2. amps-preamps
  3. 1061393832

Help Troubleshoot - Left Ch. Louder than Right Ch.

I need your collective troubleshooting assistance.

I just put together a new system (comprised of used gear, of course) and hooked it all up last night.

Unfortunately, the left channel is considerably louder than the right. Or - it could be that the right is much QUIETER than the left. Not to be facetious, but in actuality, the left channel seems more "appropriate" all things considered.

The amp is an Antique Sound Labs AQ-1002 (50wpc) and the preamp is a Counterpoint SA-1000. Unfortunately, I don't have any additional components to swap out and determine which piece is the culprit. Can you guys think of any other techniques that might help determine what's causing the problem?

Also, if the amp is not biased properly, could that cause one channel to play louder (or quieter) than the other? There are no Gain controls on the amp that I can see.

I need to figure out what's wrong so that I can either fix it, or seek recourse from the seller before too much time has elapsed.

Thanks guys!
gullahisland
gullahisland OP
83 posts
 
Jeff, you're a genius!

I'll give that a try this evening and report back tomorrow.

If it turns out to be the amp...Does anyone have an idea of what might cause such a thing? Could it be as simple as the bias?

Thanks!
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
It could even be simplier than bias: bad tube!
gullahisland OP
83 posts
 
Well,

I switched the interconnects and the problem stays in the right channel. I switched the speakers as well, just to confirm that there's not issue with them and, again, the problem stays in the right channel.

Marakanetz - Should I just switch the placement of the tubes and see if the problem follows the tubes? The amp uses two 6550s for each channel. Is it safe to just switch them? I'm a tube novice and don't want to do anything catastrophic.

Thanks again.
newbee
4,767 posts
 
Try switching the drive tubes first - you don't have to worry about the bias settings on these.
gullahisland OP
83 posts
 
Newbee - Please forgive my ignorance, but I assume by "drive tubes", that means the 6550 output tubes? On the input side there are 4 12AU7s.

Thanks again everybody.
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