Ever Have One Of Those Evenings?


Tonight, I went downstairs, turned on the system, and it sounded like crap. Within an hour I had:

>Discovered that one of my Thiel 2.2's has either a dead woofer (most likely), or a crossover or internal wiring problem. Testing to diagnose will commence tomorrow, tonight I'm too P.O.'ed.

>Additionally discovered that the tweeter on the other side is distorting badly, and will need the dome/voice-coil assembly replaced (again).

>Confirmed that my most costly set of interconnects has a bad jack connection (these are Harmonic Technology Magic Link Ones, which naturally feature a plug design that cannot easily be opened up for inspection or repairs without destroying the heat-shrink sleeve).

>Faced the distinct possibility that my futzing around behind the preamp trying to ascertain the culprit in the latter problem - without first turning down the volume - may well have been the cause of least one of the first two problems.

>Realized that now, not only can't I listen to my system the regular way, but since the OEM (non-standard) headphone amp output jack I got from Musical Fidelity's distributor to replace the faulty original in my X-Cans quickly developed the same exact problem as the old one (no right channel with either set of 'phones), I cannot even listen with my headphones for the time being, except through my CD-R recorder's wimpy monitoring jack.

Looks like I'm on a steady diet of cable movies and NPR for a while. (Way to go, Trent Lott: at least you'll be out-of-sight, out-of-mind by this time next week, you plastic-haired cretin - your plight is the one redeeming feature of my evening!)
zaikesman

Showing 1 response by mezmo

Man oh man. I've had a bass radiator on a pair of Thiels come unglued and fried one of their coaxial drivers (unrelated, both replaced); had a muting switch on an amp go so that it made the speakers sound like they were being torn in half whenever you turned if off; had a tubed preamp become posessed so that it would accumulate and discharge electrical charges in strange patterns, make some awful sounds, blow the fuses in my amp, and actually cause the lights in my appartment to flicker and pulse (honest); later discovered (much later, and after much fretting) the the poltergeist may have been summoned by a bad wire in an interconnect, not the preamp. And I considered this a bad year, but all in one EVENING. As I said, man oh man. I feel your pain.

Do have to agree with Cwlondon, though, in that every time one of my disfunctional little family would throw a temper tantrum, get yanked, scolded and sent home to its parents for an attitude readjustment, it was an extra special treat to rediscover the sound of real music (after a diet of the little squeek box on the TV) upon their return. It's a relatively cheap way to keep the upgrade demons satiated. (That said, even if it does feel good when you stop, it doesn't make hitting your head against the wall a good idea, either).