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very strange audio problem. please help.
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| Inertia |
id thank anyone to read through this, and give me some insight.
it's been already three times. in february, for my bday, i decided it'd be cool to invite some friends over and have em spin, throw a bit of a 30 people party. i got myself a home theater type amp and some speakers. we hooked it all up in my "abandoned" pool house. the thing did it's job, to an extent. putting the amp over "Level 7" would cause it to distort like a bitch, and keeping it under 7, and throwing an EQ a tad over 0, it would execute a safety shut off.
for the curious, the setup was a pair of Stanton STR8-80s, a pair of American Audio CDS-1 cd decks, and we had to use an American Audio QD1 Mixer, due to the following problem:
Problem 1: when we hooked up the CD decks to the Stanton SK6 mixer, the levels would go in the red immediately. no matter whatever gains or EQs were pulled down, it was in the red. this is amazingly stupid, as 2 days prior to this, we had the cd decks hooked up to the same mixer at my friend's house, and even though the CD's were harder on the levels, it was quite manageable. any explanations would be great. but wait, there's more.
the thing went ok, we just didnt play with EQs, and when we had a saftery shut off, 2 quick snaps at the volume fader and all was good.
then came time 2. we got a pair of homemade speakers a friend of mine did, that go waaaaaaaaay up. at a lack of a better amp, we used a stereo amp one of my friends had. with those exact same speakers, he could push his amp up to its respective "Level 27" and it would be loud as hell, so he would never be up that high.
so, we set up, and all is good. i can hear the music from the house next to my neighbors (cool people, they don't mind).
Problem 2: like a curse, the second 3 people walk in, BAM. sound goes off. saftery shutdown. hrm, wtf? we turn it back on. it won't go past level 15 without a saftey shutdown. maybe it burned out, or is overheating? it is somewhat hot. finally, we go for a fan. thing gets colder. now, it goes up to 17. heh. not fun when the human voice can be heard over the music. we even decide to open up the amp (removing the case/cover) to let it cool. we even gave it a 5min recess with the fan going. it's still not budging. we think it's dead, we've burned it out. so, there it ends. the next day, my friend gets home, turns on his amp, and it works. just fine. as if nothing. will go past Level 27.
we conclude it must be an electrical problem. maybe, since we had only 2 plugs, we we're overpowering the poolhouse's capacity or something. the point is, about 15 hours ago, my friend calls, and tells me bubu (one of the best local DJ's in this country, ing excellent) is bored and wants to do something. lets throw a party. i ask if he was willing to cope with the situation we've already had. he says bubu will fix it.
so bubu gets here, with 2 red Technics 1200SL Mk2's in hand, a Numark mixer (dun remember model number, all i know is it had an integrated KAOSS PAD which was cool as hell) a pair of ortofon nightclubs, a whole world of cabling and adaptors, and 2 amps.
one went all gay on us as soon as we hooked it up to the speakers. the other was for his smaller monitors.
Problem 3: so, we get my friend's stereo amp once again, since we had no choice. forseeing the same electrical issues, i try throwing an extension cord from the bathroom to the booth and hooking up the amp to that. same game. so, i throw an extension cord from my uncle's terrace to the poolhouse. still gay. at all this, bubu just decides to have fun, and starts mixing a storm of a set. my friend gets his cd decks, and throws down some great minimal.
at the end, when we're transporting everything, i decide, why not try it at my terrace? still . and it makes no sense, because we churn em up like theres no tomorrow at my friend's house, and when one of them lent me his decks for a few days, i had em in my room with no problems.
so... the question is WHY OH WHY does it happen? it makes no sense, no matter how i look at it. tomorrow im breaking out a tester and checking the voltages for all of the plugs i can find. not to mention, i want to throw proper parties.
anyone have ANY ideas at all?! why does this happen? |
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| Inertia |
| bubu said he is bringing Mackie SRM450's for the next one, but still, it makes no sense. why would the power in my terrace be unclean, yet up in my room with a WEAKER stereo i could drive the speakers? |
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| auujay |
| quote: | Originally posted by Nou
Amps sound like there overheating AND are getting unclean power, try getting a power cleaner (i dont think thats what there really called) and see if that helps, also if your really seriouse get some decent professional amps to drive the speakers (of course they gotta be ok speakers too!)
