Sunday night I played KPAC for 6 hours without shutdown. Then, sometime after I let the cat back in, and was getting ready to take a shower, I went out to turn the amplifier off. The amplifier was already off. The cat was not far away in the living room.
Perhaps the cat rubbed or pressed the relatively soft touch button in front of the Krell.
I think a cat could learn to do this. I know my cat loves to rub against the front of the Krell, though also has learned that I don't like it. But, the fact that I don't like it makes it something the cat might do to get back at me when I'm not paying enough attention.
I know now this hasn't caused all of the shutdowns. Because several have occurred when I was right in front of the amplifier listening to music. (That hadn't been the case until a few weeks ago. Until then, all of the shutdowns occurred while the amp was playing for background music, which is how I listen to music 95% of the time.)
This did not fit the now familiar pattern of shutdown within 60-120 minutes, that happens about 50% of the time. It "might" be a different mechanism.
It certainly didn't explain the two shutdowns this weekend (1) with the Krell playing F-26 through Lavry as source, and (2) with the Krell playing F-26 through Sonos, both which involved playing in both channels, since in both cases, the cat was out.
The 3rd and final test was playing right channel through the now-right (formerly left) unmodified speaker with the NOS interface. That didn't cause a shutdown for 6 hours, and by then I was strongly believing this speaker and channel were OK, it was the other one (that seemed to have groove in the variable resistor, and has the upgraded capacitor outside) that had issues.
I'm not taking that guess as disproven yet, it *could* be the cat or some other "3rd" mechanism this time. But from now on I'll need to control for the cat possibility. I've figured out I can leave a polycarbonate DVD-Audio case leaning in front of the amplifier, hiding the button, and meaning that in order to press the button the cat would need to knock over the plastic case, so it would also show that it had been done.
Here's a short list of remaining open hypotheses:
1) Damaged variable resistor in one or both speakers. (Could explain some, or all shutdowns if both.)
2) Damaged big capacitor attached to case of modified speaker.
3) Damaged factory capacitor in NOS interface speaker.
4) Amplifier changes during last two repairs. (This would now be the biggest bitch, since the amplifier has already been checked out for this problem by the factory, I'd have to have a specific shutdown causing protocol for them to find problem, or chances are they never would.)
5) Now running on two AC circuits (a change made earlier to prevent shutdowns, but possibly causing some too).
6) Teflon speaker wire (another change made to prevent shutdowns, seemed to work for one day).
7) Change to F-26 causing some inaudible spurious output that causes shutdown even over Sonos (most shutdowns recently caused by FM, since it's too hard to keep music playing without using FM).
8) Cat pressing power button somehow, to play with me (could explain some, but not all).
9) Burst of RF energy from something. (I had turned off buglight on Sunday night, so that didn't cause Sunday night shutdown, but it could have caused many previous shutdowns.) This could explain shutdowns with no other explanation.
10) Deteriorating AC power contacts.
Perhaps the cat rubbed or pressed the relatively soft touch button in front of the Krell.
I think a cat could learn to do this. I know my cat loves to rub against the front of the Krell, though also has learned that I don't like it. But, the fact that I don't like it makes it something the cat might do to get back at me when I'm not paying enough attention.
I know now this hasn't caused all of the shutdowns. Because several have occurred when I was right in front of the amplifier listening to music. (That hadn't been the case until a few weeks ago. Until then, all of the shutdowns occurred while the amp was playing for background music, which is how I listen to music 95% of the time.)
This did not fit the now familiar pattern of shutdown within 60-120 minutes, that happens about 50% of the time. It "might" be a different mechanism.
It certainly didn't explain the two shutdowns this weekend (1) with the Krell playing F-26 through Lavry as source, and (2) with the Krell playing F-26 through Sonos, both which involved playing in both channels, since in both cases, the cat was out.
The 3rd and final test was playing right channel through the now-right (formerly left) unmodified speaker with the NOS interface. That didn't cause a shutdown for 6 hours, and by then I was strongly believing this speaker and channel were OK, it was the other one (that seemed to have groove in the variable resistor, and has the upgraded capacitor outside) that had issues.
I'm not taking that guess as disproven yet, it *could* be the cat or some other "3rd" mechanism this time. But from now on I'll need to control for the cat possibility. I've figured out I can leave a polycarbonate DVD-Audio case leaning in front of the amplifier, hiding the button, and meaning that in order to press the button the cat would need to knock over the plastic case, so it would also show that it had been done.
Here's a short list of remaining open hypotheses:
1) Damaged variable resistor in one or both speakers. (Could explain some, or all shutdowns if both.)
2) Damaged big capacitor attached to case of modified speaker.
3) Damaged factory capacitor in NOS interface speaker.
4) Amplifier changes during last two repairs. (This would now be the biggest bitch, since the amplifier has already been checked out for this problem by the factory, I'd have to have a specific shutdown causing protocol for them to find problem, or chances are they never would.)
5) Now running on two AC circuits (a change made earlier to prevent shutdowns, but possibly causing some too).
6) Teflon speaker wire (another change made to prevent shutdowns, seemed to work for one day).
7) Change to F-26 causing some inaudible spurious output that causes shutdown even over Sonos (most shutdowns recently caused by FM, since it's too hard to keep music playing without using FM).
8) Cat pressing power button somehow, to play with me (could explain some, but not all).
9) Burst of RF energy from something. (I had turned off buglight on Sunday night, so that didn't cause Sunday night shutdown, but it could have caused many previous shutdowns.) This could explain shutdowns with no other explanation.
10) Deteriorating AC power contacts.
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