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Volume Imbalance Cayin TA-30 Tube Amp

The right channel of my Cayin TA-30 is producing slightly more volume than the left. You can appreciate the problems this is causing. The image is slightly dragging to the right since the right speaker is slightly louder. There is no balance knob on the cayin to compensate (not that I would want one). Paul at Bizzy Bee has suggested that it is a half baked cathode resistor, whatever that means. I have a local tech who can do the work but I was wondering if anyone has heard of this problem in their cayin amp or in any tube amp???? Will this be an expensive problem to fix????

Any help you guys could offer would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks in advance,

Randy Doyle
Canada
butterscotchmusic

Showing 3 responses by phd

phd
1,280 posts
 
Question, is there an imbalance only at low listening levels or when the volume is increased do both channels become equally as loud?
phd
1,280 posts
 
The reason I asked is, if the imbalance occurs & is mostly noticeble at lower listening levels then 9 out of 10 times it is the volume pot which is not tracking both channels equally. I've owned preamps that did this & the fix was to replace the volume pot. This is not an expensive fix & only another suggestion to look into.

The other possibility is that the tubes are not matched within acceptable tolerences producing unequal gain.
phd
1,280 posts
 
Randy, the problem I was having was at very low listening levels the left channel was off and the right was playing however when the volume was increased slightly, both channels kicked in with equal gain. This problem was consistant & not intermittant which makes me now wonder if your volume pot is the culprit unless the connection of the pot is shorted.
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