[Murilo]

I have all my equipment setup in a cabinet wall unit. I was running new 24guage hdmi cables some to my receiver. After I finished i noticed my front left speaker was not producing sound. This happened once or twice when i previously ran cable if i pull to hard and its tangled the connection will come out usually i noticed the back ends were simply not screwed in tight so i check them every few weeks to make sure their tight, but it always works again when i reconnect, this of course is purely an accident and does not happen very often. Well this time my connections did not seem to come out but i did loose sound.


Then trying to reconnect it, my right side lost sound to.


All other center, sub, backs, surround backs, work fine. I narrowed down the problem to my the connections on the receiver. At first I thought i might have wrecked the cable but then i tried the cable on the center channel and it worked, i also swapped speakers out to make sure it was not the speaker.


The only problem it can be is the connector on the receiver itself. Do i have any options to try to fix this, should i pull it out and make sure the connectors are clean? Im really out of ideas, i have no idea why the connector themselves would stop working, although i dont have much knowledge of audio.


Any advice or tips would be much appreciated.

 

[Murilo]

To make things a little easier i was running test tone, the front R which stopped working when i tried to fix the left, works fine as i tried hooking the speaker wire from the right speaker into the center channel. It worked fine produced the test tone noise, when I try to plug it into the right channel their is no sound.


So its definitely the connector. My receiver is a yamaha rx-V661.

 

[RoboRay]

You probably broke the connections between the speaker terminals and the circuit boards inside by pulling on the wires. Unless you are very handy with a soldering iron, you'll need to get it serviced.


If they want some ridiculous amount of money to repair it for you, it may be more economical to just buy a separate external power amp for the front speakers and connect it to the pre-amp output jacks on the receiver. Consider it a good excuse to upgrade for more power.

 

[croseiv]

Lesson #1. Don't yank your wires. LOL!!

 

[Murilo]

I knew someone would have to post that.


It was really minuscule how little i pulled it, the odd part is the right was working but then when i simply went to check the left it stopped to, so their is no way i yanked on the right. I would have just nudged it when i checked the connections to the left speaker either way i cant get either one working when plugged into the left and right, but they work when i plug them into other speaker terminals.


Looks like the cheapest method is an amp, i know next to nothing about amps, i dont really need more power, is their a cost effective amp available?


Also will an amp cause trouble when it comes to surround sound processing i use prologic 2x will the amp interfere with this?

 

[Murilo]

Im really lost on the whole amp thing, i dont really need anymore power as i live with a family, but if its the best solution I would prefer it. I dont know if an amp costs more then a receiver? If anyone can help me out here, i dont even know where to buy amps?

 

[RoboRay]

No, a separate amp won't cause any trouble for your processing. The 661 is designed to use outboard amps (that's what the pre-out jacks are for.) You can use the 661's setup "channel trim" controls to balance them with the internal amps, just like you probably did when you first set up the receiver after buying it.


Depending on your budget, there are lots of good options available...


The least expensive option for a new amp would probably be something like http://www.amazon.com/AudioSource-Am...6549332&sr=1-1 . It would probably be comparable in power to what you're getting from the 661 now (with 5 or 7 speakers connected to it), and would actually help the channels remaining on the receiver by unloading some of the power requirements to another power supply. I haven't used the AudioSource amps, but several people here have spoken well of them.


For a little more money (about $300) the Emotiva UPA-2 would be ideal, but they are out of stock until March (at least).


If you are willing to buy something used, there are lots of stereo power amps on eBay and you can check Craigslist and other local resources, as well. You may find a real bargain. Some examples:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Onkyo-M-282-2-Ch...item1c1044cb27

http://cgi.ebay.com/Adcom-GFA-545-2-...item335a269f8f

http://cgi.ebay.com/Audio-Source-AMP...item483974cdd2

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-CHANNEL-POWER-...item1c10372baa

http://cgi.ebay.com/PARASOUND-HCA-12...item2305702b40

 

[Murilo]

Would this one be ok, im just not to fond of the size, my rack area is already filled up.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....8-price-reduce

 

[RoboRay]

That Onkyo would be a great choice for your situation (it's the same as the first example I linked on eBay). Amps tend to be big, due to the large heat sinks inside. That's why your receiver is so big, too.


However, you may still want to get your receiver checked out before buying an amp. It may be an easy, cheap fix to get the speaker outputs working again. If it's going to cost more than $150 or so, you're probably better off just getting an external amp to use.