Why does this amp suddenly cut out?

[AxelJP]

I've had this same setup for about 15 years now. It's a Marantz amp with Sonus Faber speakers and an REL subwoofer. Nothing in this setup has changed for many years. Recently I remodeled our living room, moving stuff around, replacing some furniture. In the course of this I also moved the stereo setup. Had to disconnect everything and reconnect once everything was in its new place. *But no new components*, and the restored connections were identical, except that I swapped the speakers for the opposite left/right positions. After the change, for the first couple of days, everything worked just fine, including at very loud volumes. But yesterday, out of the blue, the amp has started cutting out at higher volumes. I cannot discern any reason for this. Not being techie myself at all, I'm at a loss. Could this simply be failure due to age? How do I troubleshoot this?

 

[ryanosaur]

What’s the amp model?

Age could be a distinct possibility. 15 yrs seems like a good haul.

 

[lovinthehd]

Since the biggest change was your reinstallation of cabling....check that first. Make sure no stray strands etc. Maybe even disconnect all and reconnect one at a time to see if any one is triggering it. Maybe in the newly decorated room you demonstrated a bit louder than usual after getting it going? Could of course be age, but check the usual/obvious stuff first....

 

[AxelJP]

OK, I will check the cabling first. I also suspected that. This will have to wait a day, will report back here then. Thanks. Oh, I'll update the exact model here as well if the cable check doesn't fix this.

Thank you, guys!

 

[HTfreak2004]

I've had this same setup for about 15 years now. It's a Marantz amp with Sonus Faber speakers and an REL subwoofer. Nothing in this setup has changed for many years. Recently I remodeled our living room, moving stuff around, replacing some furniture. In the course of this I also moved the stereo setup. Had to disconnect everything and reconnect once everything was in its new place. *But no new components*, and the restored connections were identical, except that I swapped the speakers for the opposite left/right positions. After the change, for the first couple of days, everything worked just fine, including at very loud volumes. But yesterday, out of the blue, the amp has started cutting out at higher volumes. I cannot discern any reason for this. Not being techie myself at all, I'm at a loss. Could this simply be failure due to age? How do I troubleshoot this?

Check all your speaker wire connections at speaker end and amp end.

Check power wires are connected firmly.

If that does not solve your issue you may be pushing your amp into clipping causing excess heat tripping thermal protection circuit.

You rearranged your gear perhaps your amp isn’t getting sufficient ventilation.

 

[AxelJP]

I think the ventilation is about the same and also, it cuts out immediately, even when it's been switched off overnight. As soon as I power it up and turn up the volume, it blinks out. Yeah, I will check all the connections. Thanks.

 

[lovinthehd]

Another consideration would be a soft reset (unplug it for a while) or a full microprocessor/factory reset per your manual (but you'll lose settings on the full reset)

 

[AxelJP]

It was indeed the cabling. Pushing around the amp twisted a pair at the back of the amp, bringing + and - in contact. Thanks again, guys!!

 

[lovinthehd]

It was indeed the cabling. Pushing around the amp twisted a pair at the back of the amp, bringing + and - in contact. Thanks again, guys!!

Congrats, but out of curiosity, just what was touching? It is nice to leave enough slack to account for some moving around for cleaning, making changes, etc. in any case....

 

[HTfreak2004]

It was indeed the cabling. Pushing around the amp twisted a pair at the back of the amp, bringing + and - in contact. Thanks again, guys!!

This is the main reason it is beneficial to use wire terminations instead of bare wire at the amp binding posts or speaker binding post.

Your lucky this time! If you blow a fuse for a channel it can be difficult to replace it. If you have a spare time at some point consider installing proper terminations on your speaker wire it will be piece of mind

 

[highfigh]

What’s the amp model?

Age could be a distinct possibility. 15 yrs seems like a good haul.

15 years is not old, for an amplifier.

 

[Pogre]

Stray speaker wire... you're describing EXACTLY what happened to me when one of our puppies got behind the couch and chewed a speaker wire. Stray strands at the binding posts can do it too. Double check all your connections and wire.

 

[ryanosaur]

15 years is not old, for an amplifier.

Not with an amplifier, but I have had... let’s call it “maturing electronics” take exception to being moved.
Regardless, op found the fault!!! Hopefully no damage done.

 

[AxelJP]

This is the main reason it is beneficial to use wire terminations instead of bare wire at the amp binding posts or speaker binding post.

Your lucky this time! If you blow a fuse for a channel it can be difficult to replace it. If you have a spare time at some point consider installing proper terminations on your speaker wire it will be piece of mind

Yep, will definitely do. Thank you.

And thanks again to all of you for helping me with this!

 

[highfigh]

Not with an amplifier, but I have had... let’s call it “maturing electronics” take exception to being moved.
Regardless, op found the fault!!! Hopefully no damage done.

I have a little guitar amp that's about 82 years old and after replacing the caps, it works fine even though someone had shot BBs at it (I saw small holes on the front and found some inside). Oddly, none of them hit the tubes.

 

[mtrycrafts]

It was indeed the cabling. Pushing around the amp twisted a pair at the back of the amp, bringing + and - in contact. Thanks again, guys!!

Yep, a sign of this is a quick, short order shutdown.

 

[Hamid Khan]

Many factors were definitely in play here, as many said, aging components, damaged cables or loose connections, luckily it was attended too almost immediately and rectified, because it could have been worse. It could have blown a fuse, even damage one of your channels. I like to add one factor, especially when you stated, you have moved your system to another location. An under powered outlet could also contribute to that, however, having said that, you would have experience dimming of light during high volume play back or even clipping of the amplifier. Typically, most electrical receptacles in rooms are on 15 amp or 20 amp circuits, which would be enough for most devices. But it is something to also pay attention too in diagnosing a situation like this in the future.