[orthobiz]

So last night we're listening to my stereo. I'm cleaning and spinning records with the kids and trying out a pair of speakers for my daughter's "new" stereo. Switch the wires at the speakers. Switch back and something's funny in the right channel, like intermittent loss of signal. Then the R speaker cut out when in stereo mode.

I have an Ultra EC so I press the Mono L and Mono R buttons and sure enough, the Mono R has no signal out of either speaker and Mono L has equal signal out of both. In stereo, turning the balance to the R has nothing coming out of the speaker.

Checked all the connections, but didn't try using a different source.

Guess tonight I'll check it again, try the tuner or CD player, check the fuses, remove the cover and check the tubes. It's bothering me today at work thinking about it so I thought I'd "defuse" and post here.

There. I feel better.

Paul

[Wayner]

You have already proved that the amp is working. A mono signal made both channels of the amp work. The next problem will be the preamp and I would first run the low gain switch in and out a couple of times. I would also be unplugging and re-inserting interconnect cables (with the power of everything off, of course). It does sound like a cable problem. Swap cables to see if they are suspect.

Wayner

[orthobiz]

You have already proved that the amp is working. A mono signal made both channels of the amp work. The next problem will be the preamp and I would first run the low gain switch in and out a couple of times. I would also be unplugging and re-inserting interconnect cables (with the power of everything off, of course). It does sound like a cable problem. Swap cables to see if they are suspect.

Wayner

Somebody stole our Wayner!
1. Extra polite answer
2. Who's in the picture?????

lol

Will follow advice and report back!

Paul

[Wayner]

Yes, that was me 35 years ago. I had to put it up in honor of my 55 birthday. I will put the old avatar up again tomorrow. By the way, I never inhaled. Where did the time go?

Wayner

[gjs_cds]

Yes, that was me 35 years ago. I had to put it up in honor of my 55 birthday. I will put the old avatar up again tomorrow. By the way, I never inhaled. Where did the time go?

Wayner

Ha!  That pic is awesome! 

[oneinthepipe]

Yes, that was me 35 years ago. I had to put it up in honor of my 55 birthday. I will put the old avatar up again tomorrow. By the way, I never inhaled. Where did the time go?

Wayner

What didn't you inhale, Wayner?   

You are still lookin' good, BTW.

[Wayner]

It's so long ago, I forgot. 
It's just  ummmm, beer.

Wayner 

[rajacat]

Yes, that was me 35 years ago. I had to put it up in honor of my 55 birthday. I will put the old avatar up again tomorrow. By the way, I never inhaled. Where did the time go?

Wayner

You didn't inhale??!! You missed the best and cheapest tweak of all. aa

-Roy

[WGH]

I have an Ultra EC so I press the Mono L and Mono R buttons and sure enough, the Mono R has no signal out of either speaker and Mono L has equal signal out of both. In stereo, turning the balance to the R has nothing coming out of the speaker.

Are you using the "tape out" jacks too? I have a pair of interconnects from the tape out jacks to the line in jacks of my computers sound card. If the mini-plug is not in all the way one of the pre-amp channels is shorted out and I get no sound from one channel.

Wayne

[avahifi]

Since you get sound to both channels in the Mono L mode, both active line channels of the preamp and the power amp are working fine.  No need to check fuses or tubes.

The issue must be happening before the line stage in the preamp.   The EC preamp has gold contact switches, so a switch dropout it unlikely.  The most likely problem is a bad contact at an interconnect cable.  Of course cycle the Tape-Input, EPL, and L and R Mono switches in and out 20 times each or so to clean out any contamination in a switch that might cause a dropout.

Call me at 651-330-9871 for more help if you can't resolve the issue.

Frank Van Alstine

[orthobiz]

Thanks for the advice, Frank (and everybody). I came home and the tuner worked fine, so it was in the TT connection after all. I unplugged and plugged it back in at the preamp and I'm back in business!

Gotta love those simple fixes!

Paul

[MarkM]

You have already proved that the amp is working. A mono signal made both channels of the amp work. The next problem will be the preamp and I would first run the low gain switch in and out a couple of times. I would also be unplugging and re-inserting interconnect cables (with the power of everything off, of course). It does sound like a cable problem. Swap cables to see if they are suspect.

Wayner

The right channel was cutting in and out on my Ultra preamp as well.   Mailed it last week to AVA to have it looked at.  I swapped out the cables, tubes, hit the low gain button dozens of times to see if the R channel would come back.   Sometimes music would appear out of the right channel before I could get up to check things.   AS a test I also hit the mono button and was able to get sound out of the right channel.   

Very intermittent problem, the pre would play fine for months then all of a sudden the R channel would cut out and come back seconds or minutes later......

[avahifi]

The problem was just a bit of contamination lodged in the TAPE/SOURCE switch.  A shot of Deoxit and cycling it a few times cleared it up.  It was not switch contact oxidation as these are all gold plated switch contacts.

Returned to you fixed at no charge a couple of days ago.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

[MarkM]

Thank you, Frank       

[Wayner]

Everyone should have a can of De-oxit around the house. I have found that most problems that are intermittent are electro-mechanical in nature, usually switches or jacks. Just that it's sometimes difficult to pin down.

Wayner 

[orthobiz]

Called Sat PM. Frank answered the phone. Followed his advice on cycling the pushbutton switches and all is well. I love AVA!!!!

Paul

[orthobiz]

One of my phono RCA jacks was loose! How embarrassing.

Paul

[gjs_cds]

One of my phono RCA jacks was loose! How embarrassing.

Paul

Let he who hath never done such things cast the first stone.

A while back, I thought that I had a channel going out.  So I did all the usual, and the intermittent problem remained. 

As it turns out, it was the RCA cable. 

And as that turns out, it was a cable that I "made" w/ bulk cable and RCA plugs... 

[orthobiz]

What's even more silly is that when I was cycling the EPL and Monitor buttons, I was probably just jiggling the cabinet a wee bit and making a temporarily better connection!

Paul