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January 9, 2007 - 7:55pm
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Help needed by audio newbie
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To start, check the fuses in the receiver to see if any of them blew. There should a reference to them in the manual. There also may be a troubleshooting section in the manual. This is worth checking.
You may have damaged the amp by creating a short between the postive and negative posts of the left speaker output, but let's not think bad thoughts just yet.
I don't know why I didn't think about the fuses. Technology sure has changed a lot since my days of working at Radio Shack. I will check that out.
Something else with those speakers, there is a terminal to connect two separate cables in the back (two positive and two negative). I think Polk calls it bi-wiring. I've never seen that before so I don't know if it could be related to the problem or not.
Thanks again for the advice, I'll let you know what happens. I'm trying not to think bad thoughts either!
I think you are on the right track with the fuse idea. When you replace the probable blown fuse and reconnect the speakers, in most cases, bi-wire capable speakers have a black and red connection on the bottom and a black and red connection on the top. It's almost always recommended to connect the cables from your receiver to the bottom pair of terminals. There should be some kind of metal (usually gold, shiny and flat) jumper that connects the bottom terminals to the top terminals on the speaker. This should be left on the speaker to feed the top terminals...making a single pair of cables work fine.
Perhaps you connected the cables to the speaker using both red or both black connections or one of the wires slid over to the other terminal and created the short? Let us know how it goes.
I just looked in the manual and it said that the AC fuse is not serviceable by the user, so it looks like I'm on my own as far as locating the fuse.
Yes, the speakers have a black and red connection on the bottom and on the top and there is a flat gold piece of metal that connects the bottom to the top. Out of curiosity, what does bi-wiring do?
Thanks again for the advice!
Bi-wiring is supposed to give a smidgen of better sound by allowing the use of either separate amplifiers for each driver or better sonics by allowing for separate cable runs, optimized for each driver's frequency range.
There have been many fierce debates on the subject in the cable forum.
Btw, the receiver probably has internal fuses for each channel located on the circuit board inside the reciever. It's really no big deal on most receivers to pop off the cover...unplug first...duh...and take a look. The warranty, if it has one will immediately be voided so consider that first. In any event, it shouldn't be a costly evaluation by a technician should you go that route.
I have no problem with taking the cover off and taking a look at the fuses. The receiver is out of waranty, so there's no worries there either. I didn't know how sensitive they are, don't want to touch something I'm not supposed to and make things worse.
I will take a look at the cable forum to read up on bi-wiring, thank you.
I just popped the cover off, and I did see one fuse that looks like it's blown, but it's in a the back corner at the bottom, underneath a couple of other wires and connectors. I'm afraid I would end up breaking something else trying to get to this, so I'm just going to take it to a repair shop.
I'm a little bit confused now...the repair shop called today (finally) and said that the technicians looked at my receiver and didn't find anything wrong with it. No mention on why I can get any sound out of the left channel. I guess do I maybe need to go through the initial set up for all the speakers again? Not quite sure what to make of it.
Onkyo TX-SR 602 receiver works well with any type of amplifier system.
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