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DaveK
29-09-2009, 21:45
Hi Guys,
With the benefit of hindsight I guess that my amp has always (since I've had it) had an intermittent slight problem on the left channel. Initially I put this down to my imperfect hearing and imperfect speaker positioning but now I suspect it may be the amp. Previously I used to let the amp do it's DSP thing and correct the problem by using the Balance control but now I prefer Source Direct which means the Balance control is bypassed.
Last night I set uo my Techie TT with it's original Technics headshell and a real cheapie new cartridge from USA, the logic being that, as I buy old LPs from charity shops it might be a good idea not to use my expensive Nagaoka and Sumiko set on them. First play and the result was shite, which didn't surprise me, but after a while I realised that it was very right channel biased. Closer investigation revealed that the left speaker was outputting next to nothing and what it was giving was distorted. Swapped cartridge and headshell back and forth a couple of times but no difference. Then switched sources and got back to normal but normal I realised (because I was now giving it full attention) is still right channel biased, just not nearly so noticeable.
These results suggested to me that the phono inputs from the TT may be the problem and so it proved. Wiggling (technical term or jargon) the left channel phono resulted in silence to full volume, depending on it's position. A few seconds of vigorous wiggling seemed to remove the problem and I could not get zero volume on it again. But the problem wasn't solved completely - as I get more experienced in listening I realise that, on Source Direct does still result in a louder right channel irrespective of what the source is. The one thing that I haven't done is swap the speakers round and I guess I'll try that tomorrow. Meanwhile has anybody got anything to add that I may have overlooked?
Thanks for any constructive comments.
Cheers,

Alex_UK
30-09-2009, 09:53
Try the speakers, but sounds more like a problem with the amp I'm sorry to say... I love Marantz, but I have to say I've had problems with both my CD63KIS & CD6000OSE KIS, so I'm not convinced on the build quality.