I have a KEF PSW 2000 that sounded great for about a year. Then it started making loud pops (sounded exactly like when you plug a cable from a live amp into an electric guitar--as much a crack as a pop)
I had it worked on and was told the circuitry had been fried. Got it fixed for about half of what it had originally cost. After a couple of days it still popped. I made sure it was properly grounded, took care of a ground loop, still it popped. Took it back to the repair guy (who I tend to trust) and he said he ran it for two weeks with no pops and didn't charge me anything. When he returned it he checked the outlet it was plugged into and said its live wire and ground wire were reveresed. (I live in a house with pretty old wiring) I had the electrician in to fix that before using it again. After a day or so, it began popping again. I'm running a Monster cable to the subwoofer output of a Sony home theater receiver. Is there any special way I'm supposed to be setting the bass or LFE on the receiver for a powered subwoofer? Is there anything anyone can think of that I might do to solve this?
J. Vigne
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I can't guess properly from here since you have a technician you say you trust, but, my guess would be a cold solder joint somewhere in the amplifer section. But this would be unusual for two amps to have the same problem if he replaced the amplifier. If he merely repaired the circuit and you still have (mostly) the original amplifier then I would be more suspicious of a bad solder. Bad solder joints can drive you and a tech crazy trying to hunt them down so be patient. I believe I would start by asking the tech if he has any idea what caused the first amp to "fry". If you can hook up the sub with high level speaker connections for a while that will start to narrow down the area where the tech might look for a bad solder.
Two questions to ask are:
1) Is the electrical outlet three wire or two? Have you checked the polarity of all the outlets your system is plugged into? You can buy an outlet tester for a few dollars at any hardware store or at Radio Shack. It will tell you wheteher the outlets are wired properly.
2) Are you using cable TV? If so you may want to lift the ground on the outlet your sub is plugged into if you have a three wire outlet.
Mark Trainer
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Thanks for the advice. I do have cable. And two-pronged outlets. Do you mean I should leave the outlet ungrounded if I have cable?
One big difference from first time (when it was fried) that I noticed today. The sub doesn't pop now if it's not hooked up to the receiver. First time aroudn it did. Does this suggest the receiver is causing the problem this time?
Get yourself a line conditioner, the popping is probably the amp trying to handle irregular power current, especially since the guy you trust used it without any problems.
A line conditioner makes sure the power going to your equipement stays at a steady voltage, if that is the major problem in your situation your whole system is going to sound a whole lot better.