Hello,
Looking for some advice / reassurance...
For the last 10 years I've owned a Cambridge Audio Azur 540a and Eltax Liberty 5+ floorstanding speakers. All was well, until a few months ago when I noticed that the right channel would randomly drop out and lose say 90% or so of it's signal.. Even at the times when I *thought* it was working correctly some experiments with a multimeter showed that it was often outputting only around 70 or 80% of what was being fed to the left channel.. It was annoying, but by tweaking with the balance control I tolerated it.
Some experimentation showed the problem appeared to be with the amp not the speakers, and I discovered that connecting the +ve right speaker wire to the +ve left terminal on the amp (but leaving the -ve one on the right) I got equal sound (albeit not stereo). Recently there was another drop out and I tried my trick with moving the speaker cable over (while the amp was on... yes stupid, but I was impatient and it had worked before without problems) . Then there was a pop from both speakers (although not especially loud.. the volume wasn't that high) silence for a couple of seconds and then sound again through (I think only the left) speaker (but the amp was now displaying lights as if it was in standby). I turned everything off at the mains, waited a few moments, made sure the speakers were wired correctly, then powered on again, and I get the protection light flashing on the amp. If I disconnect either of the speakers the amp then powers up without the protection light, but I get no sound at all when I try and play something.
So I suspect it is just my amp that is at fault, and my speakers are hopefully ok, but I've no way of testing as I don't have another amp.
I considered getting the amp repaired, but I'm based in Anglesey, and the nearest shop I can find that offers repairs is Richer Sounds in Chester who will charge me £40 flat rate to look at it, then possibly more if it's a difficult / expensive job... Given the age / value of the amp I'm not sure it's really worth forking out for the repair, plus obviously the time it will take me to get to and from the shop as it's not local.
So I've been considering just chucking the amp (and possibly speakers too) and getting a new system. Especially as I've had 10 years mileage out of them. I'm now in a property where the room it'll be in is only 3m x 3m so floorstanders look a bit out of place anyway. I'm considering just following the best buy advice and going for the Marantz PM6005, with Dali Zensor 3s. Richer have a deal where if you buy together you save a hundred quid.
Lastly, does anywhere do trade in? Although given I can't prove any of my current system works now not sure anyone would take it, I certainly don't think it's worth the hassle of putting on ebay and then having to mail to someone.. I suppose I could chuck it on freecycle and see if anyone wants to take it off my hands for nowt.. or failiing that just drop off at the local recycling centre.. although that feels like a bit of a waste...
Looking for some advice / reassurance...
For the last 10 years I've owned a Cambridge Audio Azur 540a and Eltax Liberty 5+ floorstanding speakers. All was well, until a few months ago when I noticed that the right channel would randomly drop out and lose say 90% or so of it's signal.. Even at the times when I *thought* it was working correctly some experiments with a multimeter showed that it was often outputting only around 70 or 80% of what was being fed to the left channel.. It was annoying, but by tweaking with the balance control I tolerated it.
Some experimentation showed the problem appeared to be with the amp not the speakers, and I discovered that connecting the +ve right speaker wire to the +ve left terminal on the amp (but leaving the -ve one on the right) I got equal sound (albeit not stereo). Recently there was another drop out and I tried my trick with moving the speaker cable over (while the amp was on... yes stupid, but I was impatient and it had worked before without problems) . Then there was a pop from both speakers (although not especially loud.. the volume wasn't that high) silence for a couple of seconds and then sound again through (I think only the left) speaker (but the amp was now displaying lights as if it was in standby). I turned everything off at the mains, waited a few moments, made sure the speakers were wired correctly, then powered on again, and I get the protection light flashing on the amp. If I disconnect either of the speakers the amp then powers up without the protection light, but I get no sound at all when I try and play something.
So I suspect it is just my amp that is at fault, and my speakers are hopefully ok, but I've no way of testing as I don't have another amp.
I considered getting the amp repaired, but I'm based in Anglesey, and the nearest shop I can find that offers repairs is Richer Sounds in Chester who will charge me £40 flat rate to look at it, then possibly more if it's a difficult / expensive job... Given the age / value of the amp I'm not sure it's really worth forking out for the repair, plus obviously the time it will take me to get to and from the shop as it's not local.
So I've been considering just chucking the amp (and possibly speakers too) and getting a new system. Especially as I've had 10 years mileage out of them. I'm now in a property where the room it'll be in is only 3m x 3m so floorstanders look a bit out of place anyway. I'm considering just following the best buy advice and going for the Marantz PM6005, with Dali Zensor 3s. Richer have a deal where if you buy together you save a hundred quid.
Lastly, does anywhere do trade in? Although given I can't prove any of my current system works now not sure anyone would take it, I certainly don't think it's worth the hassle of putting on ebay and then having to mail to someone.. I suppose I could chuck it on freecycle and see if anyone wants to take it off my hands for nowt.. or failiing that just drop off at the local recycling centre.. although that feels like a bit of a waste...
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