Manley Chinook - chronic issues


I’ve had this Chinook that I purchased from Upscale in September, it has no time on it. I have not enjoyed a single record at this point. I have been plagued by chronic static and popping issues. It is defiantly the Chinook as I have used other sources and a different preamp with no issues. There seems to be a constant crackle pop on all vinyl and now to add insult to injury the Chinook made 4 loud bangs back to back tonight and it really worried me so I shut down the system. These were not dirty vinyl click or pops but loud bangs.

I had narrowed down that one of the tubes on the output channel was bad, and it was replaced. Yet the issues continue and now have progressed with the loud bang. I also have a loud "fuzz" noise coming through the right channel. At this point I swapped the left input channel to the right and the "fuzz" noise flipped to the left channel. More bad tubes?

I can’t deal with this preamp anymore, what was suppose to be a get away has turned into nothing but constant stress.
Bad tubes? Bad board?


lps4eloise

Showing 2 responses by moofoo

Also I remember reading somewhere someone had a Chinook noise problem because they had only placed the top cover on the unit and not screwed it back on.
I bought a used Chinook a few years ago from a dealer (not Upscale) and have rolled tubes, used MM and MI carts, different loading and gain settings and never had a problem. I also had an inexpensive resistor fail in a brand new, modified preamp once like zkidd. It caused crackling just like a bad tube and after troubleshooting sent the unit back for a quick repair. After talking with the preamp builder and sending them an audio file of the noise the unit made and detailing my trouble shooting they were extremely appreciative of my effort and repair was very rapid. The was first only occasional. Hang in there. Manley and Upscale are both great companies and very responsive.