I've owned a SET of Altec Lansing XA2021 speakers for about 1 year (bought them new). They have always sounded great and I never played them very loud so that they would sound that way for quite a while. About 1 week ago I noticed a very slight scratchy, rattling sound from the SUBWOOFER. Then today I was listening to some music when I heard a loud rattling noise. The only way to not hear the sound is to turn the bass to practically zero (not good for a Led Zeppelin fan). Does this mean their dead?

Also, I tried plugging in to a different socket with the same problem.do you sitll have warranty on the speakers? Maybe just get it replaced via warranty if you still have warranty on it.If the speakers are out of warranty you could always just recone them, but in most cases it's cheaper and easier to just replace them.

You could always just take a look inside the enclosure and see if a foreign body is the culprit as well.I would try to take the enclosure apart but it is glued and not screwed together and I would probably do a lot of damage to it if I tried to take it apart.
When I shake it a little there is nothing moving around in it, so I don't think there is another object or a LOOSE part.
Tried to hook my PC into my stereo system and that works but I would like to have PC speakers instead.
Also, no warranty! Bought them from Amazon and didn't think to buy one (kinda stupid on my part, but I was trying to save my $$$)I would just recommend getting new speakers then, unless you're fine with using the stereo.Sometimes there can be little shards of plastic that get stuck in the spider of the speaker yet they don't rattle as a loose piece would. I have also seen solder blobs inside the basket of the speaker.

Is the speaker screwed to the enclosure? If so, take it out an look to see if there is debris or if the wires GOING to the voice coil may be touching the back side of the speaker. That happens more than you would think.Like I said, the enclosure is glued and the grills aren't removable, so I can't take it apart and look inside.
Using my stereo for now and am LOOKING into buying some 2.1 logitech's I seen.
Thanks to all!OK It is possibly glued together, but most cabinets are screwed together.

The screws are frequently hidden under adhesive rubber feet or labels. Hopefully that is your situation.

Grills are also frequently just snapped in and will unsnap if a small pry force is applied.

If they are so noisy as to be unusable, then there is no harm in trying.

Just my .02.Yep, if you can't afford new speakers, and the old ones are out of warranty then you can always disassemble and reassemble them based on what you find. However if you have to get into re-coning a speaker it is usually cheaper and easier to replace it. Unless it is a pro quality speaker, and those are never glued.