2. amps-preamps
  3. 179823-22849

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
larrykell OP
122 posts
 

So, you don’t think it means anything when I switched the speaker cables and immediately moved the crackle from the right channel to the left channel? The left channel has never had a crackle until I swapped the speaker cables. It’s hard for me to believe that both speaker cables have somehow gone bad, and that one of them hid its fault. 

Yes, I will get the Gryphon repaired. It will take months, months waiting to drive it to the repair shop, months waiting for the repair to be done, and months to find the time to go back and get it. I have the airline shipping crate but it is expensive to ship the amp by truck and there is a risk that the amp gets damaged.  

larrykell OP
122 posts
 

I’ll have a month with a new amp and my existing speaker cables to see if the crackle comes back. I can’t take any more chances powering on the monster amp.

jond's avatar
jond
5,845 posts
 

Larry if the speaker cable on your left channel had a short and was creating noise and you then moved that cable to the right channel it would make noise there also right? When you swap cables like that you're not bypassing them you need to swap in another cable to rule them out.

larrykell OP
122 posts
 

I didn’t move the cable, I just swapped what channel on the amp was connected to which cable. Both speakers are still connected with the same cables.

jond's avatar
jond
5,845 posts
 

Ah I see what you did apologies Larry and carry on and good luck getting your amp repaired!

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