Baffled - troubleshooting

[Old_School]

I swapped speakers today, and got sound through tweeters only. I figured the repair had been cocked up, so I swapped my other speakers back in. They had been working OK up to the swap (worked fine last night). They had the same problem - no sound other than through the tweeters.

So, is it a problem with my amp or pre? They are Sony TA-2000F and TA-3200F. I changed the interconnect between amp and pre and same result. Any troubleshooting suggestions, or should I just swap out the amp?

 

[shelly_d]

Assuming that you are not bi-amped (are you?) the only places the signal is treated differently based upon frequency is the phono preamp and the speaker crossover. (At least that is the way it should be). Strike that. The tone controls could be suspect as well.

So is this issue appearing on all inputs or just the phono? Is the amp solid state or tube - although I doubt it makes a difference in the initial diagnosis.

Do you have another amp, or can you borrow another amp to check out the rest of the system?

By the way, you might get more help if you ask the moderator to move this to DIY. The guys who really know their stuff hang out there. (Some of us know nothings too)

Shelly_D

P.S. Just saw that you have seperate pre and power amps. Do any of your music sources have an output control?

If they do, take that and bypass you preamp, plugging into your power amp with the output turned way down. Turn it on and bring up the volume. If you get full range music its probably the tone control circuit in your preamp. Although it is a mystery why it would affect both channels, unless there are active transistors or tubes or opamps that are not getting the correct voltage to bias them.

Right now this is all idle speculation until we help you find the culprit.

 

[Old_School]

Thanks for the help. Some more info:
1. The setup was working fine until I made the speaker swap. I did nothing other than swap the speaker wire between speakers.
2. The "new" speakers had recently had some work done - re-foam and replacement of some damaged binding posts. I suspected the binding posts may not have been properly connected, so I tried to tri-amp (they're old speakers with built in tri-amp capability) which had worked on them prior to the recent repair. No joy. BTTW - I was actively tri-amping, with gear that had worked previously.
3. Swapped the previous speakers back and ended up with the same "sound" - just some low sound, through discernable as music (I could hear the vocals as well) which was only coming from the tweeters.
4. I didn't change any tone controls or level settings except played with the levels a bit on the amp when I didn't get anything. The source was my tuner, which is known good.

I plan to look it over again today with a bit less "fog" (it was late, last night). I'll try your suggestion Shelley_D. I also have a known good integrated amp I will try. I can only hope it's something stupid like me connecting the speakers out of phase.

 

[bowtie427ss]

Disengage the tape monitor switch........................ hopefully.

 

[Old_School]

Disengage the tape monitor switch........................ hopefully.

Is there a way I can feel less like an idiot? I was listening to tape before I did the swap, and forgot to set it back when I was testing with the tuner. :nono:

I like the old silver-faced stuff, with all of the knobs and switches (even though I usually have the tone controls off), but that leaves a lot of buttons and switches to check. Anyway, back to listening .

 

[x_25]

Is there a way I can feel less like an idiot? I was listening to tape before I did the swap, and forgot to set it back when I was testing with the tuner. :nono:

I like the old silver-faced stuff, with all of the knobs and switches (even though I usually have the tone controls off), but that leaves a lot of buttons and switches to check. Anyway, back to listening .

Happens to us all. Even worse is the mono switch and wondering why everything sounds off. :stupid:

 

[budgetaudio6]

man, ive had that happen a few times. Too many buttons can be frustrating. especially when kids were playing with it. They have a pioneer 9500a in there room.

 

[tensleep]

These are my favorite kind of problems to have. It could have been a whole lot worse!

 

[ManFromPorlock]

Now you're really a member of the club!

 

[shelly_d]

Is there a way I can feel less like an idiot? I was listening to tape before I did the swap, and forgot to set it back when I was testing with the tuner. :nono:

I like the old silver-faced stuff, with all of the knobs and switches (even though I usually have the tone controls off), but that leaves a lot of buttons and switches to check. Anyway, back to listening .

Not only been there and done that but I have many times gone into making the T-shirt. Glad its all OK. You may feel a bit sheepish but I can promise you that YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

 

[JoeESP9]

Well Old_School, you have passed the first secret "Doh" test.:tresbon: There will be more "Doh" tests coming. Everybody has to pass one periodically.

 

[yeti_herd]

Happens to us all. Even worse is the mono switch and wondering why everything sounds off. :stupid:

That happened to me just yesterday! I got home from the record shop with a cheapo copy of Jethro Tull's Warchild, and I thought, "I really enjoy the songwriting on this record, but the production is just so...blah."

 

[Old_School]

Interesting: more responses to the "doh!" than to the original problem.

Glad to see there's a support group here. :thmbsp:

And yes, huge sigh of relief. One of the big problems with vintage stuff is the potential for things to fail without apparent cause. Thankfully the smoke stayed in this time.