low/no volume

[Skratch]

I just received my Quickie kit yesterday. When I turned it on there was a clear volume balance issue with the left and right channels, also when I try to raise the volume of my amp clicks off and sends sporadic portions of the signal to the left and right channel. Any suggestions?

I appreciate the help, this is my first tube build.

[Paul Birkeland]

The first thing to check is to be sure that you have the 1.07K and 475K resistors in the correct positions, as they look the same. (How did the voltage checks go?)

As always, you will want to power up your power amp last.

-PB

[Skratch]

Thank you for you reply,

The resistors are in the correct place, one of the resistors was not working properly when I first soldered it in so I had to replace it with a 1k 1/4 watt resistor from radio shack. When I hook up the pre-amp to my Mcintosh amp the clicking off disappears but the left and right volume issue is still present. I shall continue troubleshooting and keep you updated.

-david

[Zimmer64]

You may also want to measure the impedance of the pot,if both channels are the same. I eventually upgraded my pot, which solved the problem I had.

Michael

[Paul Birkeland]

How much rotation of the volume control are you able to use?  If you have a very sensitive, high gain system, it may be that you are only using 5-10 degrees of the pot rotation, and that would account for what would normally be a bit of low volume channel imbalance.

 Otherwise, try swapping the tubes to see if one of them may be weak. (Also try swapping D-cells for that matter).  A weak tube, however, would exhibit voltage issues that would be quite noticeable (high plate voltage, low cathode voltage).

With your McIntosh off, measure the resistance between the chassis of the amplifier and the shell of its input RCA jack.  (This should be very low impedance)