Marantz PM 7000 keeps cutting out


hello all,
need a little advice here. I have Marantz PM 7000 bi-wired to a pair of Linn Katans. I have a cd player and tuner. This set up has been working fine for 1yr until recently. Everything works fine until I turn the Marantz up above 3 on the volume control at which point the Amp clicks, all power continues, however no sound for 5-10 secs. then clicks back on again. It continues to do this frequently. If i hook up headphones, it works fine at any volume level. Any thoughts would be great.

thanks in advance,
gillach
It sounds like the protection of the amp is cutting in. That means it feels it has to deliver to much power (shortcut) or it gets to hot. I'm not sure, I seem to remember that the Katan's can be a pretty difficult load, and from my own (although limited) experience with Marantz amps, they're not really build to deliver a lot of juice into difficult (low impedance) speakers. So it seems to me that you either should change your amp or your speakers. An alternative is not to turn everything up above three, for which your neighbours will thank you.....
Are the speaker wires at either the speaker or amplifier posts accidentally touching? I had a situation where a friend had stripped away too much speaker cable insulation and when the volume went past a certain point, the +/- cables would vibrate, touch, and then the sound would start clicking/cut out ... as the amp's protection circuitry would kick-in. Worth a peek.

Regards, Rich
ok, figured it out, thanks to you guys, indeed it was an issue w/the speaker wires. They were not touching in the back of the amp, however, i did use staples-probably not a good idea- to attach the speaker wires to the baseboard. I found 2 staples that had pierced the insulation. Must have been grounding the wires out. Anyway back to normal now...thanks again.