You don't mention the rest of your system. In my experience aging tubes (pre-amp?, source component?) can exhibit a "crackling noise". If you have vacuum tubes in your system, check them, or try replacing with tubes that are known to be good. |
Yep, sounds like you might have a tube failure in the right channel. Those tubes were supposed to last for 100K hours I think, but that doesn't mean they won't fail pre-maturely. It might also be a cap or something, but 'tube' is so logical. I'm sure MF will clue you in, and I do believe they have a service rep in the USA (if that is where you live). BTW, I suspect that these tubes would have survived a transit, so it is quite possible it was a bummer when you bought it. Good luck. |
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Maybe you can flip/flop the left and right tubes and see if the problem travles...This will tell you for sure..I does sound like a bad tube though.. |
This is an integrated with a tube pre-stage so I suppose it could be the tubes.
But let me elaborate a bit on the sound. "crackle" may not be the right term. If you think about what it sounds like when you turn your amp up with your source off (like a hiss from the tweeter, smooth static). It sound like that except that it's not as smooth...there is some kind of sound artifact mixed in with that hiss.
I will call MF, but my understanding was that the tubes were not easily replaceable in this unit so I'm hoping it doesn't mean a trip (and fees) back to MF.
Oh well, thanks for everyone's feedback. I will check with MF on MOnday and hopefully get an idea of what's going on. |
If you have another source say a CD or DVD player, connect that source to another input of your Musical Fidelity integrated and see if the crackling or buzzing sound is there. I have experienced this before and the intermittent crackling sound is from one channel of the speaker. The culprit turns out to be the CD player -aging caps. It's more difficult to troubleshoot where the sound comes from if you have more components in your system. I've looked at the power supply, cabling(power cords), tube preamp and CD player before coming to the conclusion that the latter was at fault. If it's not the CD player then most likely it would be the Musical Fidelity. |
Hello Fatghost,
I had a somewhat similar problem with my Manley Stingray-also a tube integrated-not that long ago.
It turned out to be a bad capacitor in the Stingray.
Good luck! |
Don't place your cell phone near the speakers. |
Unfortunately, it makes the noise when there is no source hooked up to the integrated at all which is why I think it has to be something in the MF itself. As for the cell phone, I try to never take that into my listening room...just another distraction :-) |
I had the same problem. It looks like this might be a somewhat common problem for KW500. http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1142286037&read&keyw&zzcrackling+ I sent it to Signal Path and they replaced a tube. It fixed the problem. Have since sold it to go to EMM straight into Pass 350.5.
Walter Shields |
I think your KW500 uses 6SL7s in the preamp section. These tubes have high gain and are not as quiet. Do follow the suggestion of swapping tubes from side to side. If the noises follow the swapping, then it is quite obvious.
If the noises are indeed from a bad tube, order some tubes from a reputable dealer. Some people here stated that they had good experiences with upscale aduio. With 6SL7s, I would order platinum grade to get lower noises.
Hope it helps. |
I have a crackling sound in one of my speakers. When I switch speaker cables the crackling sound moves from left to right speaker. My equipment is Wilson Watt Puppy 6, BAT VK 51 SE, Levinson 432 amp, and Siltech speaker cables and interconnects. I've been told it's a grounding issue. I'm in the process of listing my equipment on this site so what should I do? |
A crackling sound on one side is IMHO more likely a tube issue than a grounding issue. Try switching left channel tubes and right channel tubes and see if the sound changes speakers as well. If it is a tube issue it could be something as simple as a poor connection which might just be self corrected when you switch the tubes. That is where I would start in chasing this problem down. |
It dawned on me that I had all the preamp tubes changed about 4 years ago and have used very little since because the crackling and the technician were driving me crazy. Is it in poor taste to ask for a reference that does quality repair work? I live in Chicago. |
I took my BAT VK 51 SE preamp and he replaced the tops on the channel capacitors at a cost of $600. Does this sound reasonable? |
