How one little misstep can result in a big stressful frenzy of horror...

[J. PUPSTER]

So I was all relaxed on my couch last night (with chips and soda pop in hand) ready to listen to some glorious Quad on my main system. Mainly an oppo BDP-205 to my old Marantz 8500 (analog.)

Started it up and noticed something sounded really off. To my horror I was only getting sound out of the rear speakers. I knew the music and settings were good on my oppo. But immediately my mind raced to potential reasons such as: "Rats in the attic ate my cables" or "The amp section to my fronts went out" etc.

We just had a big electrical storm a couple nights earlier and I thought maybe a short outage had fried something on my receiver. First thing was restart everything - nope didn't help. Then recheck all the setting on the receiver and make sure they're set correctly, the front receiver display seemed to be saying everything was being output correctly, so that wasn't it. Then I decided to unplug the receiver and see if that would have any effect- nope no help. I even put in a stereo only CD in the oppo and set the receiver to stereo and nope, no sound in anything then. Then I switched over to my AT&T U-verse box and tried that with different sound settings- no go there also. I was starting to think I'd have to buy a new receiver after perhaps another week's worth of research to find something that would suit me (all without my precious surround mind you, but would it be so bad really, 'cause I was planning on upgrading soon anyway.) But the thought of digging all that cabling and reattaching and setting up a new one is not a pleasant one, as it's all in a hole in the wall unit that sucks for rear access (don't ever do that to yourself- please!)

So I was getting ready to sit back down on the couch to rest up for the next assault, when I noticed the little display on my receiver that said "SPKRs B." -well I always used the "Speaker A" setup and have no need for a "Speaker B" setup. So I looked at my remote, and there it was, the little bastard button number 6 (SPKR A-B.) So at some point apparently I'd accidentally hit that number 6 button at the wrong time and thrown my system into the trash heap.

Once that was re-set everything worked as it was suppose to and I resumed my listening enjoyment, albeit with raised blood pressure for awhile. So be careful out there with your remotes and well, don't get old

 

[LuvMyQuad]

That kind of thing has happened to me more than once.

 

[JonUrban]

Like accidentally hitting the SAP button on an old remote, as if there was no SAP, you would just get silence, and be wondering "What the F happened to my sound?"

 

[J. PUPSTER]

You know that's why I like to try and help folks out here on the forum when they have weird issues crop up. Not because I believe I've got some special Peacock Pizzle Prancing knowledge about how to fix it; but just to keep attention on the issue and maybe someone with the real answer will step forward and know what the hell is going on. I know from many more instances like this in my own situations that it can be real stressful. So many threads like that just get buried in all the hub bub of happenings here.

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

Pupster! The exact same thing happened to the sales guy for our company awhile back. His is a Denon receiver, and the guy's kinda vision-impaired, and he'd accidentally pressed one of those tiny buttons on the front panel (with accompanying tiny print), and toggled the front speakers off. Took me awhile to figure it out as well. Afterwards we stuck a sticker on the panel under the switch to make the damn thing a bit more visible.

Some of this new gear can be a bit counter-intuitive when it comes to certain functions, especially for those of us who remember the older stuff. Used to be that speaker switching was handled by a big clunky switch, since the speaker audio was usually passing directly through that switch! Nowadays it's all done by microprocessor-controlled relays, so the switch itself can be tiny, or even remote-controlled.

 

[4-earredwonder]

So I was all relaxed on my couch last night (with chips and soda pop in hand) ready to listen to some glorious Quad on my main system. Mainly an oppo BDP-205 to my old Marantz 8500 (analog.)

Started it up and noticed something sounded really off. To my horror I was only getting sound out of the rear speakers. I knew the music and settings were good on my oppo. But immediately my mind raced to potential reasons such as: "Rats in the attic ate my cables" or "The amp section to my fronts went out" etc.

We just had a big electrical storm a couple nights earlier and I thought maybe a short outage had fried something on my receiver. First thing was restart everything - nope didn't help. Then recheck all the setting on the receiver and make sure they're set correctly, the front receiver display seemed to be saying everything was being output correctly, so that wasn't it. Then I decided to unplug the receiver and see if that would have any effect- nope no help. I even put in a stereo only CD in the oppo and set the receiver to stereo and nope, no sound in anything then. Then I switched over to my AT&T U-verse box and tried that with different sound settings- no go there also. I was starting to think I'd have to buy a new receiver after perhaps another week's worth of research to find something that would suit me (all without my precious surround mind you, but would it be so bad really, 'cause I was planning on upgrading soon anyway.) But the thought of digging all that cabling and reattaching and setting up a new one is not a pleasant one, as it's all in a hole in the wall unit that sucks for rear access (don't ever do that to yourself- please!)

So I was getting ready to sit back down on the couch to rest up for the next assault, when I noticed the little display on my receiver that said "SPKRs B." -well I always used the "Speaker A" setup and have no need for a "Speaker B" setup. So I looked at my remote, and there it was, the little bastard button number 6 (SPKR A-B.) So at some point apparently I'd accidentally hit that number 6 button at the wrong time and thrown my system into the trash heap.

