Sfield,

I tried 2 units (both were new) and both of them had intermittent problems. Intermittent problems can be very difficult to diagnose & repair, I guess I’m glad I found these problems before the 30 day trial period was up. I returned both units and decided not to try a third.

sfield:

“static problem” Do you mean like this one? http://ubb.outlawaudio.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000308.html

Spiker-

No, it's not an overheating problem. It's got lot's of ventilation. I've spent a fair amount of time talking to Steve at Outlaw, trying to track down the root of the problem, and for now it seems to be fixed, though what fixed it (switching to the 6-channel input) seems preety random to me. But we'll see. If it comes back, I know Outlaw will take care of me. If it doesn't, I quess we'll just chalk it up as one of life's mysteries.

-Steve

Well, the problem came back. To make a long story short, spent more time with tech support, and they sent me another 950.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Steve

sfield,

can you describe your "static" problem a little more? I'm having what I think is a similar problem, most noticable when I'm watching something w/ vocals. When someone raises their voice and shouts there's a "static" sounding crackle at the high part of their voice.

I was thinking I was just being too sensitive and the static crackle was just in the source materials (microphones or something), but you and the other post (which sounds EXACTLY like my problem) have me thinking.

I know it's not my speakers, because I had the same problem w/ my last set of speakers (paradigm studio series) and my new set (VMPS RM-40s).

I do however have my ICBM sitting on top of my 950 and my Denon DVD player (which gets pretty hot) on the shelf underneath.

[This message has been edited by jgubman (edited February 27, 2004).]

The static can be heard even from hi-end product like Red Rose Music’s $7k amp paired with their $8k speaker. It came from improperly located IC cables coming out of CD player. Besides the wire being inadequately shielded, it was running parallel with the power cord. In about half hour into auditioning, the static sound started. The store manager said the power cord and IC cables should run perpendicular to each other. Better yet, keep them as far away from each other as possible (remember soundhoud’s advice?). I’m not sure why they didn’t set it up that way to begin with but that’s in a separate thread (Favorite Demo).

See if this is helps with yours.

Yeah, I'll take a look, I definately don't have my power cables as isolated from my ICs as I'd like them to be. Unfortunately, all my equipment is in a Salamander S40 rack and the cables make the typical "rats nest" in the back. I've tried to isolate the power cords from the analog ICs from the video ICs from the digital ICs, but it's just about impossible...

Also, the "static" or "crackle" I hear on high pitched vocals isn't a constant. It comes and goes, but is almost always repeatable.

I do keep the preamp -> amp IC cables (~20 foot run) isolated by running them through foam pipe insulation.

I'm thinking about putting all the power cords in some kind of plastic tubing to further distance them from the other ICs.

Dunno, I took the ICBM off the 950 last night and moved it to a different shelf. I also moved the DVD player to the bottom of the rack and put a tivo (always runs cold to the touch) on the shelf directly under the 950. I only listened to a minute after that, but *thought* I noticed a big improvement. Of course it was probably just psychological, since I'd spent 30 minutes rearranging things...

jgubman: I'm having the exact same static problem, but I don't have a 950. I use Outlaw 200s for amps, and a Denon 4800 for a preamp. I have switched out just about every component in my system and the static will not go away. I've tried different amps, cables, speakers, DVD players (and LD players). The "best" demonstration of this is to play the chapter in T2 when John runs into the employee corridor of the mall, and the janitor yells at him: "Hey! You're not allowed in here". The "Hey!" is badly distorted.

I really haven't experienced this static with my set-up, but from an audio engineering point of view your descriptions sound like something is overloading the system at some point. Since the above post pointed out the issue in a system without a 950, it's possible the distortion exists on the software side of the equation, i.e. your cds and/or your dvds. It's also possible to assume that since these system are possible upgrades to your previous sound systems, you're now hearing these instances of distortion for the first time. This is just my opinion upon reading the above posts. If your problem is traceable to a hardware solution, then please ignore.

One more thing, I think a lot of these occurences of distortion on CDs and DVDs are completely related to the trend of having the highest possible level on their release. If this continues, I think there will be more times where people experience these problems. Again, just my 2 cents on the state of the music and film industry.

bjs10,

yep great example. I just threw T2 in and found that chapter (what an annoying menu that disc has. If anyone else cares, it's at chapter 19, ~31 minutes into the film on the special edition).

That's EXACTLY the type of distortion, static, whatever that drives me crazy... I guess I can just tell that inner voice that always questions if it's on the source material or something in my setup to just shut up now. It's really disturbing how many DVDs exhibit this distortion. I do notice it on CDs from time-to-time, but I notice it all the time w/ DVDs. Drives me nuts, especially since there are things like THX certification which is supposed to be a "watchdog" and a "standard" for dvd audio/video????

Anyways, I guess I feel a little better knowing not to keep swapping out cables, rearranging my system, buying power conditioners. If the distortion is in the disc, there's nothing I can do about it (sadly)...


And Jason, yes you're correct. With my old paradigm (and even older polk before that) speakers, I just heard a hint of the distortion, not enough to ever really bother me. It's when I switched to the ultra-resolving VMPS planar ribbon speakers that the distortion really started to jar my nerves.