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They are called power conditioners. It may help but I am not sure it will fix this wierd problem. |
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| Inertia |
| anyone have any more ideas? hell, just post to say you don't know, to keep me at ease. at least that way i'd know if you read rather than wonder if no one read through it. |
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| Inertia |
| quote: | Originally posted by Nou
I would still say its heat, home theatre amps are not ment to be played loud and long... also the speakers might not have worked that well with the amp, causing the amp to have problems. |
thats a valid conclusion, but we had the fans to keep it cold, and beyond that, my friend had the speakers for 2 weeks and was waking up the neighbors with that same amp for the entire time. hell, when we get together on wednesday's to spin at his house, we use those speakers and that same amp, and all is good. even at my other friend's house, who has a weaker stereo amp, it'll drive the speakers VERY loud (that one does get hot, and has no safety, so we just put a fan on it, and it works like a charm). the fnniest thing is, i used the speakers with the weak amp in my room for 4 days, with no problems. yet in my terrace, my uncles terrace, and the poolhouse, it no workie? not cool. |
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| Tranc3 |
| Well since the problem only arises at your venue, it must be a problem with the venue itself - most likely you're getting unclean power that gets surges from time to time that cause the amp to shut off. Either that or God doesn't like you. |
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| SUNWmsf |
I wonder if running 20 amp fuses for power outlets in the poolhouse might help?
might be drawing too much current out there. You said it was your abandoned poolhouse, so i am speculating its kinda old and probably using 15 amp fuses in the fuse boxess.
just a thought... |
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| Dirk W. |
| A big thing that might be a part of this is the OHMs of your speakers. If you are running an odd number of speakers or too small or too many then you can throw the ohm levels off which cause the amp to do a safety shutdown exactly as youre describing. It will work for a little bit and then flip off. Or when you try and turn them up, it will do a safety shutoff. We had four speakers (two hooked up together on the left side and two on the right). Since they were hooked up this way it messed up the ohm numbers and thus puts a strain on the amp. We eventually blew the amp and that was when we figured out the problem. I guarantee you from what you're describing this is your problem. |
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| Dervish |
The guy above is kinda right-ish you do need to watch how you connect up your speakers it's basicly to do with the impedance of the connection the amp sees.
But in this case since you say your mate can run it fine the only non common factor is the power supply (if I'm understanding you correctly). Hence it has to be the power supply.
The power supply isn't as simple as voltages and currents really and if in your local area there are highly inducive loads like big off motors or heavy industrial processes going on they can all affect your supply.
I'm not sure of what form of power conditoning these units people are talking about do so I can't recommend them.
However try disconnecting as much stuff which is in your house as possible i.e. washing machines and stuff or try it at a time when none of these are working and see if that has an effect.
Edit: There are other things, other power supply problems, which could cause these type of problems which I'm sure a bought power conditioning unit could fix. |
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| Inertia |
hmm. still, this has not explained why it worked up in my room without any problem. with the help of a friend, i seem to have divised a plausible theory...
HUMIDITY.
attempt one: soundcheck at my terrace, sounds good. we take it to the pool. guys leave, come back hours later. sound is problematic.
attempt two: we started with a soundcheck at the poolhouse, 2 hours prior to people coming. all is working, but then something happens, and it's screwed.
attempt three: it didn't work at all.
i started thinking and the only constant in all events has been: rain.
on try 1, it rained after we moved everything to the pool, before the guys were back. on try 2, it rained during the soundcheck, and some minutes after the rain stopped, the sound went bad. on try 3, it rained tons before the guys got here.
i live on a tropical island, Dominican Republic, where humidity is high as it is. add to that i live outside the city, in a somewhat natural area, basically, with trees and grass all around me as far as the eye can see.
now, accordinig to a couple of friends, high levels of humidity can impair the operation of electrical appliances designed for indoor use, ie. a stereo amp. so this would perfectly explain why at both my friend's houses it will work , even outdoors (they live in the city). it also explains why in my room it works fine, and would explain why the sound has worked during dry times, but not after it rains.
kind of hard to swallow, and has been very coincidental. even worse is the fact one of my friends spinning Blackwatch & Greed feat. Leslie - Gentle Rain (Grayarea's Breaks Mix) just as the sound went bitchy. talk about a sign smack dab infront of you, heh.
does this seem possible?
and, what could i do to work around this? |
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| skip |
| quote: | Originally posted by Inertia
Problem 1: when we hooked up the CD decks to the Stanton SK6 mixer, the levels would go in the red immediately. no matter whatever gains or EQs were pulled down, it was in the red. this is amazingly stupid, as 2 days prior to this, we had the cd decks hooked up to the same mixer at my friend's house, and even though the CD's were harder on the levels, it was quite manageable. any explanations would be great. but wait, there's more. |
this might sound stupid and totally obvious, so don't get mad if you think it's dumb! ;) but are you sure you always connected the cd-players to line inputs, not phono! i'd imagine that connecting them to a phono input could have an effect like this. |
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| Inertia |
| quote: | Originally posted by skip
this might sound stupid and totally obvious, so don't get mad if you think it's dumb! ;) but are you sure you always connected the cd-players to line inputs, not phono! i'd imagine that connecting them to a phono input could have an effect like this. |
heh. but im sure it was connected ok, because the decks were working normally.
anyways, on the power issues, after saturday night, i tried the same amp with the same speakers in my terrace, which has clean power, or at least clean enough) as my room is just above it, and the amp works there fine. since it had rained, the whole area was humid, so it would explain why it didnt work that time, but has worked on sunny days before.
so, im in my poolhouse, and the sound is working good, because its dry. it starts to rain. what can i do to prevent it from going bad? |
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