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IC Failure

I recently had a failure in one of a pair of very high-priced, prestigious IC's. It simply has stopped transmitting a signal. I have swapped them out with other IC's in different components and definitely have isolated the problem to the IC. Both IC terminations are intact and solid. Can an IC short out?

Additional info: I just had the caps in my pre upgraded to Teflon, and this failure happened when I tried using my DAC. The suspect IC's ran from DAC to pre. All pre inputs, including CD and DVD, work fine with other IC's.

In almost 40 years of audiophilia I have never had this happen. Thanks for input. Want to hear from the cognoscenti before I go back to manufacturer.

Neal
nglazer
jea48
4,454 posts
 
More than likely the cable has an open connection.
More than likely at one of the RCA male plug connectors.

Bending the cable too sharply near the end can cause a connection to break free.

If the ends are the type that can be disassembled, carefully take the connector apart and inspect the terminations of the hot signal and return signal ground wires.

You have a 50/50 chance of finding the bad end the first time......
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ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,316 posts
 
Do you have a multimeter? You can do a test for continuity across your suspect ICs.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Yep you need to open and see the termination. These expensive pieces are often home made and the termination may suffer either lack of skill or equipment quality limitation for home use.

Open/Unscrew the RCA plugs of the malfunctioning interconnect and you'll see where the problem is. The issue itself is in short number of connecting and disconnecting the wires that get eventually stressed and than disconnected.

On my home-made interconnects I used Neutrik lockable RCA plugs. I can abuse these interconnects(pull them by the wire) and be worry free.
nglazer OP
846 posts
 
Thanks, all. I try to be gentle with IC's but my bet is there is a short. I do have have a multimeter. What am I looking for? Thx.

Neal
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