[johnsalt18]

Hello again! New to the forum and hoping to get help from the experts and be better educated. I have approximately 500 vinyl albums most from the 60 and 70's and all in excellent condition. I have a Cambridge azur 840A integrated amp, 540P preamp, Music Hall mmf 5.1 turntable, Vandersteen 1B speakers and Bowers & Wilkins DM602 S3 speakers and NAD CD player. Two days ago I turned everything on and there was faint and minimal sound. I continued turning up the volume and at the upper end started to hear intermittent and crackling sound. Did this several time and then received a DC ERROR message. I pulled the power cord immediately and then saw in the azur manual that the unit has a built-in DC Detection that also protects the speakers if there is an internal fault but it also says that the DC detection might appear if there is hard clipping. Given I had the volume almost at full I am assuming this was a hard clipping issue. I have tried to contact Cambridge Audio but no response so far. Has anyone experienced this issue?


Also, if the azur is shot and I am looking for something with 100w at 8 ohm, which amp would you recommend of the Cambridge 851A, RA1572 or NAD C 326BEE?

[Letitroll98]

I hope I'm not being too much of a jerk by asking why the volume was so high?  But it does lead to the amp you are looking at for a possible replacement.  If you clipped using a 120 watt amp, shouldn't you be looking at 200 watts minimum? 

Regarding your 840, my guess is that the protection circuit will reset on its own or there's a switch to flip back inside the case.  Here's hoping for that outcome.

[johnsalt18]

No, you are not being a jerk for asking that question. I know it was not the smartest thing to do but there was minimal sound coming out and I simply wanted to see if and when it would. I was using the remote and simply went too far. There was still no sound when I got the DC error. Yes, once I plugged the power back it did work and hoped it was a reset solution. Cambridge is now telling me that I should have it checked even though there is a override to save the speakers blowing with a DC error.

Thanks for your input!

[toocool4]

Never hurts to get it checked out, better safe than sorry?