My setup: Technics turntable, rega phono pre-amp, NAD integrated amp (or Harmon Kardon integrated amp), speakers.
Issue: At seemingly random times, the left channel drops to like 10% volume and is super distorted. Fiddling around with the stylus, the inputs, the connections, etc. seem to restore to normal for a while, until it happens again.
Reason for this question: I identified the NAD amp as the culprit, swapped it out with my Harmon Kardon amp instead, and lo and behold, the issue persists. However on the HK I noticed some fairly loud hum from the transistor (not speakers), pointing to DC offset issues, which doesn't surprise me in our old house with old appliances, tons of dimmer switches etc. Now, my question: Can this DC offset issue in my house really cause this weird left-channel issue on multiple amps?
Whenever Emotiva gets the CMX-2 back in stock, I'm picking that up to see if that eliminates the hum and/or the left channel issue, but in the meantime I'm very curious if anyone here has any thoughts?
For those curious about my troubleshooting naming the amp the culprit:
While the issue was happening I swapped the speaker cables around on the back of the amp, and confirmed that the issue moved to the other speaker. Which confirmed to me that the speakers and the speaker cables work fine and that the distorted sound is being output of the left speaker channel on the amp.
I then tried a bunch of source changes. I plugged in my phone on both the same channel as the turntable runs on (AUX) and on at least two different channels. This source had the exact same issue, so this ruled out my turntable or cart or anything like that.
I also tried swapping the left and right RCA cables going from the turntable into the amp, but the issue still was showing in the left speaker. So in other words, no matter what signal is input on the left channel on any of the inputs, the left speaker output will have this issue, intermittently.
So, those are the steps that made me confident the amp was at fault. So I was very surprised to hear the exact same issue on my other amp. Where I went through all the same troubleshooting again, and still confirmed it indeed looks like an amp issue.
Issue: At seemingly random times, the left channel drops to like 10% volume and is super distorted. Fiddling around with the stylus, the inputs, the connections, etc. seem to restore to normal for a while, until it happens again.
Reason for this question: I identified the NAD amp as the culprit, swapped it out with my Harmon Kardon amp instead, and lo and behold, the issue persists. However on the HK I noticed some fairly loud hum from the transistor (not speakers), pointing to DC offset issues, which doesn't surprise me in our old house with old appliances, tons of dimmer switches etc. Now, my question: Can this DC offset issue in my house really cause this weird left-channel issue on multiple amps?
Whenever Emotiva gets the CMX-2 back in stock, I'm picking that up to see if that eliminates the hum and/or the left channel issue, but in the meantime I'm very curious if anyone here has any thoughts?
For those curious about my troubleshooting naming the amp the culprit:
While the issue was happening I swapped the speaker cables around on the back of the amp, and confirmed that the issue moved to the other speaker. Which confirmed to me that the speakers and the speaker cables work fine and that the distorted sound is being output of the left speaker channel on the amp.
I then tried a bunch of source changes. I plugged in my phone on both the same channel as the turntable runs on (AUX) and on at least two different channels. This source had the exact same issue, so this ruled out my turntable or cart or anything like that.
I also tried swapping the left and right RCA cables going from the turntable into the amp, but the issue still was showing in the left speaker. So in other words, no matter what signal is input on the left channel on any of the inputs, the left speaker output will have this issue, intermittently.
So, those are the steps that made me confident the amp was at fault. So I was very surprised to hear the exact same issue on my other amp. Where I went through all the same troubleshooting again, and still confirmed it indeed looks like an amp issue.