2. amps-preamps
  3. 1115908846

A worse feeling than burning out your amp?

Last night I was planning to get back into making digital music and began setting up my laptop with the necessary software. I had my audio cable (1/8" connector) plugged into my Macintosh, which was playing mp3s. The laptop was ready to go, so I unplugged the cable from the Mac without turning the amp off, which I've done dozens and dozens of times before; BIG mistake. I heard a very loud buzzing sound that lasted about a quarter of a second, followed by a loud pop. I went over to the amp and could smell electronics burning. I turned the amp off and back on, after which I noticed that sound was only coming out of the left channel and it was very broken and full of static. Also, it doesn't matter which input is selected, it plays all sound coming from all inputs now. This integrated NAD C 340 amp is no longer good as a preamp either. What a horrible feeling, but it could have been much worse (my speakers could have blown out!).

Has anyone ever done something similar to their amp and attempted to fix it? I'm at least going to open it up and have a look before I trash the thing. The only bad part about all of this is having to wait several months before I can afford to replace this unit. For now, it's back to the old mass market Kenwood receiver....
jwglista
bigkidz
3,446 posts
 
Yes, twice I was fooling around with speaker cables and used some cheap banana plugs on the speaker end. Playing music loud must have loosened the bananas and they crossed blowing a channel in an amp. I did it again about a month late to another amp. Cost about $100 per amp to fix all for not spending a few extra seconds to make sure the bananas were in there tightly.

Happy Listeing.
jax2
3,031 posts
 
Oy! My sympathies for the loss, but I'm sure it's not a total loss. I've spent too many years with tube components so now I always shut down everything before making swaps. I have made a similar mistake once before. A 2A3 amp I owned had a socket that allowed the tube to be put in off of it's proper orientation (some of the earlier, cheaper sockets do). It becomes a visual task to allign them and with four pins would seem a relatively simple one. Guess my eyesight isn't what it used to be. I put in the tube the wrong way and upon turning on the amp promptly fried a resistor. No big deal as the maker is a friend who lives nearby so I was able to bring it to him the next evening to swap out. He had since started using the sockets that only will allow insertion in the proper orientation.

Marco
jwglista OP
206 posts
 
Yes well it's good to know that I'm not the only that has made such a foolish mistake. I never thought that pulling a cable out like that could fry something. I do think that it's the preamp that is toasted, so I'm going to open it up and look for any burnt components. If it's just a resistor, I may be able to apply my mediocre soldering skills and replace it. I only paid $90 for this amp on EBay, which is one of the reasons I said it could have been much worse. Either way, it's not worth my money to bring this into the shop. I was saving up for a new DAC, but my funds will have to be diverted towards a new amp (unfortunate, because I really need a better CD player or DAC).
kw6
692 posts
 
I started doing a minor touch up to the lid of my new c-j 17LS II which started out as a small dot. After improper paint colour matching and thinner, I now have a bigger spot the size of an orange.
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