plus another that was dead on arrival.

To be fair, they exchanged the items without problems.

All sorted, I took the back off and changed the fuse that had blown, that's after finding out that homebase didn't sell the fuse I needed! I also found an adapator for the European lead changed the fuse in that plugged it all back in and now have working monitors. Thanks for all your help though appreciate it.

Hi Stuart, glad you got them working. Looks like the fuses saved you. You were lucky, sometimes other things can be destroyed before the fuses kick in. Was the voltage set correctly just interested.

Yeah the voltage was set correctly, I think the second plug which was a UK plug done the fuse over. To be fair the manual is pretty naff, I had a good read but couldn't get the information I wanted. I played some mixes I've been working on and they sound good.