preamp Luxman 5c50 indicator has gone red DC offset


Hello,

I have just received a beautiful Luxman 5c50 preamp

I plugged it,, turned it up  and It sounded great ... but after an hour, I suppose, the led indicator DC offset became red. (normal is white it is said)

and I heard some noise in the LS

I turned it off immediately

Well; I dont know what does it mean but I think it is no good/

Does it mean the preamp is out of service? It is fixable?

What should I do?

 

Thank you very much

Serge

 

 

 

serge8

Showing 1 response by erik_squires

Yes, you should have it fixed, but how important it is depends on your amp. If it is DC coupled you should not use it until fixed. If it is AC coupled then you should be OK.

Here’s what it means:

At rest, with no signal, the preamp should return to 0 Volts output (with inevitable noise). Some preamps ensure there’s no steady state voltage (DC) by putting a capacitor in series with the output. However some use electronic servo’s to constantly adjust the output bias. Yours is of the latter variety. It’s usually straightforward to have it fixed up.

The problem is, with an amp that is flat to 0 Hz is that you’ll get DC on the output, which can be anything from barely noticeable to driver or amp melting. It's made a more serious issue becuase, being DC, you won't hear it happening.  It's silent, so very good thing there's a light to tell you something is wrong.

If your amp has a cap in the input then you will probably not have anything terrible happen before you get it fixed. You can measure the magnitude of the problem with a DC voltmeter on the preamp or amp outputs.