It's definitely the preamp. Swapped in the old one and everyone is getting along just fine now. Time to talk to the good folks at Rogue.
What I really love about this "high-end" stuff is remembering the cheap old Yamaha and Infinity system I had that never once stopped making music (and nothing else) for ten years. Over the past three years of "high-end," I've replaced a driver in a speaker myself (with parts from the manufacturer), sent an amp back to the factory to have a bad muting switch replaced, and now the preamp is on the blink (not to mention the countless hours on DIY wires, tube rolling, and just general tomfoolery). Sure, it all sounds a lot better, but it seems to spend an inordinate amount of time not sounding at all, what with all the "maintenance." What more, the stuff seems so damn fragile, half the time I'm almost wary to use it -- say I want to listen to something for 10 minutes before running out: is it worth firing up the tubes for 10 minutes? I hate to turn it on and then just turn it off again? can't leave the thing on because lord only knows what it will do while I'm gone? (Used to be I'd leave the amp on for weeks at a time, now I come back after two hours and it's blown fuses in my absence). Call it a crisis of faith, but I'm questioning my trust in the fickle gods of "high-end." Maybe I do need a priest....
As for dimming the lights from the preamp -- yep, not good. Not good at all. However, at the risk of talking out of school, I have to say that at the time it decided to put on the show I was approximataly 12 hours into what ended up being a 25-hour first date. So, without more fanfare than a simple "humm, that can't be good," I just shut it all down and didn't mess with it again before switching out the preamp alltogether last night. All things considered, I'm sure it's for the best. If I didn't have something else to distract me at the time, I might have attempted to take the fool thing apart and likley would have killed myself in the process. Shoot, this gal might just have saved my life . . . imagine.
What I really love about this "high-end" stuff is remembering the cheap old Yamaha and Infinity system I had that never once stopped making music (and nothing else) for ten years. Over the past three years of "high-end," I've replaced a driver in a speaker myself (with parts from the manufacturer), sent an amp back to the factory to have a bad muting switch replaced, and now the preamp is on the blink (not to mention the countless hours on DIY wires, tube rolling, and just general tomfoolery). Sure, it all sounds a lot better, but it seems to spend an inordinate amount of time not sounding at all, what with all the "maintenance." What more, the stuff seems so damn fragile, half the time I'm almost wary to use it -- say I want to listen to something for 10 minutes before running out: is it worth firing up the tubes for 10 minutes? I hate to turn it on and then just turn it off again? can't leave the thing on because lord only knows what it will do while I'm gone? (Used to be I'd leave the amp on for weeks at a time, now I come back after two hours and it's blown fuses in my absence). Call it a crisis of faith, but I'm questioning my trust in the fickle gods of "high-end." Maybe I do need a priest....
As for dimming the lights from the preamp -- yep, not good. Not good at all. However, at the risk of talking out of school, I have to say that at the time it decided to put on the show I was approximataly 12 hours into what ended up being a 25-hour first date. So, without more fanfare than a simple "humm, that can't be good," I just shut it all down and didn't mess with it again before switching out the preamp alltogether last night. All things considered, I'm sure it's for the best. If I didn't have something else to distract me at the time, I might have attempted to take the fool thing apart and likley would have killed myself in the process. Shoot, this gal might just have saved my life . . . imagine.