[gamerfry]

Hey everyone,
 
I've had a schiit lyr for 3 years now and I love it, but a couple of weeks ago I started getting a LOUD static in the right channel. Switching the tubes doesn't switch the static so it isn't the tubes. I've switched out my headphone cables and that doesn't fix it. I've moved the amp into an isolated area with no inputs plugged in and that also doesn't fix it. At this point the only things I can think of are the pots or a bad cap. Unfortunately, I don't know how to determine if it's a cap or the pot, and if it's a cap I don't know how to determine which cap it is. Do any of you know how to locate the bad component and how I would go about fixing it? I have a really solid multimeter and soldering iron if either of those are needed. Thanks!

 

[bilboda]

Try different headphones, to rule them out. Clean your contacts, tube pins, sockets and volume, rca's, headphone sockets.. You may get by on the volume by turning end to end repeatedly but a tunerlube from deoxit may be called for. 3 yrs is not a long time for caps, but you can look at them for bulges/leakage. I had left channel static with one tube on my Ember. Cleaned the pins and sockets and the static has not returned.

 

[gamerfry]

  Try different headphones, to rule them out. Clean your contacts, tube pins, sockets and volume, rca's, headphone sockets.. You may get by on the volume by turning end to end repeatedly but a tunerlube from deoxit may be called for. 3 yrs is not a long time for caps, but you can look at them for bulges/leakage. I had left channel static with one tube on my Ember. Cleaned the pins and sockets and the static has not returned.

I did try different headphones. I'll try cleaning everything like you said. Although, could it be the tube pins or volume considering that it continues to happen even without rca's being connected and that it doesn't switch channels when the tubes are switched?

 

[gamerfry]

I'd also like to note that the static occurs at a constant volume regardless of the volume on the amp, including turned all the way off.

 

[bilboda]

  I'd also like to note that the static occurs at a constant volume regardless of the volume on the amp, including turned all the way off.

That's how it was for an old Accuphase I had. I would rotate the knob all the way to the left and right until the static disappeared. It would come back though, so a cleaning was needed.
 
It may not be the pins, it may be the socket. Maybe a bug crawled in your headphone socket too. When I break out my contact cleaners I usually clean everything. I am inclined to think it might be a cap, I'm just surprised it would happen after 3 years. . Maybe they are nos, caps do degrade just sitting on the shelf.  Check the circuit board too, something may need to be corrected..

 

[gamerfry]

  That's how it was for an old Accuphase I had. I would rotate the knob all the way to the left and right until the static disappeared. It would come back though, so a cleaning was needed.
 
It may not be the pins, it may be the socket. Maybe a bug crawled in your headphone socket too. When I break out my contact cleaners I usually clean everything. I am inclined to think it might be a cap, I'm just surprised it would happen after 3 years. . Maybe they are nos, caps do degrade just sitting on the shelf.  Check the circuit board too, something may need to be corrected..

So I sprayed the whole thing down with canned air and that didn't fix anything. I went out and bought some deoxit and once again sprayed the whole thing down and I'm now waiting for it to dry. Because the volume doesn't effect the static, I would imagine the problem has to be after the main power supply in the circuit so I'm pretty sure it isn't any of the big caps I can't really inspect that well. The small ones around the pots all seem to be fine. The headphone socket has copper contacts on it that seem to have some black corrosion on them so that might be it but it seems pretty evenly distributed across all three. I think it most likely is one of the pots so I made sure to focus on them. Hopefully this fixes it.

 

[gamerfry]

Update 2:after application of deoxit, the static is changed. Instead of a Sharp loud static it is now a quieter fuzzy sound so I guess it did something

 

[bilboda]

That's progress... a little more should do it.. When my volume pot was dirty. the static volume never changed. I guess you could say the volume was static....drumroll please...

 

[gamerfry]

That's progress... a little more should do it.. When my volume pot was dirty. the static volume never changed. I guess you could say the volume was static....drumroll please...

I'm an idiot, every time u said pot, I meant tube socket. My apologies. 3 rounds of deoxit applied to the socket pins and the joints still hasn't fixed it. Also of note is that wiggling the tube does not effect the static. I'm really at a loss here.

 

[bilboda]

I'm an idiot, every time u said pot, I meant tube socket. My apologies. 3 rounds of deoxit applied to the socket pins and the joints still hasn't fixed it. Also of note is that wiggling the tube does not effect the static. I'm really at a loss here.

Clean the headphone and rca connectors some more, you made progress. Be sure to scrub with a qtip or similiar. Apply deoxit to the qtip and scrub away. Come back after a bit with clean tips snd scrub some more

 

[gamerfry]

Clean the headphone and rca connectors some more, you made progress. Be sure to scrub with a qtip or similiar. Apply deoxit to the qtip and scrub away. Come back after a bit with clean tips snd scrub some more

Scrubbed the hell out of it. No luck.

 

[bilboda]

Contact Schitt. You may still be under warranty. They know their amp better and may be able to give more precise advice.