Zortrium

Hrm...your symptoms match mine exactly, but I'm 90% sure my R120 is blown (I know I cooked SOMETHING when I smelled electrical burning coming from my sub). I guess it's possible there's a separate underlying issue that we both have not related to R120, but it seems unlikely...anyhow, thanks for checking it out and keep us posted.

Hi Don, Schematics are available at http://www.thompdale.com/bash_amplifier/2-1/2-1_bash_amp.htm The one you want is the power supply, which is the last schematic on that page. R120 and R107 are in the upper right quadrant, each labeled as 82-1/4W. I haven't actually gotten around to repairing mine yet -- I've got replacement resistors and the subwoofer innards sitting on my desk next to me, but I need to get around to borrowing a soldering iron. I'm hoping to avoid having to disassemble the boards to get to the resistor; I think it'll be possible (though a little awkward) based on the reasonably exposed positions of R120 and R107. You should be able to replace them with higher wattage resistors (as long as they're at least 1/4W and exactly 82 ohms) without problem, though I don't know if replacing only one of them with a higher wattage resistor would cause problems. My replacements are just 1/4W; I didn't bother going higher because I'm pretty sure I know why my R120 blew out (my fault rather than equipment failure). Zortrium

Now I'm pretty pissed -- my replacement control pod didn't fix any of the problems. When I called Klipsch, they insisted that since I hadn't bought the control pod from them directly (it was a brand new one from Mr. Clean), it must be that I'd been sent a defective replacement. So I ordered a third pod from Klipsch, and sure enough that didn't fix the problems either. So now I have two pods to return and am not any closer to getting it fixed -- none of the techs I've talked to have had any idea what the problem might be besides a bad pod. Edit: I've done some more digging and it looks like I've got the same problem as described here -- same low volume symptoms and the exact same resistor on my board looks to be fried Here's the dead resistor: Edit 2: That looks be to be resistor R120, which is labelled on the schematic as 82-1/4W (82 ohms, 1/4 watts, 5% tolerance). I think I'll see if I can install a replacement.

Well, I can't say that I tried wiggling it, but I rewired everything several times, and the DIN connection seems snug and secure, so I'm pretty sure that's not the issue. My new control pod is en route now, so I'll have a new DIN cable regardless.

Just made a call to Klipsch and the guy I talked to thought that it's probably a problem with the control pod rather than the amp because when I plug in headphones I still get the minimal volume problem. I guess that makes sense, since a messed up amp shouldn't impact the sound when listening through headphones. So I guess I'll just buy a new control pod, hook that up and hope for the best.

Speakers are only a year and a half old. Definitely not a hardware issue on my computer, my machine is brand new. I disconnected everything from the sub and tried powering it on -- after a second of powering it on, I heard a small click from it, but didn't hear the pop that I think is typical when powering the system on. Same thing for a few consecutive power cycles. I then rewired everything and tried playing some music through it again (I DID get the usual pops when I powered it on with everything plugged in). I basically got a much worse version of my original problem -- one of the two satellites was quiet and crackly, while the other was much quieter and much more crackly (as opposed to a week ago, where one of them was totally fine and the other was mostly fine but somewhat crackly). When I turned the volume up enough the second satellite emitted pops.

A weeks or so ago my Promedia 2.1s started exhibiting an annoying buzz while playing -- no buzz while sitting idle, but the buzz was very noticeable when anything was playing. Closer listening revealed that it was only the left satellite that was buzzing (both were playing the sound, but just that one was adding the buzz). I swapped the left and right satellite wires and the buzz switched from the left to the right speaker, so this made it seem like a wiring issue and I ordered replacement wires. The buzz was extremely annoying, so while I waited for the new wires I didn't use the speakers at all Today I thought I'd give them another shot since I was tired of using headphones all the time (still waiting on the new wires). Unfortunately, now they're exhibiting a totally different problem -- almost inaudible sound. When I power them on, everything seems fine (slight pop from the sub like it's always done, control pod LED comes on), but there's almost no sound coming out. If I increase my volume to 70 or 80% (far higher than I've ever run them at), I can hear the sound coming from them, so I know the signal is getting there, but it's still incredibly faint. The same behavior is present if I run my headphones through the jack on my satellite -- inaudible at reasonable volumes and barely audible at high volumes (I ran this test without any satellite wires at all). I rewired everything and confirmed the same behavior. External sub fuse and DIN plug look fine (no bent pins, etc). I tried plugging the speakers into a second sound source and had the same issue. I'm not sure what to troubleshoot now -- any ideas?

Hmm...my port is facing away from the wall towards me, just as it did before. I'll try moving it around today.

This is more of a newbie audio question than a tech support question about my 2.1s, but I'd appreciate any responses. I rearranged my living room today and moved my computer and speakers onto a new desk. The subwoofer is now sounding incredibly boomy, especially across the room, and I'm not sure what to do to mitigate it. On my old desk, I had the subwoofer dial at >50% and never had a problem, but now it's too boomy even at <50%. My old desk was wooden with closed sides and a shelf down near my feet on which I had the subwoofer. My new desk (also wooden) has open sides and no shelf near my feet, so the subwoofer is just resting on my carpet. Otherwise, apart from moving my desk to the other side of the room, everything else is the same (both new and old placements were against the middle of a wall, not near a corner). Should I try putting something hard under my sub?

The other day I was reorganizing my computer desk to deal with the expanding jungle of wires tangled up behind it. The first thing I rewired was my ProMedia 2.1s since I wanted to keep those wires away from everything else. Unfortunately, I made a rather idiotic mistake due by not paying close attention to which wires I was grabbing -- when I was plugging in the DIN plug to the sub, I somehow managed to not grab the cable from the satellite but a different plug that looked exactly the same on the end but which was actually a power plug for one of my hard drives that was already plugged into the wall. I should have figured something was up when it took some jostling to connect to the sub, but it finally did fit without any major force. Obviously, this was a bad move -- as soon as I powered up the sub, the satellites starting emitting a rapid series of loud pops and a rather strong electrical burning smell came from the sub. The sub was only active for about 5 seconds before I cut the power, but judging by the smell, it seemed like I'd cooked it pretty badly About an hour later, I opened up the sub to take a look inside -- when I took the back off, a small amount of visible smoke came from the inside, but not enough that I could tell exactly where it was coming from. My knowledge of electronics is pretty basic, but I didn't see anything on the circuit board that jumped out at me as catastrophic damage (blown capacitors, visibly charred components, fire, etc) and the fuse was intact. I closed it up and let it sit for about a day before trying to use it again. When I powered up the sub again without anything connected, it emitted what I'd describe as a low growl for about 10 seconds before stopping and being silent. I then hooked up the sats and my computer (correctly this time...) and tried playing some music at medium volume, and everything actually seemed fine -- both sats worked perfectly, bass seemed normal and responsive to the sub control, and I couldn't smell anything coming from the sub. I've only used them for a few minutes since then, but haven't had any issues. So my question is; do people think I caused any lasting damage to my speakers, or is there anything else in particular I should try or look at that might reveal damage? I'll obviously use them for a more extended period in the next few days and see if anything crops up, but I'd rather not just have them suddenly die in a week or die a slow and gradual death or anything like that. I've only had them for a little over a year and they haven't endured any other maltreatment, so they're in pretty good shape overall.