Crackling in right channel, what do I do? Help, please.


Sadly, I am experiencing crackling in the right channel of my system. The crackling happens intermittently and has happened on different sources, including my FM tuner, and from my DAC. It seems like the crackling is not related to the source. 

I have a monster of a system, including a Gryphon Colosseum amplifier, and a pair of Gryphon Cantata speakers. 

My system is described in the link below. How should I go about debugging this problem? Do I dare play the system? Should I buy a cheap amp and swap that in to see if the problem persists? Do I buy a cheap preamp as well? Do I start by swapping the speaker cables to the opposite speaker cables to see if the crackle moves to the other speaker? 

My system has been performing flawlessly for a number of years now. I did have to get cheap part replaced on the amplifier about three or four years ago, and used Soundsmith in Peekskill, NY.

I'm pretty brokenhearted about the possibility of having to get my system repaired. I had total hip replacement surgery two months ago and I can't lift anything. Moving the beast of an amp or the heavy speakers is out of the question. I suppose I could find somebody to help me if it comes to that. 

Sigh. 

Larry
 

 

larrykell

Or the Voyger from Wally at Underwood and it is real inexpensive. 

Is the amp you purchase to tide you over going to get sold when your Gryphon returns or will you keep it for the occasional "something different" mood that plagues so many of us? What is your budget for your given scenario?

That AGD Tempo di Gan does sound interesting but I'm not so sure I can find one for sale. Let me know if you see one. 

I don't know if I'll ever swap out the Colosseum to listen to something else, to be honest. With that said, it would be nice to have something that I enjoy listening to. I'm thinking that I might go to $3k. I'm sorry that that is so cheap.

I don't upgrade very often and so I am wondering what would move the needle the most in terms of sound quality. I was thinking that breaking the bank on the Gryphon Pandora preamp would make a noticeable difference but now I have to pay for an amplifier repair. 

So it goes. 

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swap the interconnects between the preamp and amp and see if it moves. That will tell you amp vs preamp.