New Ultra and Amp Pro user. I have the Ultra line out connected to my 24 year old B&K Reference 2220 power amp (220wx2). When playing CD's through the line in from a Rotel CD player certain tracks with a lot of energy (Telarc CD's for example) cause severe cracking in the speakers that sound like the woofer VC's hitting the back plate. This happens when the volume is low and there's little cone excursion so this problem is upstream. This happens too when streaming cuts from Telarc recordings off Amazon in Ultra HD but to a lesser extent. I was using the 2mv output and thought maybe that was overdriving the amp but the problem is the same at 1mv. Never had this issue using the B&K PT3 preamp tuner that the Ultra is replacing. Ultra software is the latest (updated today) so that's not it. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated because otherwise the Ultra has provided everything I was looking for and then some.
hgo58
Major Contributor
I have set at the max 24/192.
I've only lowered it to 1 and will try the lower settings.
Lowered the line out to the minimum setting (200Vrms) and the problem still exists. Playing Diana Krall's"Steppin Out" CD at an average level of 60 db 10 feet from the speakers and there's severe distortion on every transient. This was not present during my limited testing last week so now I'm questioning my 24 year old B&K power amp and will try swapping it out with my Yamaha receiver that has the ability to take the line in.
As a follow up I found that the problem exists when playing CD's through the Ultra to either the B&K amp connected to line out or the Wiim Amp Pro connected via optical. I've tried all possible settings on the Ultra which made no difference. I then connected my old B&K preamp to the B&K power amp and played CD's through it and it sounded fine so not the CD player. I then switched the Ultra to ethernet and streamed the same album cuts off Amazon Music and no issues with output to either amps.
My hunch is this is a problem with the Ultra's line in circuit which worked fine the first few times it was used but something appears to now be malfunctioning. One variable is that I was prompted to update the Ultra yesterday which I did and the problem was apparent for the first time after the update but maybe just a coincidence.
It was delivered 2 weeks ago so making arrangements to return it for a replacement.
Thanks for the replies.
My hunch is this is a problem with the Ultra's line in circuit which worked fine the first few times it was used but something appears to now be malfunctioning. One variable is that I was prompted to update the Ultra yesterday which I did and the problem was apparent for the first time after the update but maybe just a coincidence.
It was delivered 2 weeks ago so making arrangements to return it for a replacement.
Thanks for the replies.
Sorry, I see you referenced pre-gain. I'll try that.
slartibartfast
Major Contributor
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2024
- Messages
- 3,684
Another thought -- it could be the output of the CD player that's the issue and not the Ultra's input. Do you have or could borrow any other line-output audio devices to use with the Ultra's line-in? If the line-in works fine with another device's line-out, that would suggest the CD player is the problem. Just trying to think of all the possibilities before you send anything back.
