Is My Amp Faulty?

[bubble blu]

Whilst listening to a blu ray movie (Transformers) i noticed a small amount of distortion coming from the centre and front right speakers! I thought my tweeters had gone but then I swapped the cable from the front right speaker to the left and the distortion was there in the front left speaker! I now know that its not my speakers and ive checked the wires and everything seems fine which leaves me to think that its my amp thats faulty(onkyo 606). Could there be somthing else wrong or any thing else i could try Thanks!

[solarrdadd]

Hey blu, did you try any other movie or audio medium played through your Onkyo Receiver and have the same thing happen? Also, in some, but not all cases just turning your receiver on with no source (if it's in fact faulty) might produce an audible sound from that channel. Also, do you keep it well ventilated and are you using it for long periods of time? I have an Onkyo which I love and I have a dedicated 5 channel amp too. Let me tell you after playing a 2hr movie at a nice level that Onkyo is really Hot, Emotiva amp on the other hand is cool to the touch! Also, how long have you had the receiver and did you get it brand new or used? Oh, don't for get to list the type of speakers you have too. these are questions everyone will be asking you so i thought i'd throw them out at you first! we want to help ya baby, so help us--to help you!

[Rob J in WNY]

It's hard to say for sure that your Onkyo is having problems, but you certainly narrowed down that possibility as you did the right type of troubleshooting to get you closer to the source of the problem - checking a suspected bad against a known good.

There are some other small things to try before knowing your receiver is at fault.

Try other Blu-ray discs to see if the problem repeats itself.

You did right to check all interconnects - speaker terminals at the amplifier for a solid, tight connection, and even your HDMI/optical/coaxial cables and any other cables associated with the connection of your system. Yes, I know the ones mentioned use a digital stream, but checking and re-seating them is a good idea.

Also, try Transformers again after your receiver has been turned off overnight and has had a chance to cool down completely. Sometimes, faulty electronics begin to have problems only after their components warm up. In other words, it may work fine when cool, but will have problems after a being on awhile.

I'm not sure if your Panny BD player decodes all the audio codecs, but if you are decoding audio in your player and sending to your receiver as LPCM, try letting the player bitstream the audio to your receiver and let your receiver decode - or vice-versa if you are doing the opposite. In other words, perhaps there's a software/processing issue in your Blu-ray player. You can hook up another BD player or even a DVD player (with a multichannel digital audio connection such as HDMI (for an upconverting DVD player), optical or coaxial).

Lastly, although unlikely, consider your speaker wire. With an Onkyo 606, you should be running 16 gauge speaker or heavier. Smaller-diameter wire can cause audible distortion when pushed close to reference volumes.

Bummer about your problem. Perhaps your Onkyo is still under warranty. If so, take advantage of it if nothing else is causing your audio problems. Good luck to you.

[ADstv]

I once had a issue that the LPCM 5.1 track on Ratatouille BD was sending wrong channel info (The left channel was the center and dialog was coming from the left channel) simply switching sources to CBL/SAT fixed that up, which could've been resulted from recently upgrading a hour prior firmware for my Blu-ray player who knows... maybe it's a good idea to unplug the Onkyo for awhile. I unplugged mine (Onkyo 606) for 20mins after that. Try also running Test Tones and play around with some of the Sound Formats and Input Sources eg: Dolby Digital, DTS, Pro Logic II, DVD, GAME/TV and etc and see if it's also happens.

[JJ]

What scenes was it during? Dialogue at the end?

[mtbkr]

does this sound come and go or inconsistent as far as when it happens or does it do it constantly? does it do it on any input?

[ADstv]

Originally Posted by JJxiv1215

What scenes was it during? Dialogue at the end?

It was at the very start for me up to the point where the rats were outside the house when I noticed , turned the player off switched sources turned player back on re tried after 2 times freezing up on the language menu, selected PCM track on the popup menu and it was playing fine. After it I unplugged the whole Home Theater for 20mins haven't had any problems since.

[bubble blu]

Originally Posted by JJxiv1215

What scenes was it during? Dialogue at the end?

The problem is at the beginning with the scene where the soldiers are landing at the base the musical score is where i hear the distortion and a scene near the end when Mikaela tells sam shes really glad she got in the car with him (sounds quite awfal)! And on a whole the dialogue doesnt seem as crystal clear as it used to be!
I have had my amp only 4 months and my speakers are
Mission mv2, mv6, mvc,mvas!

[kingofgrills]

Do you only encounter the problem during that particular scene on that particular disc?

If so, and the problem doesn't present itself in other Blu-ray movies, or any other media, it might be a problem with the actual Transformers disc.

Have you encountered any other distortion on through those speaker channels?