My Stasis 3 was adjusted to 42 - 45 standing on a table. When put on the flor it drops to 35 - 40 degrees. With or without cover was also big difference. My amp was stable after 2 hours, left channel stable after 1 hour - right after 2. Btw-is that normal...?
Measurements are done with sides and top in place. I take the top off only to use the bias measurement to make finer adjustments. Had the amp warming up nicely to about 47 degrees in each channel. Powered off and on three times and the unit warmed up nicely.
At this point there is something in the main system affecting the amp. My first guess is a difference in voltage or current. When I get a chance I'll check voltage and current differences between the house and garage.
Well the unit must have been off/on at least 5 or 6 times in the garage and warmed up nicely even with speakers and preamp.
Brought the amp into the house and used different preamp and unhooked the interconnect cable between the speakers. Amp only warmed up slightly after 3 hours of being on. Got out the multimeter and was getting the appropriate 90VAC at the rectifier.
Did notice the heatsink towards the back was significantly warmer than the heatsink towards the front. Also realized I get a different reading on one of the emitter resistors on the right channel. Makes me wonder if one of the transistors is bad. That is the channel that does take a little longer to warm up but it has consistently met appropriate temperatures.
With testing in the house, the first mistake was I should have just plugged the unit into the wall without input/output. Was a little excited I guess last night. Will try and do this tonight. Then I will slowly add components like stated in a previous response by NP and hopefully narrow down the culprit.
The unit did sound really good. The wife could tell the difference between the HK Citation 16 and she said she prefers the Threshold. I would agree. Just need to wrap my head around this problem. Just tough finding time to spend.
Thanks for the help
Brought the amp into the house and used different preamp and unhooked the interconnect cable between the speakers. Amp only warmed up slightly after 3 hours of being on. Got out the multimeter and was getting the appropriate 90VAC at the rectifier.
Did notice the heatsink towards the back was significantly warmer than the heatsink towards the front. Also realized I get a different reading on one of the emitter resistors on the right channel. Makes me wonder if one of the transistors is bad. That is the channel that does take a little longer to warm up but it has consistently met appropriate temperatures.
With testing in the house, the first mistake was I should have just plugged the unit into the wall without input/output. Was a little excited I guess last night. Will try and do this tonight. Then I will slowly add components like stated in a previous response by NP and hopefully narrow down the culprit.
The unit did sound really good. The wife could tell the difference between the HK Citation 16 and she said she prefers the Threshold. I would agree. Just need to wrap my head around this problem. Just tough finding time to spend.
Thanks for the help
Well the problem has been figured out. There were two problems but I believe only one was causing the temperature issue.
When I last set the bias and had everything in place I looked down at the mains coming into the metal strip at the back of the amp. I noticed one of the AC lines had several strands broken and when I went to jiggle it a little it completely broke. What was happening is when I was moving the back panel off and on it must have been bending at that point of the wire. fortunately it was an easy fix. Since the amp was running and never actually turned off unexpectedly, I do not think it was causing the issue.
The second problem- I was biasing the amp in the garage with the back panel off. When it was set, I would screw in the back panel and bring it into the house only to find out it wouldn't warm up the same. I initially thought maybe it would change the temperature a little but I didn't pay attention to that thought. Took me a while to realize this potentially problem. Last night I set the bias and screwed the back panel into place. It was a bit tedious to unscrew the back panel overtime I needed to adjust the bias. But it worked!!!
Played all last night with a temperature reading of 44.2 in both channels. Been playing for a few hours tonight and has warmed up perfectly. Very happy this was solved. I was getting pretty frustrated with the whole thing.
Lesson learned. Didn't realize the back panel would dissipate so much heat. On the other hand I am not completely sure what effect the partially broken wire had in the whole thing as both changes were done at the same time. Maybe someone has some insight into this.
Either way. Thanks for everyone's help as I am super excited to have this amp up and running well and sounding great.
When I last set the bias and had everything in place I looked down at the mains coming into the metal strip at the back of the amp. I noticed one of the AC lines had several strands broken and when I went to jiggle it a little it completely broke. What was happening is when I was moving the back panel off and on it must have been bending at that point of the wire. fortunately it was an easy fix. Since the amp was running and never actually turned off unexpectedly, I do not think it was causing the issue.
The second problem- I was biasing the amp in the garage with the back panel off. When it was set, I would screw in the back panel and bring it into the house only to find out it wouldn't warm up the same. I initially thought maybe it would change the temperature a little but I didn't pay attention to that thought. Took me a while to realize this potentially problem. Last night I set the bias and screwed the back panel into place. It was a bit tedious to unscrew the back panel overtime I needed to adjust the bias. But it worked!!!
Played all last night with a temperature reading of 44.2 in both channels. Been playing for a few hours tonight and has warmed up perfectly. Very happy this was solved. I was getting pretty frustrated with the whole thing.
Lesson learned. Didn't realize the back panel would dissipate so much heat. On the other hand I am not completely sure what effect the partially broken wire had in the whole thing as both changes were done at the same time. Maybe someone has some insight into this.
Either way. Thanks for everyone's help as I am super excited to have this amp up and running well and sounding great.
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