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Degrade in sound over 48 hours. What happened?

Retermination of all connections, complete with Kontakt Electrical cleaner on all terminations and RCA plugs. System is vintage/new combination. Yamaha CR220 15 w/ch receiver 1979. NAD C520 CD player 1999. Bang and Olufsen S35 Type 6311 2-way loudspeakers. AQ Viper RCA 1 meter to CD. AQ CV-4, AQ Type 4 (single run of each, 17.5 feet to speakers). 30" Paradigm Premier metal stands. Monster Gold-Pin connectors (twist type) at receiver. Standard B&O speaker (2 pin) plugs. Result on Saturday was open, very wide soundscape with low lows and clear highs--almost a reverb effect in sound. Monday sound is noticably harsher with muddy bass and distorted highs and loss of quality sound imaging. Only have a basic 6-outlet power strip without any filtering, ect., and all components are non-IEC cables. Any ideas on what caused the sudden loss of fidelity? Seems that the receiver needs more volume than before to get the same sound level a few days ago. It's loud now but not as clear.
rodargent
rx8man's avatar
rx8man
1,355 posts
 
Might be fluctuations in the incoming electric service.
Might want to check (clean) the grounding connection for your service.
Weather conditions (humidity) seem to play a part on this,
assuming your equipment didn't develope any problems.
ash2459a276
22 posts
 
I would suggest your system is in the process of re-break-in due to retermination. It will take a week or two.
gs5556
769 posts
 
Substitute, if you can, another IA and cdp without the power strip into your system and see if the problem is duplicated to confirm a power problem. But I don't think it's an A/C issue...

It's very possible it's the receiver (I'm assuming you reterminated with correct polarity). Could be worn out power supply capacitors, especially after 25 years. Other possibilities are damaged cable terminations or a problem with the input/output jacks on the receiver. See if lightly tapping or pulling on the input and output cables near the back connections result in a popping sound. Or try tapping on the volume knob and see if there's static/grunge.
fatparrot
1,314 posts
 
If you do use a volt meter to check you line voltage, remember that the SMALL slot is HOT, and the BIG slot is NEUTRAL (ground). ALWAYS insert your neutral (black) probe first!
tripper
223 posts
 
Use headphones on tuner. Then CD. This will rule out interconnect problems. Twist-on connectors are not 100%, the HP test will bypass the speaker cabling. If both speakers exhibit the same problem, see Gs's answer above. 25 is old in electronic years.
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