Vintage Pete |
02-14-2022 07:44 PM |
MDA1000 problem
My beloved McIntosh MDA1000 took a trip to McIntosh hospital this morning...:tears:
Last night, as I was doing some CD listening, I began to notice that my usual beautiful image and soundstage had shifted rather noticeably to the right. I tried CD after CD, and also observed on my amplifier meters that the left channel output was trailing the right consistently using the peak hold feature on the MC501 meters. All other analog sources (Turntable, tuner, etc) did not exhibit this. I tried the usual reversing cables, trying the unbalanced outputs on the MDA1000 instead of balanced to see if the problem remained (it did). It seems to most affect the vocal region. It is listenable, but definitely something is wrong.
I was on a scheduled day off today, and so this morning my troubleshooting continued. All digital sources run through the MDA1000 displayed the symptom, so we know the MCD1000 CD transport is not at fault. Finally I borrowed my Wyred 4Sound DAC2-DSDse from my office and installed it in the system. The channel balance was normal. As far as I was concerned, it was conclusive that there is an issue within my MDA1000.
I dropped it off this morning at ProAudio Electronics in Tampa, paying a rush fee to get it on the bench fast. Needless to say, I miss the unit badly, and I'm quite curious as to whet the findings will be. I'm obviously not happy about having it out of the house, or the prospect of an unwanted repair bill. I think the tech there is as curious as I am as to what is causing this. That may be a good thing, in terms of how fast they get to it.
Stay tuned....:sigh:
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