Ground Loop(?) leads to blow speaker


Aloha 'goners!
          I'm going to do my best to get the details down here as I am a bit stumped on this one.

I have a Wadia 121 DAC that was recently repaired.  The issue was the RCA/XLR outputs produced mostly noise and little music.  The headphone side was fine.

As the unit wasn't functioning properly I hadn't had the chance to hook it up and use it.  When I got it back and hooked it up there was a nasty ground loop(?) that led to a blown speaker (Thiel 1.6).  The buzz produced was the angry bee buzz followed by a loud electrical sounding crack and the woofer was gone.  The amp (Creek Classic A53) went into protect mode and I shut it off.  I then disconnected the Wadia and hooked up a Mytek Brooklyn+ and there was no buzz.  Same cables same outlets same everything except the DAC.  I tested the amp and it seems to be ok through another pair of speakers.

At this point I wasn't sure what was going on.  I tested 3 different amps with the Wadia and 2 of the 3 buzzed.  With the Mytek none of them buzzed.  Of the 2 amps that buzzed one of them had a 2 pin connection and the other a 3 pin.  The only amp that didn't buzz was a 2 pin Adcom 535 MkII.  The other amps were a 3 pin Creek and a 2 pin Carver.

Here is the full chain:

Primare CD31 --> Madrigal AES Cable --> Wadia/Mytek DAC/preamp --> Chord Cobra Vee RCA --> Creek/Adcom/Carver amps --> Tara Labs spkr cable --> Thiel 1.6/B&W CDM1SE speakers

I used the same wall outlets for the DACs and amps.  The same interconnects were used between components as well as from the amps to speakers.

I tested the wall outlets with a cabling tester and it said they were wired correctly.

Could there be something else that I'm missing that would be causing this?  The only amp I am comfortable with using to test is the Carver as it has a variable level on the front panel.

Any help or thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

solobone22

Showing 7 responses by solobone22

I have a Klein Tools MM300.  I set the meter to 200m and tested the RCA output touching the positive line inside the connector and the negative line to the outer barrel.

The left channel read 1.0.
The right channel read -0.1.

This looks to be the culprit.
Thanks Folks!

With regards to the 2 pin 3 pin I should have posted that I was referring to the power cable.

Working on measuring the output on the unit now. The place that did the repair wants the unit back however I’d like to measure it in its current state and then again after they send it back.
Ran the same test on all the DAC preamps I have:

Cambridge DACMagic+

L: 0
R: 0

Mytek Brooklyn+

L: 0.6
R: -0.1

MSB Analog:

L: 0.3
R: -0.3

None of the other preamps have the buzzing problem with the Creek amp.  Compared to the measurements from the Wadia this doesn't look so bad.
I tested using meter set to the V with the 3 dashes below the solid line.  That is the setting for DC.  Anyone have further thoughts on this?

@gs5556 Is this something that would present itself all of the time or only intermittently? I'm referring to the DC issue.
Hi Al!

I'm looking at testing the power supply now.  Per the Wadia documentation here:

http://www.wadia.com/ContentsFiles/Wadia%20121%20Brochure%20web.pdf

• Multiple stages of regulation were designed into the main circuit board to ensure quiet, stable DC power is available for all sensitive circuits.
• A dedicated voltage regulator for the master oscillators is used to provide clean pure DC power for maximum clock stability.

I wouldn't know where to start testing those pieces and do not want to dig around inside of the unit.

On the repair bill they stated that the internal power supply was replaced as well as an IC.

My aim again with all of this is to get some measurement of the issue prior to sending it back to them.
Update: I went to test the Creek and it wouldn't power on. Opening it up I found the 2 fuses on the board were blown. Unfortunately they didn't blow before the speaker was damaged. The unit even worked a short period after the initial incident. Checked the fuses and they were the correct rating.

Testing with 50/60 hz test tone later today.