Anybody seen my left channel?

audiobliss

First I'll give ya the Cliff notes version...and in the rare event my mind hasn't wandered by the time I finish with that, I'll go into the more detailed version.

The left channel on my Parasound HCA-1000A is cutting in and out randomly. When I narrowed the problem to coming from the amp, I banged on the front fascia/top cover, and with each bang the left channel would cut back in for a few seconds before fading back out. So, I yanked it out of my system and replaced it with my Wave 8's and no more problem. So my question to you is, what could be wrong with it? Most likely a loose connection, I'd guess, but I'd say there's still a plethora of possible culprits, from the input to the output. What's most likely, do you think? You think it's too serious? Think it'll be costly to repair? Should I be able to notice anything under the hood? I opened it up and scrutinized it for a few minutes but didn't come across anything that looked/felt loose.

What would you do next? There aren't many repair joints around here that I know of. There is one electronics repair shop in town (called Digitronix), but I'm not sure exactly how, uhh, 'qualified' he is. I get the feeling it's a really low-key place...maybe he knows what he's doing, maybe he doesn't. I'll have to walk in there someday and get a feel for the place to decide if I want to take it to him or not...I haven't been in there yet.

So, advice! Suggestions! Recommendations! And any other synonyms you can think of!
Thanks!!


And, just like I predicted, I'm too tired of trying to assemble sentences to go on with the long version...so the above will have to suffice.

RuSsMaN

Why are you using a solid state amp? Ewww.

pblanc

Did you do the simple things first like changing you source interconnects and speaker wires to make sure there was no loose connection or wiring fault there? Did you make sure this occurred with different sources?

RuSsMaN

He replaced the amp, no more problem.

audiobliss

pblanc wrote:

Did you do the simple things first like changing you source interconnects and speaker wires to make sure there was no loose connection or wiring fault there? Did you make sure this occurred with different sources?

That's a good point. I did replace the amp, but I also changed out the IC's, too. I was using some Signal Cable Analog 1 IC's with the Parasound, as they gripped the PSound's input jacks just fine. However, they're way too loose to grip the ASL's input jacks, so I had to switch over to my Acoustic Research IC's.

So I'd have to say it's still a possibility that the problem may have been the IC's.

I'm just sitting here, thinking...man, I don't want to have to put the Parasound back in the system and do all that rewiring...maybe I'll just switch IC's with my ASL's so I won't have to do that. I'll still find out if an IC is bad, though.

danger boy

your amp has a loose connection or bad solder joint.. find someone to fix it for you.. and enjoy. Cutting in and out is usually a short in that channel. trust me.. i"ve run into this problem with two amp in just the past three months. in both cases it was a bad solder that had broken.

Do a search online for Parasound repair shops.. maybe there will be one in your state.

audiobliss

Ok, I officially don't like Signal Cables IC's. They're too loose to work with any of my ASL monoblocks, and appearantly they don't work well with my HCA1000A for some reason, either.

I just put the Parasound back in my system in place of the Wave 8's using those Acoustic Research IC's, and no problems at all. I just hope it stays that way.


Why do I have SS in my system when I have awesome tubes at my disposal? Because of hum. With any of my tubes or even the Parasound I used to get hum. Not *really* loud, but loud enough to make low volume level listening impossible. Well, the other day I discovered that if I back down about half way on the gains on the back of the HCA-1000A...no more hum. A miracle! Of course I have to turn the preamp up higher, but now, no matter the volume level, there's no hum. Just a dead quiet background. Which really is awesome.

No hum with SS > hum with tubes.

I think I'll sit here with the volume all the way down and just listen to nothing for a while.