Trouble with my HT last night!!!

Toolfan66
Toolfan66 Posts: 17,954
edited October 2011 in Electronics
Yesterday we picked-up The Lion King for a movie night. When I was getting everything up and running I noticed I wasn't getting any sound out of my left front speaker I was like WTF checked out my speaker cable "nothing" so I swapped my left speaker cable out for the center channel "walla got sound" so I now know the speaker is in working order but I was like F@$K the left channel in my amp is dead!!:cry: so a quick fix was to just hook up the left speaker to the Pioneer and look more into it this morning.

Last night I was thinking to swap out the IC "Audioquest" see if thats bad before I pull the Amp out "XPA-3" and send it in for a check-up..

Walla for some reason the cable no longer works not sure what happened but at least I don't have to mail out tthe amp!!!:razz:
Post edited by Toolfan66 on

Comments

  • falconcry72
    falconcry72 Posts: 3,580
    edited October 2011
    Walla for some reason the cable no longer works not sure what happened but at least I don't have to mail out tthe amp!!!:razz:

    I hate when something goes wrong for a crowd I'm trying to please, especially when everything always works perfectly when I'm alone.:mad:

    Of all the things that could have been wrong, that's the best possible outcome!:biggrin:

    Glad you got it figured out.:cheesygrin:
    2-Channel: PC > Schiit Eitr > Audio Research DAC-8 > Audio Research LS-26 > Pass Labs X-250.5 > Magnepan 3.7's

    Living Room: PC > Marantz AV-7703 > Emotiva XPA-5 > Sonus Faber Liuto Towers, Sonus Faber Liuto Center, Sonus Faber Liuto Bookshelves > Dual SVS PC12-Pluses

    Office: Phone/Tablet > AudioEngine B1 > McIntosh D100 > Bryston 4B-ST > Polk Audio LSiM-703's
  • dkg999
    dkg999 Posts: 5,647
    edited October 2011
    Those mysteriously stopped working IC issues are a PITA. I've never understood how what should be the least likely thing to stop working often does. It's also the thing that most people don't think to really check. Glad you got it sorted!
    DKG999
    HT System: LSi9, LSiCx2, LSiFX, LSi7, SVS 20-39 PC+, B&K 507.s2 AVR, B&K Ref 125.2, Tripplite LCR-2400, Cambridge 650BD, Signal Cable PC/SC, BJC IC, Samsung 55" LED

    Music System: Magnepan 1.6QR, SVS SB12+, ARC pre, Parasound HCA1500 vertically bi-amped, Jolida CDP, Pro-Ject RM5.1SE TT, Pro-Ject TubeBox SE phono pre, SBT, PS Audio DLIII DAC
  • Toolfan66
    Toolfan66 Posts: 17,954
    edited October 2011
    Yeah I don't get it as I haven't done anything to my HT rig in sometime now!! My HT rig has been the same for about two years now except adding the Oppo a few months ago.. I have never had a cable just go dead on me, sos it looks like I will upgrade my cables for the hell of it now!! LOL!!!
  • falconcry72
    falconcry72 Posts: 3,580
    edited October 2011
    ...so it looks like I will upgrade my cables for the hell of it now!! LOL!!!

    haha nice. It's always good to find a reason to spend that hard-earned loot on audio stuff!!!:cheesygrin:
    2-Channel: PC > Schiit Eitr > Audio Research DAC-8 > Audio Research LS-26 > Pass Labs X-250.5 > Magnepan 3.7's

    Living Room: PC > Marantz AV-7703 > Emotiva XPA-5 > Sonus Faber Liuto Towers, Sonus Faber Liuto Center, Sonus Faber Liuto Bookshelves > Dual SVS PC12-Pluses

    Office: Phone/Tablet > AudioEngine B1 > McIntosh D100 > Bryston 4B-ST > Polk Audio LSiM-703's
  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Posts: 15,251
    edited October 2011
    On a similar note, my center would occasionally make noise, a crackling type noise in the background. I was about ready to buy a new pre/pro, but I went and upgraded my interconnects to MIT. These have RCAs that can be tightened. After replacing the ICs, the center channel noise went away, and everything sounds great. It never occurred to me that it might be the cable since everything seemed to be good and tight. I assume it was not a very good connection in the cable that was making the noise. I wish it had just broken so that I would have fixed it earlier, instead of thinking it was an electrical problem.
    Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
    Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
    Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes

    Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
    Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
    Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables

    Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
    Three 20 amp circuits.
  • Toolfan66
    Toolfan66 Posts: 17,954
    edited October 2011
    Funny you mention MIT as thats more then likely what I will move to in this rig..
  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Posts: 15,251
    edited October 2011
    I went with five CVT Terminator 1 cables. That seemed a reasonable price/performance cable for the HT. Aside from clearing up the noise, they really do allow the subtle backgound sounds in movies be clearer and more apparent.

    http://www.mitcables.com/available-in-stores/audio-interconnects/cvt-terminator-1-rca-interconnect.html
    Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
    Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
    Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes

    Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
    Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
    Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables

    Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
    Three 20 amp circuits.
  • Tony M
    Tony M Posts: 11,538
    edited October 2011
    Great diagnostic procedure Larry.

    I've had enough of the simple things go wrong here over the years also. Even the crossed speaker connector screw nuts that some-how over the years some idiot decided to take all the way off and then reverse their positions when putting them back on. That one cost me 4 years of Club Polk participation comments because of the help I got over that issue.

    Loose wires are my favorite easy fix. The crapped out interconnects are a little unusual but I've had it happen too giving demo's to sell speakers. Distortion was one clue to the cable starting to go.I didn't know that then..... but now I do..
    Most people just listen to music and watch movies. I EXPERIENCE them.

    “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”
    --Mark Twain.
  • Toolfan66
    Toolfan66 Posts: 17,954
    edited October 2011
    Well I did call our friend Joe Abrams about some Avt 1 speaker cables and three Avt 1 IC's last week. he was nice enough to split a set of IC's for my center channel. as stated above I found I had a bad Audioquest IC on my left channel so I used this opportunity to upgrade some of my cables and since I love my MIT's in my 2 channel rig thats what I moved to for this without spending too much money like I did in my 2C rig..

    So I just got everything hooked up I should add that I took my Audioquest type 4 speaker cables and made some jumpers for my A9's while I was at it. well now that I am done my A9's are now dominating the fromt stage, I wish I could have got another speaker cable for the center but an 8ft'er would be way to long. I will have to run MCACC again to try and balance the sound. I will make another jumper for the center channel out of the type 4 before I run MCACC.

    I dont spend a lot of time spending money upgrading on my HT as I do my 2C rig but maybe it's time I do a few things as I find putting in the MIT's to be a plus thus far.

    Here is my HT rig: 7.2

    Pioneer SC-07
    Emotiva XPA-3
    OPPO-95

    PoLk AuDiO
    RTiA9's
    CSiA6
    FXiA6 two sets
    DSWpro 600
    DSWpro 500