Once that was re-set everything worked as it was suppose to and I resumed my listening enjoyment, albeit with raised blood pressure for awhile. So be careful out there with your remotes and well, don't get old

Really sounds like the plot of a BAD "B" Movie.....Pupster.

But even B movies have happy endings!❤

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I think I posted this once before but since I never pass up the chance to embarrass myself here I go again.

When I got married & moved into our new home I had a QSD-1, Integrex Ambisonic, & Fosgate Tate II, plugged into switchers & into the 4 ch tape input of a Kenwood 9940. The permutations of decoding options was significant. At one point I thought instead of just randomly trying different things on a new record I should systematically test & determine what approach would do best for with certain variety of formats. I mean, maybe SQ really did sound better out the Ambisonic than the Fosgate....

I grabbed my SQ of DSotM & using Money as the benchmark, I poured a glass of Brandy & proceeded. Note taking, back & forth, A/B comparisons, level balance tweaks. As the Brandy was sipped away & the wee hours of the morning approached I was convinced I found the perfect, best of all ways to play that song & probably most other SQ discs. I left well enough alone & would not fiddle anymore until later after breakfast.

Upon re-visiting I checked, double checked & could not believe it. Every button possible was switched to mono! The Kenwood, and the ambisonic decoder and my out board preamp to the Kenwood all mono.

The moral of the story is that a bit of booze is the most significant enhancement you can bring to your set up. As I type this I visualize maybe a designer Scotch called Old Quaddie. The slogan is: Makes even mono sound good.

 

[HomerJAU]

Here’s my version of a similar story:

Around 2004 I quit my job to write software I thought I could sell. Being paranoid about the internet I had two computers in my home office, one for programming on (not connected to the internet) and one for email, web surfing and testing my code.

One day I copied a new version to my test PC and I couldn‘t enter any text. Recompile, test again. Still nothing. Rinse and repeat.... After a couple of hours I realised I was typing on the wrong keyboard! Doh!

 

[4-earredwonder]

BTW, Pupster, with all those horrible lightning strikes you've been experiencing in California, maybe it's time to consider having surge protection installed in your main electrical panel. It's not that costly and will at least ensure peace of mind! Just had it done in my house.

 

[par4ken]

One time I was playing a new SACD, Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms". I was half or three quarters of the way through the disc and was thinking to myself that this is a very strange mix, it seems that something is missing. I was actually decoding the front channels via the QSD-1! The sound was so discrete sounding that I didn't even realize it at first, just that the mix was very odd!

 

[ar surround]

One time I forgot to mute the TV speakers and was getting a really bizarre soundfield from the front. I thought the digital clock in my Oppo had gone haywire as the same setup with the Marantz (not connected to the TV) wasn't yielding the same results. It took me a half hour to realize my silly mistake. (Hey you youngin's! Don't make fun of us old farts!)

 

[jimfisheye]

Story of my life...

Latest installment:
My Apogee Rosetta 800 has stand alone modes and an input selector button to toggle through digital inputs vs host firewire. A button I haven't pressed intentionally for the last 10 years! You know the rest. At least I caught it beforemaking the move to remove the firewire card to try reseating it.

 

[Doug G.]

I like it when I do things like that so, as a result, I am happy all the time.

Doug

 

[barfle]

My Logitech Harmony remote used to have a ton of useless commands for both my TV and my Marantz pre-pro, and since they were on the touch screen, I regularly accidentally put my system in stereo or some sort of setup mode. A few sessions on the PC deleting all that crap helped that, but, alas, I still find ways to make a mess out of a pretty decent setup.

 

[MidiMagic]

Like accidentally hitting the SAP button on an old remote, as if there was no SAP, you would just get silence, and be wondering "What the F happened to my sound?"

That happened to me a few times, but I didn't actually press the SAP button. There was some stupid menu function on the cable remote that took me into SAP if I went into audio setup and the main channel had no audio on it at the time.

I had a few other weird excursions into trouble.

One time a friend of mine called me and said his system had developed a hum in the right channel. We tested things and the hum was there in all sound sources and even with the volume all the way down. We played with it for over 3 hours before I noticed the hum was still there when the system was turned off.

Someone had put a fish tank with a vibrator air pump on a shelf mounted on the other side of the wall.

Last week I was playing a CD I had just bought and wondered why the right main was the only active speaker. I traced it to an intermittent contact on the source selector switch on the preamp.

 

[kap'n krunch]

same thing when you press the "Room 2 (or 3)" on the remote and you HAVE to undo it ONLY on the FRONT of the receiver..nice going, guys!!!

 

[mlrocker]

 

[J. PUPSTER]

View attachment 56028

Hopefully that's not a Nuclear power plant control room; and is that @mlrocker

 

[mlrocker]

Hopefully that's not a Nuclear power plant control room; and is that @mlrocker

yes that's me wondering why after 4 years of study and investment, it's still a struggle to hear what I want to hear

 

[Doug G.]

It's a CD-4 setup.

Doug