Good morning, kach22i. I don't recall you mentioning what pre you are using. Would it happen to be a tubed preamplifier? [The component that was in the rig when the channel was originally lost]
Tom
Tom, the original pre-amp was a GRAAF WFB One, it's tube with tube phono and it's working better than ever now thanks to some new tubes.
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I put my digital multimeter to use this morning and diagnosed the problem within a minute.
The root cause of the problem: the
speaker wires as many suspected. However
tarnish was the real culprit.
Please before passing any judgement take into consideration that I've tried in vain to prevent this problem from ever forming in the first place. I've tried two cleaners which had no affect. I've even considered sandpaper/emery cloth as a solution to remove this terrible blacking.
Background story: The original Nordost Z-Plug Banana's fractured because my speaker wire was about an inch too short, the right angle turn at each end was too much stress over a long period of time. The solution was to have the local Hi-End dealer put spade type terminal connections at each end. However these connectors tarnished turning black over a few years. When I went to the store and reported the condition they said that sounded strange. I asked for a recommend cleaner, they said they don't recommend liquid cleaners as they leave a residue which crystallizes and only causes more problems.
I've tried burnishing and rubbing with audio wipes, different audio approved cleaners, nothing has made a dent in the black coating.
Put the digital multimeter probes to the clean silver parts and get a good reading of about 7.6 Ohms when hooked to the main speakers. Connect directly to the speaker with the speaker wires detached and get a roughly similar number.
Put the digital multimeter black/ground probe to the clean silver part, and the red/positive probe to the blackened part and you cannot get a stable reading, it jumps all over the place at random and never settles down.
A picture is worth a thousand words........................here are a couple of thousands words.
http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x295/kach22i/Stereo/
QUESTION: How do I clean these connections, and how do I keep them clean?
Yea, I've never seen anything like it either.
What aggravated this condition (in addition to the tarnish) is the solid brass spade to banana jumpers which I had to use to connect to the solid state Dynaco ST-120A amp. There has got to be a better and more secure way to connect to that amp. I'm open to suggestions. Space is tight and limited.