Back to Basics

JayCee

Been rolling tubes over the past few months and found a NOS Mullard that's the schiznit. Played it for a few hours when it arrived and was heaven from first listen. Decided to pull it out and work through my news stash from least expensive tubes to the Mullard. Rolled the Mullard back in last week and was like, WTF?

I thought, hmmmm, was I that off in my initial impression? Okay, expectation bias?, hearing loss?, covid ears?...there are covid toes!

Spent the past few days trying to convince myself things were good...not!

Reading through the forum I browsed the recent thread w/the new to someone SDA's and trouble with the Dimensioning in their SDA. Ear up to the array, conversation with myself..."I hear it, right?", "Yes", "No", "Low", "There", "Not there", "Song sucks", "Not supposed to", "The SDA cable?", "Nah, how?", "Just me and....no one else, how could it?"

Gut says WTF, John? You know this ain't right. Check the cable....left speaker, Neutrik, check...right speaker, Neutrik, check. Dreadnaught, mother**cker, one of the Neutrik's is on the floor.

Back to basics. Check the connections. Trust your gut.

All's good in John's world and the Mullard's...sublime.

maxward

Been there.

Moose68Bash

A similar, but not audio-related anecdote:

Recently, the fan in our MBR shower just quit. It was 23 years old, and the bathroom exhaust fans in three other bathrooms had failed in the last nine months, so I decided I needed to replace it.

So, I went to the main panel in the basement and flipped a live circuit breaker labelled "MBR and MBR Bath."

I crawled through an access door in a closet to get behind a knee wall where I could access the fan. I spent a couple of hours in a very uncomfortable situation removing the old fan and disassembling the backdraft damper, fan housing, and duct work.

I found the exact replacement for the fan online and an identical replacement for the backdraft damper online. I ordered them, and they were delivered in three days.

Expecting a "drop-in" replacement effort, I reassembled everything and reinstalled it.

Flipped the circuit breaker back to "on." Dead. Fan didn't work.

Checked everything except the main panel. When I finally decided I needed to recheck the circuit breaker in the main panel, I discovered another circuit breaker labelled "MBR Jacuzzi and Shower" in a corner of the panel at the bottom and far away from the other breaker. Flipped it on.

Bingo.

Now, the fan worked.

Went into the shower to reinstall the grille cover on the backdraft damper.

Whoa! It wouldn't fit. The new backdraft damper, same part number and same manufacturer, nevertheless, it would not accept the grille cover.

And so on!!!

Having ordered the new grille assembly and received it, I'm trying to figure out how I can jury-rig the whole assembly, now with a new 4" piece of duct work to receive the grille and the backdraft damper in a different location in the "circuit," into the duct work that exhausts to the outside. There is not a whole lot of "wiggle room."

It is wonderful how a failure to "check the connections" can lead to an inordinate amount of unnecessary work and aggravation!

Really do the basics first!

The only bright spot in all this is that the old backdraft damper was not working and needed replacement anyway.

JayCee

Exactly, Phil. The part I didn't mention in my fiasco was I spent last night measuring and adjusting the speakers from the supposed sweet spot. An hour blown and I never looked down at the slightly hidden culprit. Don't get me started re. fuse panels. I sympathize.

Moose68Bash

Thank you, John, and my sympathies are with you as well!