Page 1 of Help! Amp turns itself off mid-film!

I have a 5.1 set up using a Panasonic RV40 DVD player & a Denon AVR 1602 amp. On some discs the amp just puts itself into standby! It tends to happen at intensive parts of the film (i.e. the opening sequence in LOTR II where gandalf is fighting the balrog - it happened 4 times on that scene).
Are there any home cinema technical experts out there who know what the problem might be?

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like it`s overloading and switching off to protect itself. Exactly why it`s doing that is anybody`s guess without a little more information. Is the connection between the player and the amp using digital out, or has the player got 5.1 outputs? Are you sure your speakers are properly matched to the amp? (If they weren`t part of a package).

J Mark Oates

Yeah, that`s what I thought.
The connection between dvd & amp is using a coaxial (qed qunex sr75). I`m pretty sure the speakers (mission fs2av) are a good match for the amp - I did some research before I bought them & was told they went together well.

If it makes any difference, I`ve had this set up for 2 years & I`ve only noticed this problem in the last 3 months or so.

Ta

Can`t argue with that :)

If it`s only manifesting itself in the last three months, then it`s more likely something working up to a failure. If you keep an eye on it and when it fails check over the top of the box to see if it has been getting unusually warm. It`ll probably be one of the big power transistors overheating that`s tripping the protection.

Obviously it`ll be out of warranty,so the next step is to either find out about repair vs replacement costs.

If it`s any consolation, I bought two Wharfedale front speakers for my outfit that were supposed to match my Sony amp, but they were too big and too low impedance so I couldn`t run them properly. Then I found they`d screwed up the tv tube because they weren`t screened. I had to get a replacement telly (on extended warranty - phew!) and a set of much smaller screened front speakers. Happily, the new kit all works a heck of a lot better than the old stuff. :/

J Mark Oates

Make sure there are no loose strands of speaker cable that could short on the amp.

All the best,

The 42%er.


Your optimistic eyes seem like paradise to someone like me.

Yes, I`d go with tracing the speaker cables and also disconnect one speaker in turn to see if there is a mechanical short inside. If it is bass intensive parts of the soundtrack that cause this I`d focus on the sub woofer or bass drivers if you have them.

If this doesn`t help it could be a growing failure in the Denon`s power supply.Is it smelly round the back, which could indicate a capacitor has leaked and needs replacing.

HTH.

Thing is, it only happens on DVD`s. I play the CD player through the amp a lot & the telly through the amp quite a bit and have never had a problem with them.
Would you still say it`s most likely the speakers? Also the speakers don`t plug into the amp. The speakers plug into the sub using normal speaker cable & then there`s an "umbilical cord" (their words, not mine) to connect the amp to the sub.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 13th April 2004, 09:55