Musical Fidelity A1 Setup Mistake

[mike555]

Gosh darn. I just got a new Musical Fidelity A1 integrated amp, and I did the same thing, in the midst of my excitement over the new acquisition, that I did a few years ago with my newly-acquired vintage Marantz 2270. I connected a CD player to the phono inputs. DUH! DUH! DUH!

No clipping this time, but something else strange happened. When I set the amp to "CD" mode, I could faintly hear the input that was coming through the phono inputs. It sounded like the music was a mile away, but I could make it out barely. I tested the CD inputs and they sound fine, and now I'm waiting for a turntable to be delivered so as to test that function.

Hopefully there's no damage. I've wanted a high-quality audiophile amp like the A1 all my life, and this is my first, aside from the old Marantz! But why would I hear the input from the phono jacks when I had the amp set to CD mode? Does this mean that some boundary was crossed in the amp, and would it be damaged thereby? Maybe I need to go back to Fisher Price!

 

[Josuah]

Probably just crosstalk and not something to worry about. Internally, the traces/wires of the two inputs are near each other, and the electrical signal in one induces an electrical signal in another. That's how antennas work and why using those cheap analog interconnects bundled with a CD/DVD player aren't a good choice.

 

[Davemcc]

You can prevent the cross-talk from disturbing you by making sure that only the source you are using at any given time is on. If all your other sources are off, you can't hear what isn't there.