Infinity Beta 50's

[Seth=L]

I would seriously consider swapping out the cables, cables can be defective and not even appear to be.

You don't need to spend a lot on cables. Go to Lowes, Menards, or Home Depot to get some 12 gauge cabling. It is inexpensive and no different from the most expensive snake oil.

 

[eng201]

Each hour this gets more frustrating, ugh! I am quite thankful for all of your input.

I want to give both the Rotel and Infinity's a fair shake. A bunch of replys to this post suggested that I check the cables/wires. I have done this, but I am far from a pro at this, so would someone please let me know what it is I should be looking for. I have the CD player hooked up with Monster M-Series RCA connectors, and the speakers with Monster (I think XPHP.) The speaker is connected raw, without connectors into both the rotel and the beta's.

the room this is in is about 15'x15', the sound is nice and never distorts. This morning I played a CD at approx. 11:00 volume and around the 4th song it started to have problems. Right now I am playing at 9:00 (lower) to see if heat or clipping become an issue at a longer time/lower volume.

 

[philh]

I have the beta 50's and they require very little volume out of my 100w system, leading me to believe they are efficient.

There's something wrong somewhere. Can you borrow a "smaller" set of speakers to try? Just make sure to use the same cable. An ohm meter would go a long ways to helping diagnose the problem.

 

[eng201]

Today I converted my kitchen table into a testing area. I am a bit too tired today to have music real loud, so tomorrow I will test some stuff. Please advise as you all see fit. I do not have an ohm meter, but if i could get one fairly cheap I would do so. Should I? Are they inexpensive?

My old setup was as follows: Infinity Sm 115's/Onkyo M-501 (amp) with an Onkyo P-301 (pre-amp). Right now i am using my Oppo DVD player as a Cd player. I have an NAD C525BEE CD player on order; previous I had a single disc Onkyo Cd player. The Onkyo equipment and the 115's are all about 12 years old.

I set up both the Beta's and the SM 115's and have the Rotel and the Onkyo all wired up and ready to go. What is the best way for me to make some headway? What should I do to find the faulty link? How can I most surely isolate and identify the problem. It seems that neither Rotel nor the dealer is especially concerned with my problem, so I do thank you all for your help.

I played the Rotel earlier today through the Beta's and it started to get real hot by the end of a CD, so I turned it off. The other night I listened to the rotel through my headphones for a few hours without incident. I even played it much louder than I would listen to via headphones (let the headphones just sit on the bed) and there was no heat issue on the rotel. Does this matter?

 

[no. 5]

I do not have an ohm meter, but if i could get one fairly cheap I would do so. Should I? Are they inexpensive?

They can be had for not much money.

 

[Highbar]

The best way to start testing would be to hook the Rotel up to the SM 115's and see if there is any problem. If there is no problem then you know the Rotel is in good condition.

Then hook up the Beta's to the Onkyo combination. If there's no problem then I'd start thinking the wires were at fault.

It's a good sign that there was no problem when you were using the headphones but headphones don't use the same output stage of the amp so it really doesn't prove that there isn't a problem with it.

As for testing the wires, if you get an Ohm meter, twist one end of one of the wires together and hook up the other side to the meter. (I can't remember what to set the meter right now but I know it's on the forum, which will also give advice as the what reading you should get) Then repeat with the other wire. If there is a break in the wire you wont necessarily be able to see it from the outside.

Good luck and have fun.

T

 

[B3Nut]

Actually, in most 2-channel receivers and integrateds the headphone jack gets signal from the power amplifier stage just before the speaker selector switches. I have yet to see a receiver or integrated schematic (talking regular stereo here, not surround/AV) where this is not the case. I would be surprised if the Rotel integrated had a separate headphone amplifier.

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

 

[alexsound]

The best way to start testing would be to hook the Rotel up to the SM 115's and see if there is any problem. If there is no problem then you know the Rotel is in good condition.

Then hook up the Beta's to the Onkyo combination. If there's no problem then I'd start thinking the wires were at fault.

It's a good sign that there was no problem when you were using the headphones but headphones don't use the same output stage of the amp so it really doesn't prove that there isn't a problem with it.

As for testing the wires, if you get an Ohm meter, twist one end of one of the wires together and hook up the other side to the meter. (I can't remember what to set the meter right now but I know it's on the forum, which will also give advice as the what reading you should get) Then repeat with the other wire. If there is a break in the wire you wont necessarily be able to see it from the outside.

Good luck and have fun.

T

Highbars way is your best bet, and I would like to add that the old Infinity SM series were built to play loud with very little power, so, if your ears can handle it, make sure when you do hook the SM's up, toggle the volume control on your Rotel to the same setting you had it at with the Beta's when the amp started to get hot. Being more efficient, the SM's should sound louder, but this way, the amp will be putting out more or less the same amount of power. If the amp overheats with the SM's at the same setting as with the Beta's then at least you know it's not the Beta's presenting some weird load on the amp.