Help an electronics numbskull? Vector Research 5000 receiver, had it for 20+ years, has always worked beautifully... but over the past year I've blown the left channel speaker fuse 4 times. May be something obvious but I'm clueless...
Can your receiver handle the new speakers' load/impedance?
J. Vigne
Unregistered guest
Posted on
If nothing else has changed in the system and you are suddenly blowing fuses with a twenty year + reciever you probably have a few capacitors leaking DC current into the outputs. It happens as electrolytic caps get older. Speakers and fuses don't like DC. This is a repair job for a tech. If something has changed in the system before you started blowing fuses go back briefly to the old set up and see if it still occurs. You say you replaced the wires and speakers at the same time. I assume this was after you started having a problem. If not take the wires off and check from end to end with a VOM or continuity tester to see if there might be broken insulaton in the wire which is allowing a short circuit.
They're pretty low-end Sony bookshelfs, so I don't think load or ohms is an issue... and yes, I replaced speakers and wire after I noticed the problem (they were old anyway, and I thought they were the cause of the fuzzing & buzzing & popping, oh my!). It was only then that I discovered that I even HAD fuses for the speakers...
The capacitor issue is what a fellow at a local upscale shop mentioned (I was in there for business reasons), but I wanted to make sure he wasn't just trying to sell me something... so I consulted the sages of The Board, to whom I am grateful.