ifi123

open the subwoofer, check for bulging capacitors and also check the fuse.

have you checked the fuse? if short circuit happens the fuse will blow.

if the speakers are brand new im afraid some of the capacitors might be faulty. when you opened the amplifier and replace the fuse, can you check for leaking or bulging capacitors? the capacitors used in klipsch ifi are rifeking, a pretty cheap brand known for its bad quality. also, if the fuses are fine, try to turn on the system in a silent environment. when you turn it on, there should be no sound, but when you pull / switch off the power plug there should be a faint noise of clicking. if the sound appears i believe your amplifier is working.

dwy1342, iFi was using 12V firewire to charge old iPod device. newer device (iPhone 3G and after, iPod Touch 2G and after, iPod Nano 3G and after, etc) are using 5V from USB. it's true they're using different pin, you need to buy a ipod charger converter (12v to 5v) if you want to use iFi with newer iPods but im not sure if it works perfectly.

nice to hear that dbert. mine start popping randomly after 3 months after the 4700uF 25V replacement. i decided to re-cap the whole board (except one bipolar cap which use NP brand instead of Rifeking) and found the popping remains. rewire the whole DIN cable to 24AWG cable (louder sound from ipod) and same, random popping except now the dock no longer flickers when it pops. i gave up and send it to local technician. i'll update if he found what is appears to be the culprit. in the meantime, listening to logitech seemed like a steep downgrade.

yes, please replace all the 5 capacitors. you can use 4700uF 35V for all of them. choose a reputable brand like nichicon, rubycon, panasonic, etc. if it doesn't help, install a resistor before the fuse. I encounter same problem with my used iFi, the previous owner installed a resistor before the fuse. he cut one track leaving an open circuit, and use a resistor between it. it looks like this: http://www.thevintagesound.com/store/bmz_cache/6/6f183a1848a0caaf18502b97200648d9.image.250x187.jpg 5W 2.2ohm only.

check the fuse inside the unit

well i am by all means no expert, just that i am also trying to fix my iFi that's why i often checked this forum. i believe the iFi sounds great because of klipsch engineering team. inside the subwoofer you will find very big transformer and two powerful class d chip (tda8920 & tda8924), two reference RSX-3 satellites which is rarely found in other 2.1 PC speakers within 200$ mark. the only problem was klipsch was trying to reduce some cost by putting crappy capacitors (rifeking) and very thin and fragile din cable that causes many problems with iFi after few years of usage. luckily though, iFi doesn't fail as often as promedia 5.1 ultra. i like the iFi, for 200-300$ i believe they are worth every penny. too bad mine doesn't produce any sound now, after i replaced all the rifeking capacitors. if it doesn't sound any good i wouldn't have wasted many time trying to fix it with my limited skills.

"light constant crackling" seems like a common problem with iFi. is it worth repairing? it depends, but for me I just re-cap the whole board with better electrolyte capacitors (21 pieces) and rewire the crappy DIN cable into 24AWG wire (instead of 28-30AWG original). 1.) it might be a problem with the DIN cable or your source cable. I can't be sure unless you do some trial-and-error with it. but, most importantly, all the electrolyte capacitors in the iFi are of very bad quality. Last year i replaced 1 capacitor and it works perfectly for 4 mths. so i figure out i should replaced all of it. 2.) worth repairing or not, depends on how much time you willing to spend. some people who are good with DIY could just solder some stuff, probably takes few hours and few bucks for the replacement. if you aren't you can send it to someone with expertise. if you read around similar iFi threads you can see some people send their iFi to technician and have them fixed. 3.) other speakers like these at 200$ brand new? im not sure but i haven't heard any 2.1 PC Speaker system that blows the iFi. for non-PC speakers, im not sure. to ensure your speaker drivers are not the one crackling, you can see if the crackling appear randomly, especially after a cold start (unplug your ifi from wall outlet).

as with many other klipsch ifi, 3 items to check: -1x fuse -1x 4700uF 25V capacitor (standalone) - mini din 9-pin cable from the dock to subwoofer (the whole cable) if you can send it to technician, ask him to check on those 3 items first. i believe those are the 'weak' parts in klipsch ifi.

do you notice any blown or burnt components? someone installed a resistor just before the fuse in my iFi i guess that's to prevent the fuses from blowing. not sure about the resistor rating but it's there.

check out this thread: http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/79936.aspx?PageIndex=7 some of us eventually managed to fix our iFi which we suspect have a faulty dock. one capacitor that handle the dock was busted apparently. also check for busted DIN cable after too much wiggle.

do you mean the USB transmitter on the Promedia 2.1 Wireless? i doubt it would work, since iphone / ipod is not a USB host device. it wouldn't be able to read the USB transmitter. Even if it could, the USB transmitter isn;t designed to be used with iphone / ipod as well. i would suggest using something like apple universal dock. it wouldn't be wireless, but at least you have one infrared remote, and it will charge the iphone or ipod as well.

i think the newer promedia 2.1 uses SMPS instead of conventional EL transformer. that should slash some weight off. some ppl claims that their older pm2.1 sounds better than the newer one (no switch, new logo) though. have you tried connecting the extra speakers as rear speakers in the soundcard setting? then just 'clone' the front signal to rear so when playing music the 4 speakers sounds. and of course when playing games / movies with surround sound, you will not sacrifice the surround sound effect.

try to contact mister_clean, he sells control pod or maybe he is able to repair yours. http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/p/146706/1506523.aspx#1506523 also check if the DIN cable is the culprit. mine used to shutdown randomly when cable is tilted to specific direction. cable ducting to blame lol