Jump to content

Just when you think you're an expert...


picky

Recommended Posts

The other day, while we were entertaining company out on our deck,

I noticed that the left Heresy III in my garage wasn't sounding just right. It

seemed to be lacking in either mid or treble output and I began to suspect that

I'd somehow blown the tweeter or the squawker even though I have never done

anything to this system to abuse it for such a thing to occur. A couple

of days later, I got up on the ladder and placed my ear near the drivers while I

played a CD and I could hear output coming from all three drivers. I run the

Heresys with a 1961 EICO ST-70 integrated power amp I bought on eBay a few years

back and had rebuilt by fellow forum member, NOS Valves. After noticing the

drivers were working, but in a diminished capacity, I began to suspect either a

wiring issue or maybe one of the vacuum tubes was on its way out. I went to the

back of the EICO and swapped the speaker leads left-to-right. The problem

migrated to the right speaker. So I knew the issue wasn't with the drivers,

crossover or wires. I began flipping the toggle switches one at a time on the

EICO to ascertain if perhaps there was some oxidation in the switches thinking

one or more might need cleaning. But, everything worked as expected. Finally,

closer examination of the front knobs on the EICO revealed the source of the

problem: Most of the control knobs on this amplifier are dual-concentric which

can make it difficult to read their settings. I discovered that the right

channel treble was set to +2 while the left channel knob that sits directly

behind it was set to - 6. Bringing the left channel up to +2 to match the right

channel made all of the difference! I was completely relieved to discover that

nothing was wrong with the system. And I also felt pretty dumb, too. LOL -Glenn

post-10177-13819800017838_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

sometimes it seems like alcohol is your friend, but really its a sleeping Tasmanian devil, except some times when you pop enough tops that SOB wakes up. I has my music server refuse to connect to the internet, which is a 2012 Dell XPS 8300. Found out McAfee just installed a nice automatic update that prevented it without a patch, which you guessed it needed to be installed manually. Well the 3 beers I had shortened my patience considerably.

post-16829-13819800019148_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glad you cought it, I just had the same thing happen to me cept it was my R ch cornwall. After much futzting with things, it turned out to be a bad patch cord that I used when I added a component. Little things like this can run you crazy!

Tell me about it! One time, the left front channel of my rig was not producing any output at all. I checked the wiring, and it was all good. I even ended up taking the RF-7 speaker apart to ensure that nothing came disconnected inside the cabinet. Everything looked good there as well. Toggle the amp and pre-amp on and off in an effort to "reset" it. Dug out the manual to the B&K amp and it makes mention of a fuse! DOH!!! I checked the fuse on that channel and sure enough, it was popped! I am guessing it happened when I disconnected that speaker to move it so I can paint the window trim behind there (and neglicted to turn off the amp in the process). Must've touched the banana plugs together by mistake and shorted that channel out. Well, a quick trip to the rat shack to get a replacement fuse and everything working perfectly again!

Unfortunatly, just this past week, I've noticed that my outdoor rig was producing really crackly/statically sound. In that case it is indeed due to that Denon DRA-397 crapping out. I've swapped in a Cambridge Audio Azure 640A integrated amp, and it was working perfectly again. I'll need to contact Denon and see about if it is worth repairing or just go and buy another unit (Best Buy has them for $400).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here goes...

One day I sit down to demo the system to an uncle, starting with an imaging demo. "Where does the voice come from?" I asked, expecting the guest to be astounded that the center speaker wasn't the one producing the voice. "Left speaker" he says. Huh?

So I have a dead channel. Bummer.

The h/k service center is 300 km away. I drop it off there a few weeks later (a few week without music already) and they will look at it within 10 days or so. I ask a friend in that city to check up on it a few week later. Good news and bad news. They couldn't find anything wrong with it, except... the balance control was all the way to the left. WHAT? I spend a month without the system for a button I forgot I had?

So, if you have a toddler and lose a channel, check the balance control!

Funny thing is that on another forum someone was bumbed because he lost a channel on his rig. I asked if he had a toddler. He did. I asked his to check hios balance control. Boy was he glad he did!!! [:P]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here goes...

One day I sit down to demo the system to an uncle, starting with an imaging demo. "Where does the voice come from?" I asked, expecting the guest to be astounded that the center speaker wasn't the one producing the voice. "Left speaker" he says. Huh?

So I have a dead channel. Bummer.

The h/k service center is 300 km away. I drop it off there a few weeks later (a few week without music already) and they will look at it within 10 days or so. I ask a friend in that city to check up on it a few week later. Good news and bad news. They couldn't find anything wrong with it, except... the balance control was all the way to the left. WHAT? I spend a month without the system for a button I forgot I had?

So, if you have a toddler and lose a channel, check the balance control!

Funny thing is that on another forum someone was bumbed because he lost a channel on his rig. I asked if he had a toddler. He did. I asked his to check hios balance control. Boy was he glad he did!!! Stick out tongue

Dude that same thing happened to me about 9 years ago with my first HK avr225, Luckily I was telling my buddy I had to take it in for service,. He says dude is the little one walking yet, I says well she is, He says check your balance knob. Good think I didn't spend money I didn't have at the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

That's funny, everyone has done something similar, especially when it's something you never adjust.

I did build a sub a couple of years ago with 2 drivers, I wired them wrong and had very little output, after 2 days I found what I did and felt really dumb. I was about to throw out the cabinet thinking it was a bad design.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And I also felt pretty dumb, too.

Don't feel bad Glenn, i was leaving work one day and while DRIVING through the parking lot, i get to the end and see an identical truck as mine. For a moment i panicked and thought, "I don't remember parking way over here." then i realized that I was already in my truck...driving.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...