[OnThePike]

Hello all,

The subject line pretty-much says it all. At higher volume, my trusty old Kenwood Basic M2A appears to enter standby/protect mode, cutting off the output and flashing the power indicator.

Here's a list of what's running:

Kenwood Basic M2A Power Amp
Kenwood Basic C2 Control Amp
Kenwood GE-1100 Equalizer
Gemini CS-02 Mixer
Gemini iTrax iPod Mixer
Cerwin-Vega CLS-215 Speakers
Technics SL1200 MKII (1983 originals)

The CV's are hard-wired using about 30-feet lengths of 14g zip cord, properly phased and not touching anything but their intended connectors.

I'm using the mixer output gain as my master volume, with the M2A output controls set to 7 each and the Basic C2 output around 12:00. The mixer input gain is set to about 80%. The mixer channel output varies between sources; usually between 5 and 9 (with 10 being maximum).

Any ideas as to exactly what is causing the M2A to drop out? Any suggestions/comments welcome.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Roger Thornhill]

Try disconnecting one speaker at a time.

One of the bass drivers may have a distorted voice coil exhibiting short circuit at excessive cone movement?

[OnThePike]

Originally Posted by Roger Thornhill

Try disconnecting one speaker at a time. One of the bass drivers may have a distorted voice coil exhibiting short circuit at excessive cone movement?

Thanks for the suggestion. Did as suggested, but no change:

Here are the steps thus far:

1: Disconnected and removed the M2A and C2 from all other components and placed them between the speakers, side-by-side, on a window ledge venting 43-degree outside air directly onto the components.

2: Used 12-guage solid copper romex as speaker wire, less than 12-feet each.

3: Powered up the Amp and Pre-Amp and all was fine until I added bass. At 3:00 (bass) and 3:00 (vol) , the amp shut down.

So... any ideas now? Do you think it's simply a mis-matched system?

Speaker, amp and mixer specs attached:

[Roger Thornhill]

Have you tried without speakers altogether?

Using just headphones? Obviously don't deafen yourself, but does the amp still shut down with headphones?

If it does i think you may have a fault with it.