Intractable Problem


I am having a problem and hoping that I might get some useful advice here. Thank you in advance to anyone that might offer helpful suggestions.
My two channel system is not playing equally out of both channels. Specifically, one channel plays probably at 5% the volume of the other.
My preamp is an Ayre K-5xe. My power amp is Parasound 2250. Speakers are
B&W 803-D. Interconnects are Nordost Blue Heaven. There are two digital sources--Oppo 105 and a Denon "Anniversary Edition" SACD/CD Player. TT is Clearaudio Concept from a Music First Phone Preamp.
The problem occurs with all of the sources. I took both the Ayre and the Parasound to their respective dealers and they checked out fine. Changing the interconnects doesn't help.
I put in an old Pioneer Elite receiver and left the speaker wire arrangement (it was tacked into walls by an installer and has worked fine for a year) unchanged. The receiver plays equally out of both channels and all the sources work well with it. This would seem to eliminate the speaker wire/connections as being at fault.
The Parasound dealer loaned me another amp. It immediately blew two fuses when I put it in the system with the Ayre. I think this may be due to the fact that I was using bare wire at the amp connection, and with all the switching in an out of different pieces of gear, I had let some loose ends of wire be exposed. After this happened I bought some Tributary plugs and have carefully trimmed the wire down. When the Parasound was returned it didn't short, at least, but I'm still only getting 1 channel out of the system.
I am pretty frustrated--it's been 3 straight weekends of messing with this, trips to different dealers, etc....and I'm starting to see the wisdom of Integrated Amps or receivers vs. separates. I'm thinking of trading in the pre and power amps and using the $ for an Integrated and be done with it.
Any suggestions appreciated.
richardfinegold

Showing 1 response by almarg

Lots of good thoughts by the others above. Like several of them, I too am not clear on a number of things, especially whether you have performed the usual troubleshooting procedure for problems that affect a single channel. Namely interchanging connections between the two channels at various points in the signal path (with power off while the connections are being changed, of course), to isolate where in the signal path the problem is arising. Also, as Newbee asked, when you said:
When the Parasound was returned it didn't short, at least, but I'm still only getting 1 channel out of the system.
Which amp were you referring to, the loaner or your own?

Another question: When the dealer checked out the Ayre preamp, do you have confidence that they checked the RCA outputs (which I presume you are using), or might they have just tested the XLR outputs?

Also, if by any chance, and for whatever reason, you are using the Ayre's XLR outputs in conjunction with XLR-to-RCA adapters let us know, as the output stage of the preamp might be unhappy with the fact that most adapters short the inverted signal on pin 3 to ground (pin 1). If you are using such an adapter it would quite possibly explain why the preamp works for the dealer but not for you.

Another thought to keep in mind, in addition to those that have been suggested: Perhaps one channel of the Ayre is not functioning at all, due to a failure at some point in its internal signal path, and the 5% signal you are hearing in that channel is crosstalk (leakage) into that channel from the other channel, occurring either in the power amp or at some point in the Ayre's internal signal path that is downstream of the problem location.

Regards,
-- Al