Mysterious GK-1R things

dayneger · « **on:** 21 Jun 2005, 09:51 pm »

I've been enjoying listening to my GK-1R and 100N combo for quite some time now, genuine music!

A couple of slightly odd things have happened with my GK-1R during our "relationship". For example, a couple of times for a period of a week or two it decided not to turn on with the mute activated, then resurrected itself all by itself. ?

The more interesting self-adjustment was when it decided to turn on with the home-theater bypass turned on!

Naturally, the first time this happened was at about 3am when I couldn't sleep. The resulting very very loud noise nearly blew me through the wall and probably woke up the entire apartment block.

Very very fortunately the GK decided to behave and go back to the normal switch-on mode again a few days later.

Anyone else have things like that happen? It hasn't been a big problem, just on the curious side that my unit has so much personality.

On the hum side, I was having ground loop hum problems with my DVD player that I simply couldn't get rid of until I happened to unplug the scart cable (to the TV) and presto! Blissful silence. Fortunately I got a projector, which solved (or rather, avoided) that particular problem quite handily.

Now I'm finally getting my home theater together and am unfortunately getting a mixture of hum and buzz when I activate the home theater bypass, even when all of the input cables are unplugged.

Anyone have an idea what's causing the problem and how to get rid of it? The bypass works correctly off of the receiver preouts, which is great since it allows me to keep my AKSA and speakers hooked up as in 2-channel mode, but the significant level of zzzzz noise is just not going to cut it.

Any thoughts and ideas would be appreciated!

Cheers,

Dayne

andyr · « **Reply #1 on:** 21 Jun 2005, 10:04 pm »

Quote from: dayneger

... Now I'm finally getting my home theater together and am unfortunately getting a mixture of hum and buzz when I activate the home theater bypass, even when all of the input cables are unplugged. Anyone have an idea what's causing the problem and how to get rid of it? The bypass works correctly off of the receiver preouts, which is great since it allows me to keep my AKSA and speakers hooked up as in 2-channel mode, but the significant level of zzzzz noise is just not going to cut it. ...

Sorry to hear of your "mysterious" GK1-R problems ... they do sound very strange indeed! Do you have a poultergeist in the building!!??

I had a recent hum problem which occurred when I plugged the output from my TV into my GK-1R. I solved this by powering all my TV components with a 6-outlet mains isolating transformer - don't understand why this worked as all the TV components just had 2-pin plugs (so weren't earthed) but work it did ... so I'm happy!

Regards,

Andy

dayneger · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Jun 2005, 03:54 pm »

Hi Andy

Well, I called the Ghostbusters, but they must be getting old or something. . . maybe I need that young spinoff group, the GK-Busters, instead?

Glad that you hum problem disappeared with the isolation transformer! My TV was/is a 2-pronger as well, so I've no clue what was causing the problem there. And now I'm pretty stumped with the GK and AKSA buzzing and humming without any inputs hooked up. So, if anyone else has a great idea, please let me know!

Thanks,

Dayne

AKSA · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 Jun 2005, 10:16 pm »

Hi Dayne,

I'm sorry you are having problems. This is most odd, and I'll speak with Ben about it. When the GK1 first comes on it defaults to DVD input and MUTE, so there's something strange afoot......

As for hum, try run a chassis wire from the HT amp/processor to the GK1 chassis to the amp chassis. It may be necessary to also link chassis earth on the IEC to the ground plane earth on the input/relay pcb. The problem is an unterminated line level earth, I'm pretty sure.

Cheers,

Hugh

andyr · « **Reply #4 on:** 23 Jun 2005, 03:29 am »

Quote from: dayneger

Hi Andy, ... And now I'm pretty stumped with the GK and AKSA buzzing and humming without any inputs hooked up. So, if anyone else has a great idea, please let me know! ...

Hi, Dayne,

OK, so you have yore GK-1 connected to yore AKSA with nothing plugged into the GK-1?

If so, further to what Hugh said, are you shure the IC connecting the two isn't faulty? Can you substitute another IC just to test?

Regards,

Andy

dayneger · « **Reply #5 on:** 23 Jun 2005, 06:17 pm »

Quote

try run a chassis wire from the HT amp/processor to the GK1 chassis to the amp chassis. It may be necessary to also link chassis earth on the IEC to the ground plane earth on the input/relay pcb.

Hi Hugh, thanks for the tips. To make sure I understand the first point--the chassis wire would mean literally a wire screwed to each of the chassis? I'm afraid I don't understand how to effect the second point at all.

After I woke up this morning I realized that I've got a second option in case I can't get the hum and buzz out. When I build my 100N I included an Elma switch with 3 sets of RCA jacks at the back. The original idea was so that I could compare different preamps or otherwise have more flexibility. I just tried it out and it worked just fine, although I have to fiddle around behind the amp, which isn't super convenient. The plus side is that with this version I could disconnect the HT bypass, ensuring that no one accidentally activates it.

Andy, I checked the interconnect as you suggested and it seems to be fine. Thanks for the idea.

Dayne

AKSA · « **Reply #6 on:** 9 Jul 2005, 05:23 am »

Dayne,

Aha, you thought I'd forgotten didn't you!!

Try this one:

Wire a 1K resistor from the positive (or negative, either/or) on the digital power supply to signal earth on the GK1 input/output relay pcb.

This ties down the digital, gives it a reference, and removes the final shred of hum.

Cheers,

Hugh