Hello folks!
Very glad i found thsi thread about Citation11 & Pre-Amp Citation12 (mine is the Deluxe), I just put my hands on a extremely rare MINT condition, it looks like brand new. I'm having though an issue with it. The man I bought the bundle from assured me that they are working 100% and he is a true gentleman and I believed him because I also bought from him the amazing very rare EPICURE Tower model 1000 in super mint condition. And these I went and listened to them at his place personally. But hadn't have the chance that to listen to his Citation11&12 Delue bundle. But hey while I was there (was my mistake always take the time to listen to all items you're purchasing before buy in case of any surprises), I was so excited mostly about the EPI 1000 tower that when I mentioned me the HK C11&12deluxe, the way he kept all his stuff in super mint condition, I trusted him that all were working great. And when I went to pick up the C11 & 12Deluxe, brought it home with the full original manuals, he even didn't unplug the wires that connects both units so that way it would be easier for me to just plug the POWER cables of both unit in my electric bar and just have to plug a pair of speakers and get going.
And what is what I did.. got home, start plugging the a pair of JENSEN speakers, and I decided to use SYSTEM1. For those familiar with C11, instead of being connection SPEAKER1 or SPAKERA and SPEAKERB, its System1 & Sys2 right? So far so good.
And of course back in the days, for whatever reason Harmon K, decided to go differently on how also they label the Speakers inputs connections, instead of being RIGH (+ & -) and LEFT (+ & -), they instead go with (RIGHT = for Positive & GND = for Negative) correct? But either way I have the origina manual so I made sure I checked that and make sure.
The fun part started when I decided to plug the first speakers, the RIGHT side one. Meaning on SYS1 column shows: LEFT-GND then GND-RIGHT. So in my speaker wire it should be: RED wire goes to RIGHT & BLACK (or negative) goes to GND. But I noticed right away that when I plugged the Positive Wire (RED in the RIGHT connection) I heard a big HUM sound and when I plugged the Negative (GND) and start playing my Tablette plugged in AUX1 nothing was coming out just the HUM sound.
Worth mentioning that also while I was trying to connect the speakers wires o the RIGHT (positive connector of SYS1) i saw little "lightning electric spikes" happening as well when I decided to double check if i had well connected the wire etc.. just to make sure WHY i wasn't getting any sound beside the HUM.
But when I plugged the LEFT speakers wire, the left speaker was working but then again I started smelling like "burning or over-heating smell". And I found that very very very weird.
Then of course I disconnected the RIGHT speaker just to be stop hearing the buzz/hum sound and re-check my speaker wire. I know the WIRES I was using to connect my speakers are working and good because I used those to plug other speakers and they are working,
So I decided to also to plug again the RIGHT speakers and again the HUM/BUZZ sound is there only the LEFT speakers is coming out with sound but while I was connecting again the RIGHT SPEAKER WIRE I always had to turn off everything, plug the wires before turning especially the PWR AMP C12 otherwise 'lightning electric spike" would happen and i would start smelling that "burning smell" coming and even at time I saw a kind of BIG fire lightning happening that I just shut down eveything from y PWR bar.
And also before this happens the big electric lightning (just like when sometimes you touch two wires together and you get those electric light spikes), when I had the RIGHT speaker connected and was hearing just the BUZZ/HUM sound, its like something wrong was going with the Citation12 Pre-amp (because only when the C12 is powered that you hear that buzz/sound on the RIGHT speaker) that I noticed like a big electric power was sent to my JENSEN RIGHT speaker that I felt a little "electric puck" sent to the WOOFER, and even saw the WOFFER move back & forth physically and hear thast "puck" sound and it killed the WOOFER sound. And right after that happened, I decided to TEST my JENSEN SPEAKER with another normal RECEIVER like Realsitic 2000D, plugged that RIGHT speaker and all i was hearing is the Mids & highs but not the woofer. To be sure really sure I plugged the LEFT speaker (other JENSEN) to the Realistic and it played very well, woofers, mid & tweeters worked as a normal speaker should. So I deducted that something happened and indeed that i heard and saw that 'puck and the woofer moving" seemed like a electric shock was sent or happened (for what reason I don;t know yet) and it shut down the speaker.
So, so far in SYS1, only the LEFT side works very very well. But when I plug anything on the RIGHT Inputs, I not only get that BUZZ /HUM but its like it HEATS UP the C12 ro start smelling a burning electric thing coming up.
Decided to test SYSTEM2 (for speaker B) but this time went on and pull up very cheap speakers that of course are minimum 8 OHMS that way if anything happens to them I won't pull my hair like the JENSEN and did the same TESTS, and same thing, but this time I plugged the LEFT speaker first and LEFT speakers works like a charm. the Moment I plugged the RIGHT speaker a big BUZZ-HUM sound and NO SOUND AT ALL coming out of the speakers and smelling that "burn" type of of but this time didn't let it last long and didn't take any chances. The moment I plugged the RIGHT speaker to the RIGHT side of System2 and heard that BUZZ/HUM sound I told myself not even worth going forward because I'm gonna end up BLOWING the C11&C12 Deluxe. Better I stop there and come to share this experience with you guys hoping someone how had these unit can help me out and guide me because it seems that I'll need too bring the bundle to a TECH to check it out
Any help, inputs is very welcome and would be much appreciated.
Sorry for the long thread but Had to give as much info I can.
Wishing you guys a great positive Friday ;-)
Best
