Sudden Loss in Volume After Power Outages

B

Bushikan

Super Member
Last evening, a thunderstorm caused two successive 15-20-minute power outages in my neighborhood within the same hour. The power amp is plugged directly into one of two dedicated hospital-grade outlets and the rest of the stereo is plugged into a power conditioner, which is plugged into the second outlet. But the stereo was not on at the time.

Tonight, I turned on the stereo and CDP and discovered that the volume in both channels is now probably less than half of what it usually is. Otherwise, things seem perfectly normal.

My equipment: McIntosh MC275 MKVI amplifier, McIntosh C22 MKIV preamplifier, OPPO BDT-101CI UDP transport, Furman power conditioner/surge protector, and Klipschorns. (I haven’t listened again to my turntable or McIntosh tuner, which wasn’t hooked up.)

Obviously, I don’t know if the storm was the culprit, but everything worked fine when I listened to the stereo a week ago. (I have lost power because of storms numerous times in the past without any incident.) BTW, the 275’s tubes all light up green.

I’m planning to contact my dealer Audio Classics on Monday, but I wondered if anyone, in the meantime, might have any ideas about what might be going on. Thanks, everyone.
 
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Since you didn't really say if you've checked anything I'll have to suggest first thing I'd do is check all the buttons, knobs, switches, and settings to see if anything got inadvertently changed or reset.

The amp and preamp look pretty straightforward in that regard, but I presume there is an audio menu in the player with settings.

As well, I'd for sure try those other sources and a different player, presuming you might have another... different CD/DVD/BT player, portable media player, phone, whatever you could adapt/plug in.
 
It seems unlikely that any kind of power failure issue would affect both channels, and only to reduce volume. Agree with the above that maybe a setting somewhere changed, and definitely try different input sources, and try driving another amp (if you have one) with the preamp. That will help determine whether the volume reduction is in the CD player, the preamp, or the amp. Once you know that, it could still be a "setting/switch" issues, though at a glance it doesn't look like the modern 275 amp and the modern C-22 doesn't have the adjustable gains the vintage versions did.
 
Thanks for your input. Apologies for not doing more troubleshooting before I posted. (I have a house full of guests this weekend and was frustrated when I tried to play a CD for them late last night.) I tried the turntable just now and the volume works with the turntable. So it is a problem with the OPPO. I’ll troubleshoot further from here. I only use it for audio playback.
 
Try this...

with the c22-iv 'on', press and "hold in" the reset rocker switch (far right) for 10-15 seconds. Do anything?
 
Further update: Seems that the outage reset the volume on my CDP back to 50% (oddly). I turned it back to 100% on the OPPO remote and everything is back to normal. Best possible outcome!

***
And good to know that my stereo isn’t idiot-proof. Information is power. Now, I’ll just have to remember this for next time. No guarantees there.
 
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Bushikan said:
Further update: Seems that the outage reset the volume on my CDP back to 50% (oddly). I turned it back to 100% on the OPPO remote and everything is back to normal. Best possible outcome!

***
And good to know that my stereo isn’t idiot-proof. Information is power. Now, I’ll just have to remember this for next time. No guarantees there.
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FWIW, with my use of my three OPPO Universal players, I always menu configure their analog outputs to be fixed, that way the playback volume is only controlled by the stereos in whatever room I happen to be in, also helps keeping confusion with different 2 volume controls becoming offset from their ideal settings.
 
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