Help/Major Problem


I have a Aleph-3 amp and a Rogue 99 pre with phono.
I played the system all last eve. with no problems.
Tonight I fired it up and nothing!
All seems fine except no sound.Only a muted signal(music) when I turn the pre way up.I can see the line stage tubes through the cover of the 99 and they are lit up.This problem is with phono,CD and tuner.I have checked all I.C.'s and P.C.'s All check out fine.
What the hell could be the problem?
david99
Don't mean to state the obvious, but have you checked any "mute" or "tape monitor" switches? my kid once flicked one of these silly buttons that I never pay attention to, and it took me several hours of fidgetting to find it. Hopefully, it is just something silly like that.....
I have checked all there is to check without opening up the Rogue to check the tubes.
One correction from my previous post.I get a signal with the pre turned all the way down.Very low,muted music that increases slightly when I turn the pre up.All cables and I.C.'s are fine.
Have you tried rebooting your pre? Different pre's have different procedures. I have had this same problem with several different pieces. Usually turning everything off wait a minute then bring it back up does the trick. Check your manual for other variations. Good luck and DON'T PANIC!!!
david: have you checked ALL fuses, including any internal rail or input varieties? (don't really know what your rouge or pass have for "protection.") if all else fails, PANIC, take a couple of ludes and see what tomorrow brings. -kelly
Kelly-I'm going to need more than "a couple" ludes before this night is over!
If it were a bad fuse I would have no tube glow or amp on indicator light,would I ?? I don't think either the Rogue or Pass has fuses anyway.The Pass has thermal overload protection but no fuse as far as I know.
My hunch is it may be a poorly seated or bad tube in the pre.(Its too late in the eve. to rip the pre apart)But with both channels affected this seems unlikely.
Anyone else have a clue?
If you have any spare stuff laying around like an extra integrated or something you can hook to the Pass and see if you can eliminate it from suspect. Follow the signal flow and don't doubt that it could be a cable. I had a situation where I had a low signal in one channel, I was going nuts and it turned out to be an interconnect cable. I didn't know until I substituted another set for the faulty set.
If you're inside the Rogue look for an internal fuse. Glowing tubes mean the filaments are getting the voltage they need but there should be additional power supply voltages present as well to do the amplification.

Any chance one or more of your sources has a volume control that you would dare connect a source direct to the Pass? At least you could start to narrow the problem to one component.

Try to remain rational. More than likely you are just a tube or tube plus internal fuse away from pleasureable music again.
You may have somehow triggered the thermals on the Aleph 3. Since it's class A, you no doubt have noted that it always runs hot. This may have inhibited a thermal reset. Try turning it off, letting it cool, then trying again. Good luck!
Make sure that both rear power connectors are properly seated. And if you own headphones, you could try them in the headphone jack -- if the phones work properly then most likely the problem is not in the preamp.
If you have a voltmeter with a fine enough scale to read the output voltages on both the preamp and amp, and a cd with a sine wave test tone, you can play the cd, then step the gain switch on the pre, and measure the right channel output, then the left channel output voltage from the preamp, then the same outputs from the amp. Each set should step in a reasonably linear fashion. That should allow you to distinguish the amp from the pre. It also helps if you know what the full scale output voltages in each case should be.
David, check you cables carefully, make sure the barrel is tight around the female (the ground). I got nothing but a hum from my right channel on 2 different occasions. Both times I enjoyed extended play the night before. First time I rearranged the tubes in my pre and wallaa, it worked. Then a month later it happened again and I jiggled all of my ic's and narrowed it down to my right channel ic to the amp, the locking barrel was not securely fastened so the right channel was not grounded, had nothing to do with the tubes in the pre. It's probably something simple. Good luck and during the panic stage try to remember this too will pass! And breathe into a sack constantly.
David,

I agree with Pops. I had the exact problem. I even went as far as taking my pre to my local guy who's been repairing my stereo stuff for years.
After charging me $35 for a cleaning job, he informed me that there was really nothing technically wrong with the pre.
Take all cables off and put them back on. I had a loose interconnect. Hopefully your problem is as simple.
Good Luck.
UPDATE..... I removed the cover of the 99 pre.I took out the 250W fuse.Inside the fuse is a thick copper colored strip with solder on the end with two thin wires coming out of the solder.The strip only goes half way across inside the fuse.The 2 small wires do not continue to connect to the other end of the fuse.They are just hanging there.I put in a new 250W fuse I had for my Dynaco ST-70.This fuse says on it 3 amp slow blow.The one I removed only says 250W.The strip inside the new one is very thin and silver colored and is connected to both sides of the fuse.Anyway,I have music now.It fired right up!
Now my next concern...Is my rig going to blow up and leave a crater where my house once stood??
david: the fuse from your dynaco may not be the same as that removed from your rouge; i.e., the rouge fuse, tho the same value, may not be of the "slow blow" variety. i'd check with your dealer or rouge tomorrow to be sure. meantime, enjoy the music and don't worry about the crater. worst case scenario is you'll burn up your rouge. highly unlikely. BTW, i thought you said the rouge had no fuses. ;>) -kelly
David,
250w/120v = 2.08 amps. If you’re still concerned I would use a 2-amp slow blow fuse. Sounds like the last one served its purpose well. Glad to here your back up an running. Maybe Panicking was the right thing to do after all :~)
The Rogue draws a lot of current at onset and needs the right fuse to handle that situation much like the Electrocompaniet amps - the wrong fuse and it blows leaving you musicless - check with Rogue to make sure you have the right one. I agree with the 2-amp slow blow fuse recommendation.
Thank you to everyone for sharing in my crisis.
I will get in touch with Mark O'Brien and see what he says about what fuse to use.
Kelly,yes,I mispoke when I commented the Rogue has no fuses.Actually it has 1 and possibly 2 in the power supply also.Sorry,must have been those ludes!
david: i'm truly glad you have your music back. i know how important it is to you. my guess about a blown fuse was prompted by the coincidence of my having dropped in at my audio dealer/close friend's place yesterday and meeting another customer who had brought in his cj amp, which had an overnite failure much like yours. the cj, too, was fixed with the replacement of 2 internal fuses.

happy listening, friend.

-kelly
David
Now that your problem is fixed let's get to the important issue where did you find those Ludes?
Yeah Kelly,I always knew there was something else lurking behind that clean lawyer image! :~)
FINAL UPDATE- I heard back from Mark.He said the problem was a too low amp fuse in the 99.He said until last year they were putting in too low amp fuses of 1/2amp or 3/4amp...he said to use a 1 1/2 or 1 3/4 amp fuse.I will get one asap.Again,thank you all for all the help and support in my time of emergency! :)As this topic drifted off a bit into the discussion of ludes and lewds please continue this most important topic(s)!!