Ob_
26-02-2013, 20:56
Hi All,
I've been interested in good audio for years and was lucky enough to have worked in the industry for a couple of years, so I reckon I know a bit about setting up hifis. Even luckier, I have a nice Audionote system.
It is played every day for years and sounded fine, but after joining here recently and reading all the threads - especially the ones with pictures - I felt like I could improve things.
So I built a hifi rack (bollocks to paying silly money) re positioned the speakers, moved the hifi and re located the cables under the floorboards. It looked fab.
Switched on and one channel was down! I looked behind the speaker and swore - I hadn't plugged the cables in. Doh! Plugged them in and switched the amp back on - the channel was still down - double bugger - I must have blown something on the amp. So looked inside and yup, could smell a hot melted pcb kind of a smell (you know it when you smell it). Bugger. Found the speaker binding post was loose. Tightened up: nothing. Checked fuses: nothing. Checked valves and tried to find a blown capacitor. Nothing.
So I swapped the amp over for another just to check and still nothing. Bloody Hell. Relief it wasn't the amp (or maybe they had both gone...but I'm an optimist) but that means my cables have gone! so I removed the banana plugs and swapped around - still no channel.
Then I realised - I hadn't connected the bi-wiring up properly: two positives to tweeter and two negatives to bass unit does not a good sound make!
Plugged in properly and all is gorgeously better than before and worth all the hassle.
Moral: Like Zen and the Art, don't assume anything. And you cant be as stoopid as me, so have a go! It's worth it in the end.
I've been interested in good audio for years and was lucky enough to have worked in the industry for a couple of years, so I reckon I know a bit about setting up hifis. Even luckier, I have a nice Audionote system.
It is played every day for years and sounded fine, but after joining here recently and reading all the threads - especially the ones with pictures - I felt like I could improve things.
So I built a hifi rack (bollocks to paying silly money) re positioned the speakers, moved the hifi and re located the cables under the floorboards. It looked fab.
Switched on and one channel was down! I looked behind the speaker and swore - I hadn't plugged the cables in. Doh! Plugged them in and switched the amp back on - the channel was still down - double bugger - I must have blown something on the amp. So looked inside and yup, could smell a hot melted pcb kind of a smell (you know it when you smell it). Bugger. Found the speaker binding post was loose. Tightened up: nothing. Checked fuses: nothing. Checked valves and tried to find a blown capacitor. Nothing.
So I swapped the amp over for another just to check and still nothing. Bloody Hell. Relief it wasn't the amp (or maybe they had both gone...but I'm an optimist) but that means my cables have gone! so I removed the banana plugs and swapped around - still no channel.
Then I realised - I hadn't connected the bi-wiring up properly: two positives to tweeter and two negatives to bass unit does not a good sound make!
Plugged in properly and all is gorgeously better than before and worth all the hassle.
Moral: Like Zen and the Art, don't assume anything. And you cant be as stoopid as me, so have a go! It's worth it in the end.