2. amps-preamps
  3. 179823-22849

Crackling in right channel, what do I do? Help, please.

Sadly, I am experiencing crackling in the right channel of my system. The crackling happens intermittently and has happened on different sources, including my FM tuner, and from my DAC. It seems like the crackling is not related to the source. 

I have a monster of a system, including a Gryphon Colosseum amplifier, and a pair of Gryphon Cantata speakers. 

My system is described in the link below. How should I go about debugging this problem? Do I dare play the system? Should I buy a cheap amp and swap that in to see if the problem persists? Do I buy a cheap preamp as well? Do I start by swapping the speaker cables to the opposite speaker cables to see if the crackle moves to the other speaker? 

My system has been performing flawlessly for a number of years now. I did have to get cheap part replaced on the amplifier about three or four years ago, and used Soundsmith in Peekskill, NY.

I'm pretty brokenhearted about the possibility of having to get my system repaired. I had total hip replacement surgery two months ago and I can't lift anything. Moving the beast of an amp or the heavy speakers is out of the question. I suppose I could find somebody to help me if it comes to that. 

Sigh. 

Larry
 

 

larrykell
larrykell OP
122 posts
 

No worries!

There must be an amp that would work for me.

ghasley
2,429 posts
 

@larrykell 

 

you are making this too hard. Almost any amp will do. You seem to be worried about the speaker cable lugs fitting and you can look for a LOOOOONG time before you THINK they might fit. In the meantime you could buy a reasonable amp, you could buy some spade to banana adapters (transparent among many make them) or better yet, buy some cheap cables or even marginal bare wire that will get you by. Once again, you are looking for something temporary and you will dislike to varying degrees virtually everything you might acquire.

larrykell OP
122 posts
 

Thanks for the suggestion of the spade to banana adaptors. That will help. And, yes, I will dislike anything that I buy, lol. I was trying to minimize the amount of dislike. I’m in the grieving stage. I’ll have to live with the replacement for months. 
 

Getting an amp I can lift is probably the most important requirement. 

larrykell OP
122 posts
 

I ordered an Son of Ampzilla II from SST. It’s more than I wanted to spend but I can pick it up and move it around. It’s a 40lb brick and not a 75lb or 90lb brick. I’m looking forward to seeing how it does. I ran James Bongiorno’s 90lb Class A Sumo Gold for years. I know this is only A for the first ten watts, I believe, and AB for the rest but it is 220w into 8ohms and 350w into 4ohms.

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