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Amplifier Distortion, DC-Offset, and You!

Ok, second series, now that she has no more problem (...).

Marantz SR-1000:
Right: 0 mV
Left: -13 mV

:naughty:
But right and left are swapped, so -13 right and 0 left...
Ok, loudness was on, forget to put it off...
 
Okay EW.....

Read the whole thread last night, ll I can say is :thmbsp:
Thought I'd join in anyhow. Only thing I have running on the bench was my recently acquired 8080db which didn't look to have ever had the cowver off recently anyhow. Amp hasnt been worked on - made in May 76
Right DC started out -85mv and gradually floated to a +16mv then floated between that and an occasional bounce to the neg. side. The only consistancy was not going more than +16 The left channel floated slowly between about +1mv and +8mv I can't allow for the right channels float to the degree it did, the meter's a good OTC, I would have thought if there was any loading effect it would have stayed more consistent? Whatchya think? :scratch2:

Ron
 
Here's the input stage of the 9090db. Like causes are circled in red.

Most probable are the adjustment pot, and the transistors themselves.
 
EW,

I checked the board after seeing the recommendations you had. Appreciate the partial print, have the 9090 only. I went over the other boards I had sitting around this afternoon for grins as well.... The other two boards (7070,9090) ran about 50% bad or marginal caps. All I found on the 8080db board in question was only a 470uf that's marginal on esr. Everyone else checks out okay, (I use a VuData to quick check the trans) course the pot could easily be a little flakey but I have to admit of the three boards I have here (8080db, 7070, and a 9090) the 8080db board in question is so new looking it scared me. The other two look their 30 years but this one either has been replaced with a new part or it's been used so seldom it loks new. The caps are different than I'm used to seeing as well, they used Elnas for the 330's rather than UCC's. What do you usually replace the trim pots with? Any specific recommendation or jsut any multi-turn cermet pot? Thanks for your time!
 
A 5K Bourns trimpot would be fine. Digikey PN 3296P-502-ND.

It still is quite possible that one transistor of the diff pair is suffering from a bad case of the thermal jitters. If you have something to match transistors, put a closely matched pair of Zetex ZTX694B's or ZTX1056A's in there. They work great, but they are a EBC layout, wheras the originals are ECB layout, so care must be taken when installing 'em.
 
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EW,

You're a gentleman and a scholar! Thanks for the info. You guys here seem to like Digi-Key a lot I see. Perhaps I'll give it another try, I pretty much quit dealing there after getting fake trannys a couple years ago. anyhow back on the subject at hand, I'll start using the pots in all my updates, I recap em anyhow. If it was one of the trans then it should be consistant. It had been running for several hours when I checked it.
 
Oops...please note that the first PN I posted was for a 500 ohm pot (501 part number). The correct number would be a 502 part. The number in the post has been corrected.

Digikey was not exactly alone in the fake transistor scandals...however, you can pretty much count on anything you get there nowadays is the genuine article.
 
So I suppose 20 volts DC on both channels is to much aye? LOL

Yah working on an sx-990 that the main wired in fuse underneath was blown.
Jumpered the fuse for now and get an actual 20v DC not millivolts but 20 volts!
"only leaving the unit on for about 25 seconds at a time" The voltage keeps droping
from the 20 volts but for fear of something else going I don't leave it on long enough
to find out how far down it goes. That's either channel by the way measuring at the
speaker outputs on the back of the unit. A or B speakers do the same.

Well I got some tracing to do.

-----------------------------------------------
"edit after doing some digging around"
Allright did some tracing and I got some nice crispie fried resistors by the outputs!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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Okay, I'm a little confused here, please help me out here EW as I am trying to learn this bias and DC adjustments, what's the difference between the too?
how would I go about adjusting these two settings in my Pioneer sx880 unit. yes, i do have the service manual on hand and do know how to read the schematic, thanks. :D




abpeep said:
Pulled out the Sansui G-3000 and opened it up. It has no adjustment for the DC offset but I checked it and the bias. Got these readings:

Right
Bias ~16.8 DC offset ~39.0
Left
Bias ~20.1 DC offset ~ -28.0

Book calls for bias current of 10mV +/- 1 mV so I set this and now the readings are:

Right
Bias ~10.1 DC offset ~17.0
Left
Bias ~10.0 DC offset ~ -4.0

Cleaned it out while I was in there. Hooked it up and it sounds pretty nice.

For a fairly low power (26 wpc) receiver, this thing seems to be built like a tank.

Alan
 
Bias
Offset

They are only vaugely related, but often mentioned together since they are 'usually' the only two adjustments on an amplifier.

Your manual has a procedure to set both...pg 14, section 8.3. Spelled out a lot better there than anything I could post here.
 
Thanks EW. I am looking at that page and section, should I just bring down the setting for both to 0.0mV instead of the 30mV? :scratch2:






EchoWars said:
Bias
Offset

They are only vaugely related, but often mentioned together since they are 'usually' the only two adjustments on an amplifier.

Your manual has a procedure to set both...pg 14, section 8.3. Spelled out a lot better there than anything I could post here.
 
WingNut said:
Thanks EW. I am looking at that page and section, should I just bring down the setting for both to 0.0mV instead of the 30mV? :scratch2:
Both what? 30mV where?

I accidently quoted the Fig. number at the bottom of the page (Fig 14) instead of the page number, which is pg 17.

I see no reason to perform the actions in the first paragraph...where VR7 and VR8 are turned fully counterclockwise. Simply start off with the 'DC Balance' adjustment, and move on to setting the bias.

The procedure is simple in the extreme...follow the book.
 
You're right, pg.17 section 8.3. EW, I don't mean to run this into the ground but why would I not do the " Power Amplifier " first part of that section. Thanks.
 
Their intent on having you turn VR7 and VR8 fully counter-clockwise is to set bias to a minimum. There is no real need to do this, and I have...from time to time...seen where turning the pot in the direction indicated actually was cranking bias up to the maximum instead of down to the minumum, due to some error in writing the manual or some last minute change in the amp itself. Power-on after this, and all the magic smoke comes out.
 
Sansui manuals are, well, suspect

EchoWars said:
Their intent on having you turn VR7 and VR8 fully counter-clockwise is to set bias to a minimum. There is no real need to do this, and I have...from time to time...seen where turning the pot in the direction indicated actually was cranking bias up to the maximum instead of down to the minumum, due to some error in writing the manual or some last minute change in the amp itself. Power-on after this, and all the magic smoke comes out.

Absolutely! The Sansui AU-999 manual, for example, has as step #1 in the bais adjustment as "Set V R-803 and VR-804 to minimum -clockwise position". :no: :no: :no: Wrong. But a careful inspection of the text shows that there is a word missing!

As EW says, smoke will quickly follow.

I was OK as I had the o'scope connected and when the sudden transistion occured I still had my hand on the switch. Lucky me.

Paul
 
Just picked up a Sansui G-5700 last weekend and got a SM right away. Tried to set bias and DC offset tonight but looks like there are probably other problems. Had no problem setting the bias (besides touchy pots). The DC offset readings on both channels - no speakers, no source - varies up and down by roughly 40-50 mV in an erratic fashion. Sounds like I can trip the protection circuit with just a slight turn of the pots.

Oh well, I probably needed a project.

Alan
 
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