S60 deep crackling distortion
dragon53
Posts: 6
I've had my Polk S60s for about 2 1/2 years. Last February, I heard a deep crackling sound about one second long on a bass part on the first two tracks of the first cd played. The crackling noise did not occur again.
Last night, April 21, the same deep crackling occurred on the first track of the first cd I played at 24 seconds elapsed time. I replayed the same track three times and the crackling was always there at 24 seconds elapsed time.
After that, I played the same track and other cds, but the crackling did not occur.
It appears the crackling occurs during bass parts and at random.
Any suggestions on what the problem is and how to solve it?
Last night, April 21, the same deep crackling occurred on the first track of the first cd I played at 24 seconds elapsed time. I replayed the same track three times and the crackling was always there at 24 seconds elapsed time.
After that, I played the same track and other cds, but the crackling did not occur.
It appears the crackling occurs during bass parts and at random.
Any suggestions on what the problem is and how to solve it?
Comments
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Multiple possibilities.
The volume level is too high.
The power source isn't capable of delivering clean enough power to reproduce the bass frequency in the music.
The speakers aren't capable of producing the bass frequency in the musicPolitical Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
F1nut:
Thanks for the reply.
I don't think the music was too loud---it's Diana Krall's song (see Youtube link below) which is a relatively quiet song and the distortion occurred at 24 seconds elapsed time. The volume was 57.0 db which is not too loud to me. I had already thought about the bass and volume being too high, so I tested other cds with louder music and bass and there was no distortion. As I said earlier, the noise appears to be somewhat random.
Thanks again for the reply.
LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYnuip2W3HE -
What bass at 24 seconds?Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
F1nut:
On the cd track, there is a some bass at 24 seconds that's not obvious on the Youtube video. I've played about an additional hour of various tracks from cds and the noise has not returned, so I'm curious about the cause of the problem. -
I just fired up the rig and listened for said bass track at 24 seconds on the first two songs. There were no "true" lower frequency bass notes that would cause that. All of the frequencies were easy and much higher than a woofer would need to produce anything other than bare minimal movement.
I wouldn't question the speakers at this point. I would question the source. Either the CD itself or the CDP.
Do you have any knicks, debris, a scratch or any other imperfections at all on the CD itself that might confuse the laser/DAC/clock from reading it properly?
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Nice album, BTW. Been listening to it since I fired the rig up.
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Treitz3:
To clarify the distortion problem:
1. The distortion originally occurred on a different cd in February---I mentioned the Krall cd problem which occurred several days ago because the song is very quiet and I wouldn't expect a bass distortion problem and because it occurred at 24 elapsed time three times in a row. I've played the Krall song 6-7 times since then and there is no problem.
2. The distortion problem only occurs in the left speaker.
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Swap the outputs of the L&R channels at the RCA level or speaker level, whichever is easier. Play the same track and see if the issue follows the speaker (if you can get the issue to appear again) or remains in the same channel.
Chasing an intermittent issue like this can be bothersome, due to it not constantly repeating itself, so be prepared to have some patience.
Alternatively, when it happens again, swap the outputs of the L&R channels at the RCA level or speaker level at that time and diagnose at that point in time.
You may have already solved the issue by disturbing an artifact that was on the CD (that maybe you did not notice). It's hard to tell without being there and the issue not being a constant one.
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Treitz3:
To update the audio distortion problem, I've been playing cds about 30 minutes every night since I last posted and did not have the problem again until April 26 when I heard the distortion on a different cd at 50 seconds elapsed time--again on the left speaker. I replayed the track a second time and the distortion was again at 50 seconds elapsed time, but when I played the track a third time, the distortion was not there.
I doubt the problem is dust, etc. because if dust did cause the problem, I would think the distortion would occur on both speakers, but my problem, so far, has occurred only on the left speaker.
I will listen to more cds to see if the problem continues.
Thanks for the help. -
I would suggest swapping the channels (L&R at the amplifier) on the speaker wires then. It's not detrimental to the sound but it would tell us something if it happened again, yet still remained in the same speaker.
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Almost sounds like a cabling/loose connection/shorting/grounding issue or that the output is too hot for the input and is distorting at the preamp stage. However you'd notice this more on dynamic transients, not randomly.
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GUYS:
UPDATE---I've been playing cds on the S60s everyday for about 1-1/2 months and the audio problem has not returned. As you suggested, I also checked the speaker wire connections and the left speaker may have been loose, so I reconnected everything. Since the problems appears gone, I assume the connection was the problem (but the track having the same audio distortion at the exact elapsed time puzzled me).
Either way, I hope the problem has been solved.
Thanks again for everyone's help.
Also, for Krall fans, here's another track I listened to repeatedly for possible audio problems.
LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xEp014a2Ng -
Thanks for the follow up.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk
