HELP! Rescuing Dad's old PL400 S2 (pics)

PL 2000 series 2. The thump was somewhat intermittent but not regular. It stopped, I think, when I didn't plug the turntable and amp into the switched outlets located on the back of the pl2000s2.

I will give a more clear account of this when I return home!
 
You really shouldn't plug anything into the pre-amp power wise....
 
I was just trying to follow those phase linear instruction manuals haha, I think you are right though!
 
I will start by plugging all units into a surge protector separately, do you recommend I do something to the switched power sockets in the preamp or is that not necessarily beneficial? Do you suppose I damaged the preamp by doing so? I had the volume at very low levels for a very short period of time. I better DBT that sucker just in case.
 
No you didn't hurt anything using the AC outlets on the pre....
 
Does the 2000 preamp have the power relays like a 4000 does? Those put almost no load on the switch, but I still wouldn't trust it to handle the amplifier power load. Should be OK for the turntable though. I just don't like running a lot of load through single cords. It seems like a bad idea to me.

Also, does the 2000 use those cards like a 4000? I had lots of noise problems with my friend's 4000 that was entirely related to many many broken solder joints. The first time I tested it, it made a cracking noise so loud I thought it was going to blow my speakers.
 
I am going to try to see what the 4000 looks like, I am not sure what cards you are referencing. The unit was incredibly clean, aside from a cracked solder joint on one of the RCA jacks that I repaired it looked pretty immaculate. I did take a close look for cracked joints, but it would not hurt to take another look.
 
I dug up the 2000 service manual, and it does not appear to have cards like the 4000 has. Thats a good thing, fixing that thing was a huge pain in the ass.


http://thecarversite.com/shell-manuals.htm

iff'n you'd like a copy of the manual for that. The owners manual and the service manual are both there.




These are the guts of a 4000. You can see all of the cards.

6983-large.jpg


here's the bottom side. The one I fixed needed ALL of those joints re-soldered. The cards are not supported, so they put a lot of strain on the main board.

phase4000_3.JPG
 
Interesting: I hooked up my phone's audio player to RCA on the aux input and thought for a second I was getting really nice, clear audio. Upon close inspection I was only getting sound from the right channel. The LED indicator on the amp for the right channel showed appropriate dB output. When I tried the balancer pot on the preamp I noticed that I got a hollow, tinny, sound from the left channel with no bass.

Now this next part I am not sure if it is correlation or causation but I unbypassed the tone control button and adjusted the bass knob for the right channel. A couple seconds after I got a few THUMPs with corresponding spikes on the right channel dB meter. I quickly stopped with the knob thinking it was a scratchy pot and the thump was somehow the pot scratching. The thumps continued somewhat more regularly and I panicked and shut the unit down. Once it was powered off a final loud THUMP occurred after shut off on the left channel.
 
Also, I did not mention, the entire time I got no dB reading on the left channel, even when I could hear the tinny sound and adjusted the volume knob all around on both the pre and amp.

I will take a closer look at the 2000 internals again for broken solder points but I THINK it is supported inside. My wife's family is in town visiting through the week and I work 12 hour shifts this week so I will have to steal every trouble shooting moment.
 
5.6.1 of the service manual suggests that loss of one channel when tone circuit is in requires replacement of z3 and/or switch assembly. Now I need to see if both channels work when tone is in...hmm.
 
Have you heard the amp through speakers , from both channels?
 
ARGH DBT glowing bright on the amp. Preamp is DBT OK. Fuses OK on both.

Talk about disheartening.
 
Thebamp produced good sound on the right channel, quiet hollow tinny sound on the left. Total time on was probably less than a minute and low volume overall.
 
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