Yamaha RN500: Check SP Wires

[Anna Blasiak]

Every now and then My Yamaha RN500 shuts down and displays "Check SP Wires" messages. It happens completely randomly - sometimes it is fine for days, at other times it shuts down within seconds of turning it on. I have checked all the connections, replaced speaker wires with new ones terminated with banana plugs, used a surge protector for all devices (just in case). But it still keeps happening. Mainly when playing the turntable or CD player (in my case an old Playstation 1), but it does also occasionally happen when streaming from the server or through Bluetooth receiver.
I don't know what else to check/what else could be wrong?
The amp is less than a year old and so are the speakers (Q Acoustics Concept 20, bi-wired).
Could it be something to do with the ground on the turntable (Rega Planar 2)? Could it be the speaker wires being wrong gauge for their length (7m and 5m)? Could it be the fact that the wires are not the same length? Apologies for asking questions which probably sound stupid, but it's all new to me...
Any advice would be more than welcome, as am at my wits end...

 

[Seth=L]

Wire length is not relevant at those lengths.

I doubt it's the ground on the turntable, I can't see a reason why that would make sense.

The only issue I see is that the speakers impose a 6 ohm load with a minimum of 4 ohms and you have them bi-wired. I would advise against bi-wiring all together, as it serves no purpose other than complicating your wiring. Simplifying your wiring may in fact fix the problem you are experiencing.

http://www.audioholics.com/frequent-questions/the-difference-between-biamping-vs-biwiring

 

[Anna Blasiak]

Thank you very much, Seth=L, it helps a lot.
I will change the wiring and see if it makes a difference. However I have to add that I had the same problem before the recent change of speaker wire and previously the speakers were not bi-wired...

 

[Seth=L]

Thank you very much, Seth=L, it helps a lot.
I will change the wiring and see if it makes a difference. However I have to add that I had the same problem before the recent change of speaker wire and previously the speakers were not bi-wired...

That's odd. If you're certain it's not the cabling maybe you have an issue with unstable power. Other than that the receiver could be faulty.

 

[Latent]

The amp constantly measures the resistance across the load and if at any point the resistance drops below a set point it activates that error to protect itself. But the Amp may have a fault where the set point has dropped too low. Or there could be a problem with your speakers exposing <4 ohm at certain frequencies because of a design fault or something faulty in the crossover. It would likely be only one of the speakers causing the fault so you may want to try and reproduce it with an alternative higher ohm speaker in place of each of the speakers to find out if only one is causing it and the other doesn't. This may help narrow down if it is the amp or speakers causing the issue.