The amp is dying!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kelby
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Kelby

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My amp seems to be dying. :(

I have a Hafler TA1600. Over the last few days, whenever I turn either channel up to 3 or higher, I get nasty distortion and white noise on that channel. The distortion increases with volume. There is no distortion when the amp is below about 3. It happens with all audio files, not just my recordings, so unfortunately I can't blame it on my lousy technique.

Can anybody tell me (1) what disaster has struck my poor amp, and/or (2) how much will something like this set me back to have fixed?

The darned thing is less than 2 years old, and I really don't use it all that much. (I don't record nearly as much as I should.) POS.

Thanks,
Kelby.
 
Have you tried different cables and a different input device (other than your sound card)?

Process of elimination.
 
I appreciate the need for process of elimination, but I think I have eliminated all other potential causes. Here's how.

With the amp wired up in its normal state, I get a nasty hissing/buzzing noise in the right channel when I turn it up past 3. If I touch my hand to the amp and the outer metal housing of the RCA input cable, the noise goes away. I think that should narrow it down to either a bad cable or something bad in my amp. So I reverse the input cables to the left and right channels (i.e., left going to right, right going to left). I still have the same problem on the same right channel, still can fix the problem by touching my hand to the amp and the outer metal housing of the rca cable at the same time.

Uneducated in the ways of electronics though I am, I'll make a wild guess that it's a grounding problem somewhere in the right channel of my amp. Am I in the right ballpark? And for this POS Hafler TA 1600 amp, is it going to be more money to fix it than the amp is worth?
 
BTW, the left channel past 3 has no problem except if the right channel is also past 3.
 
Have you tried using the balanced ins?

( I could understand why not- the same reason I haven't used the RCAs on my TA1600- just what was most convenient at the time)

But it might be a low cost solution to the problem.

As in:

My right rear door won't open from the outside- Use the other door!
 
:) Anything else touching the amp? Is it in a rack? I would open it up and see if anything is loose inside, wire, foil gumwrapper, loose peice of solder........

By the way, what part of Orange County ??



da MUTT
 
:cool: UH the obviuose, What kind of load is the amp carrying??
Speaker ohms??


da MUTT
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

As for the inputs, I don't know why I referenced the RCA inputs before, as I am using the balanced ins. Maybe I should try the rcas?

Nothing is touching the amp. It's not even in a rack --- it sits on my computer desk all by its lonesome. The speaker impedance is 4 ohms. I will open the amp up tonight to see if there is anything loose.

I live in Tustin. Been in OC for 11 years, in Tustin for 7.

Thanks again for the help; I'll let you know if I find something loose inside.
Kelby.
 
If the noise goes away when YOU touch it- how about running a piece of lamp cord from the case to ground?

Sounds like a heat stress related problem..... J/K

(aside: if you've never been to Tustin: A/C is life support)
 
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