Is My Amp Starting to Go?

alienwatcher

I've recently invested a lot of hard-earned money into my HT, and I'm very happy. However, one glaring issue remains....static/distortion during dialog at low volumes. I sincerely feel like I've tried everything, but wanted to get some opinions here before I take my amp in for repair, buy a new amp, etc...

My amp is a Harman Kardon Citation 5.1 and sounds great at normal/louder volumes. Unfortunately at night I do have to lower the volume quite a bit so our daughter can sleep and that's when the static appears. This issue started as soon as I got the amp. The dialog is completely audible, but the static almost "surrounds" the voices when there's dialog and drops the moment the person in the movie or TV show stops talking. At first listen, the casual listener wouldn't hear it, but even my wife (who has no interest in this at all) has noticed the problem.

I've tried different channels on the amp, different cables, different wire terminations (banana and bare wire), bridging the amp into the center, different EQ settings on my receiver (Natural, Flat, & Graphic EQ). I've tried multiple sources and audio output settings (analog vs digital, bitstream vs pcm, etc...). I'm convinced it has to be something with the amp, but I'd be happy to hear advice on other possible scenerios.

Is this an indication of the amp failing? Do amps commonly have issues with lower volumes? Is it a simple repair? Unfortunately I doubt I have the necessary skills to take care of this myself, but I'm completely open to suggestions at this point. If necessary, I am willing to sell the amp and invest the couple hundred bucks I could possibly get for it into something else.

quadzilla

Can't say I've ever heard of an amp producing static at lower volumes. Are you absolutely sure it doesn't happen at higher volumes? If not, how far do you have to turn it up to get the static to go away?

alienwatcher

I don't think I hear any static at higher volumes, but I can't say that I'm absolutely sure. To me, it appears to go away around the -20 db mark on my Yamaha receiver, but it does seem to depend on the material. I calibrated the receiver to be 75 db when the receiver volume is set to 0.

I also meant to put this in the original post, but I don't hear the static coming from any other channels. I suppose the problem could also be the RCA preout for the center channel on my Yamaha receiver, but that would be strange to me.

tonyb

Try the center amp channel on another speaker. It may be your center channel that is the problem.

alienwatcher

Just ran the center channel through one of my A5's. Static was still present (it was actually more pronounced than on the center....). Seems more and more to me to that the amp is the culprit. At least I know amps don't normally have this issue, so replacing it wouldn't necessarily be a BAD move. Just wish I had a guarantee that that would fix the issue.