User's Manual
16
APPENDIX
The Sun
fi
re Ampli
fi
er is expertly
designed and built to provide years of
trouble-free per for mance. Most prob-
lems that occur can usually be solved
by checking your setup or making
sure that the audio and video com-
ponents connected to your pro ces sor
are on and fully op er a tion al.
The following information will help
you deal with com mon setup problems
you may experience during normal
use of your unit. If the problems still
persist, please contact your Sun
fi
re
Dealer for assistance.
No sound from one or
more speakers
• Speaker cables may have come
undone. Turn off your system and
check the cables, and tighten the
ampli
fi
er and speaker binding
posts.
• Broken audio cable.
• The preampli
fi
er volume level is
low for the chan nels concerned.
Recheck the pream pli
fi
er calibra-
tion procedure.
• A preampli
fi
er Mute switch may be
on, or an external processor loop
or a tape monitor loop is engaged.
• Check that your preampli
fi
er or
source is running the correct sur-
round sound mode. Maybe it is set
for stereo when you were expect-
ing 5.1 surround sound.
• Check in case any missing chan-
nels have been turned off in a
preampli
fi
er setup menu. For
example, the center ampli
fi
er
channel will not receive a signal
if the preampli
fi
er has been set to
"Phantom."
• The Auto/on/off switch might be in
the off position.
• One of the fuses for the current
source outputs may have blown.
The ampli
fi
er shuts down
often or the line fuse blows
often
• Check that the positive and nega-
tive speaker wires are not shorted
together.
• Make sure that no speakers are
shorted internally. If you have an
ohm-meter, disconnect the speaker
wires and mea sure the re sis tance
be tween the speaker’s positive
and negative terminals. If the read-
ing is less than 2 ohms, the speak-
ers may have an internal short.
Measure all speak ers and check
their impedance spec i
fi
ca tions.
• If you have connected speakers
in Par al lel, the overall impedance
may be too low. It is recommended
that you rearrange the speakers
in Series to increase the overall
im ped ance, thus taking some of
the load off the ampli
fi
er.
• Make sure that the ampli
fi
er
has good ventilation and is not
overheating. If the ampli
fi
er is in
a closed rack, open up the rear
panel or use a quiet fan for im-
proved ventilation.
A hum is heard in your
speak ers
This problem is more than likely
caused by a “ground loop” in your sys-
tem, rather than a fault in the ampli
fi
er.
Follow these steps to isolate the main
cause of the hum; there may even be
more than one.
• If your preampli
fi
er has XLR bal-
anced outputs, use them because
they offer greater immunity to
noise
fi
elds.
• Remember to unplug all compo-
nents in your system, including
the ampli
fi
er, before disconnecting
or con nect ing any cables during
troubleshooting.
Troubleshooting Guide
• Try to have all of your equip ment
on the same electrical outlet or
circuit. Group all the low power
components (preamp, CD player,
DVD etc.) on a single outlet or
power strip. This is provided that
the overall current draw from your
equipment does not exceed the
rating of the outlet or breaker.
• Disconnect all cables which come
from outside the room, and check
if the hum goes away. This in-
cludes such connections as cable
TV, satellite TV, or roof top an-
tennas. Make sure that they are
dis con nect ed where they
fi
rst enter
the room, so they are making no
con nec tion to the preampli
fi
er or
the TV, or any other component. If
the hum is caused by the cable TV
line, then you will need a “ground
loop iso la tor.” This is an inexpen-
sive device
fi
tted in line with the
coaxial cable feed. Con tact your
ca ble com pa ny or your Sun
fi
re
Dealer for as sis tance.
• Disconnect all connections from
the preampli
fi
er to your TV, VCR or
DVD.
• As a test, disconnect any other
com po nent which has a ground ed
pow er cord.
NOTE: Never remove the
ground pin from any power
cords. This is very dan-
ger ous.
• If the hum persists, disconnect all
the source com po nents one at a
time from the back of the preampli-
fi
er, until you identify the prob lem.
• Ground loop isolators are available
for audio lines and video. You can
ask your Sun
fi
re Dealer for assis-
tance.
• Try moving the speaker cables
away from any power cords. Try
just one speaker, connecting it to
each ampli
fi
er channel and see if
one channel is bad.
