[Wmcmanus]

Man oh man, I had hoped this day would never come, but maybe someone can help me out! I just got back to Cayman the other day for a brief pit stop (will be leaving here on Thursday morning again), and decided to give the Orpheus a quick listen.

While I was gone, I had unplugged my entire headphone rig from the wall (several sources and amps are run through a power conditioner which is then plugged into the wall). So I plugged that back in and turned on the key to the HEV90. No power! Huh?

Then I realized that I hadn't turned on the individual switches on the Tice Power Block. So I turned the HEV90 key back off, then turned all of the Tice switches on, and powered the HEV90 back up by turning the key to the on position.

The result was kind of shocking: the left output jack is just getting a left signal, while the right output jack is just getting the right signal. It doesn't matter which headphones are connected to each. I've powered down and back up several times, swithing the HE90, Omega II and 4070 from one side to the other. Left jack gives left signal, right jack gives right. It's really as you would expect it to be if the HEV90 was a BALANCED amp, which of course it isn't! I should be able to listen to 2 pairs of headphones (each receiving left and right signals) simultaneously.

I've had the HEV90 for 3-4 years now and have never had a problem with it. I'm wondering if something went haywire due to the fact that I turned the key on and back off without any power going to it. I guess the other thing is that I initially had my Stax converter cable plugged into the left output jack, but without any headphones connected to it. But it seems to me that I've done that before and have never had any trouble with the amp, so I wouldn't think that would be the problem.

This kind of thing kind of scares me: living in Cayman where I'd have to ship it back and forth to Germany to have absolute assurance that it would be fixed by people who know the design intimately. Or alternatively, having someone in the US take a look at it, which I'd be hesitant to do because it's a pretty complicated design and everything inside is an extremely tight fit.

Any ideas about what may have caused this to happen and what I might be able to do to get it working properly again?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Have you tried swapping tubes from side to side to see if it is a tube problem?

Turning it on and off without power shouldn't hurt anything. Nor should plugging in an adapter.

But play with the tubes - one or more might have gone out or are on the way out.

 

[bozebuttons]

Wayne,
Bummer,
Pull out the fuses by the power cord & check them,Have you tried another source?Also you can put a transport on the HEV90 & use the internal dac.
You may have had a tube go south on you.
Do you have access to a digital multi meter to check the tube bias.
you would need to take the tube cage off ,2 screws on the bottom in the middle gets the cage off.
I could email you instructions on tube biasing.
Purk had his HEV90 checked out by a local tech in atlanta,or you can send it to Senn USA ,Tom Onoforo works on the HEV90/HE90s you can give him a call at Senn USA for some advice ,He works the evening shift after 4:30 pm EST. He replaced the drivers in one of My HE90s in DEC.

 

[spritzer]

I would guess that there are relays acting up as you get sound from both channels but only on different connectors. I do remember a relay on each amp board but I have to check the schematic so see if it is on the output.

Edit: Just checked the schematic and there are indeed relays on the output for the + and - signal for each channel.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Thanks for the replies, guys! Also, thanks to Mitch for his offer of assistance via PM. This is what Head-Fi is all about, and I've gotta tell you, it feels good to know that people care enough to chip in like this.

What is most frustrating about this particular deal is that I'm on the road in the States again, and won't be back to Cayman until early September to try out all of the advice received here. In fact was just in Cayman for a couple of days when I had discovered the problem. I think I started this thread the night before flying out on a 7am flight, and just now had a chance to look back at this thread again.

So the good news is that I got so busy that I kind of forgot about the problem for a while, but the bad news is that I'll be stressing over it for another 6 weeks before I can do anything about it!

I suspect that spritzer has hit the nail on the head on this one (in terms of the relay), and hopefully he (or someone else) will be able to talk me through the diagnosis and fix of the problem when I get back. It could be a tube issue as well, although that seems less likely.

I'll resurrect this thread in September and we can take it from there. Thanks again...