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  3. 182002-89202

Ultimate stereo nightmare

I have a complex stereo system, having accumulated many various components through the years. I also have an impenetrable jumble of wires.  Until now I’ve been able to deal with problems that arose. Now that I am elderly I can’t easily get down on the floor to assess things. I bought and installed new very expensive speaker cables (Audioquest Robin Hood), and subsequently found that my right channel was not working. After switching cables, the right channel was still not working. So the problem is somewhere in the system.  I don’t know if it’s a loose cable or something else and have no way of tackling the jungle of wires to check it out. 
I hired a company that claims they deal with these things, but there’s such complexity I don’t know whether they can deal with it.
 

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jerryg123's avatar
jerryg123
3,429 posts
 

I am very empathetic. Being an engineer with OCD this has caused me to be obsessive with cable management. Makes issues like yours much easier to manage.

I wish you luck.

oltexan
35 posts
 

1. The first thing I do is turn off amp & preamp and swap the amp phono cables at either end. Now listen again. If the problem stays in the right speaker its not the preamp

2. grit your teeth and swap the speaker leads at the amp. Now the amp L channel is driving the R speaker and vice versa. If the R speaker is still out its the speaker or the R speaker cable. If the L speaker is out its the amp R channel.

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,810 posts
 

This sounds like a job for supervised kids or grand kids.😁

jeffseight's avatar
jeffseight
578 posts
 

+1 R69

Full access is a sign of an organized process. 

Very helpful!!

 

p05129
501 posts
 

I’m guessing everything was working before swapping cables. If this is correct, is it possible that you swapped cables while the system was powered up? If so, you could have damaged your amp or your speakers.

if you hook up your left cable to your right speaker, does it work?

Do you have access to another pair of speakers, it doesn’t matter what they are, you just want to see if both work.

If the new speakers work then it’s your old speaker. If it doesn’t work, borrow An amp and see if that works.

Trial and error.

As for easy access, put your gear on top of a taller table so you do t have to bend over the change or check things out

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