I can't believe it

[mep]

After waiting 5 months to get my Counterpoint SA-5.1 back from Mike Elliot and only having it back less than one month, the left channel is now dead. I was hoping that the line stage tube in the left channel went south, but that wasn't it. I installed a new pair of tubes in the line stage and no dice. I swapped the interconnects to the amp and the problem just moved to the to the other channel. This is really a bummer.

I had to pull out my trusty old Yamaha integrated amp that has a set of main outs on it and press it into service as a preamp. Now I'm totally SS for the time being. I'm still in shock.

 

[DonH50]

Wow, that's a real bummer! Hopefully he can get it back up and running quickly.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Maybe you can find one of those Pass-designed Adcom preamps on ebay. Embrace the power of the dark side, Mark!

Tim

 

[fas42]

Might be an opportunity to try driving the system with no preamp from the music server. In other words, use the volume control on the player software to control level, and see what that tells you ..

Frank

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Be still my heart...

 

[Bruce B]

I can't believe you didn't send it to "The Upgrade Company"!

 

[tony ky ma]

Mark - no sound is more easy to fix than distorted sound, check filament voltage first, and check each B+, if still can't get it, then use signal gen and scope to check from in put, you should find the blocking good luck
tony ma

 

[fas42]

no sound is more easy to fix than distorted sound

I still have a heavily modded Perreaux 2150B sitting here, donkey's years ago a channel died and that was the last straw for fooling around with interesting gear for a long, long time. Finally got my interest back some years ago, and used the marvellously simple technique of comparing DC voltages between the two channels to pinpoint the problem. Quite bizarre, a perfectly normal 1/2 watt metal film resistor had gone open circuit, looked perfectly healthy, so sign of heat damage or anything else whatsoever.

Lucky I fixed it at that point! Revved everything up, going nicely for a couple of months, then lo and behold, the other channel died. And, you guessed it, the exact same resistor on the other channel had gone bye-bye's! A bad batch from the manufacturer of that value, perhaps?

Frank

 

[tony ky ma]

I still have a heavily modded Perreaux 2150B sitting here, donkey's years ago a channel died and that was the last straw for fooling around with interesting gear for a long, long time. Finally got my interest back some years ago, and used the marvellously simple technique of comparing DC voltages between the two channels to pinpoint the problem. Quite bizarre, a perfectly normal 1/2 watt metal film resistor had gone open circuit, looked perfectly healthy, so sign of heat damage or anything else whatsoever.

Lucky I fixed it at that point! Revved everything up, going nicely for a couple of months, then lo and behold, the other channel died. And, you guessed it, the exact same resistor on the other channel had gone bye-bye's! A bad batch from the manufacturer of that value, perhaps?

Frank

Frank - find out the problem in fixing also a kind of game, have fun too, same resistor gone in both channel, maybe bad design , too much current and resistor just big in margin for saving the cost, I always use 2 or 3 times bigger for safety that is what a diyer should do because cost of resistor not a big deal!
tony ma

 

[ack]

@mep

Curious, what do you find so worth it about Counterpoint? Their lack of reliability sunk the the company long ago as we all know...

 

[naturephoto1]

Mark,

Really sorry to hear of the problems. When it rains it pours. I hope you are up and running shortly.

Rich

 

[mep]

Mark - no sound is more easy to fix than distorted sound, check filament voltage first, and check each B+, if still can't get it, then use signal gen and scope to check from in put, you should find the blocking good luck
tony ma

Tony-It's not distorted sound, it's no sound in the left channel. It's deader than the proverbial door nail.

 

[mep]

@mep

Curious, what do you find so worth it about Counterpoint? Their lack of reliability sunk the the company long ago as we all know...

Not true. Counterpoint did have some teething pains in the beginning which garnered them some unfavorable press, but they built some great sounding gear that is still highly sought after. The "what is so worth it" part is the way it sounds my friend.

 

[mep]

That sucks, bigtime.

I would take it into work and see if one of your chaps can fix it, probably broken wire or failed voltage regulator.
Possible several more months for repair seems likely?

Tom

Tom-I would never take it into work for a large number of really good reasons.

 

[mep]

Maybe you can find one of those Pass-designed Adcom preamps on ebay. Embrace the power of the dark side, Mark!

Tim

Tim-Those seem to get snapped up quickly so there must be something to them.

 

[mep]

Might be an opportunity to try driving the system with no preamp from the music server. In other words, use the volume control on the player software to control level, and see what that tells you ..

Frank

Nah, that won't happen.

 

[tony ky ma]

Mark - What I mean no sound is more easy to find out the problem, the most difficult is to reduce noise and hum, get the circuit print first check all kind of the voltage and if line stage doesn't work will be more easy because it only in one tube stage not like phono with more, I remember Counterpoint do not use cathode resistors for shelf bias, check the resistor in grid to ground of the line stage's tube, step by step to check, final will find the problem out for sure

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Tim-Those seem to get snapped up quickly so there must be something to them.

Transparency seems to be the thing, and if you're ever going solid state, it's a pretty important thing. The goal there is no color, because unlike tubes, the colors ain't pretty.

Tim

 

[mep]

I had to dig out my old Yamaha integrated last night and press it into service as a preamp. This is probably the first time in over 25 years I have had a SS preamp and SS power amp in my system at the same time.

 

[fas42]

I had to dig out my old Yamaha integrated last night and press it into service as a preamp. This is probably the first time in over 25 years I have had a SS preamp and SS power amp in my system at the same time.

So what does it sound like? Is it tolerable ...?

Frank