Degraded sound quality mid-track? [resolved]

B

Brooklynvalve

New member
Here's a head scratcher (at least to me). I've been enjoying my Eros for well over a year. It's been stationary, unlike my fellow Forum poster who recently moved.
While listening last night the sound quality took a nose dive mid track!? The sound became darker, vocals reverby, cymbals muted and bass diminished. There was a very minimal drop in gain. This is in both channels while maintaining separation.
Confirmed it wasn't my amp via DAC/streaming and even pulled out my old MoFi phono pre which sounded like it always did.
I've got Sowter SUTs to boost the gain for my Hana SL in the mix as well. All my tubes are glowing. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
Adam
 
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I was surprised at the voltage check myself. If the "event" hadn't happened mid-track I would assume my Hana was nearing the end of its life. The first thing I did was clean the stylus. I'll plug everything back in and report back.
 
Well sometimes "critical listening" becomes too critical. Everything connected and sounds fine. Performed a comprehensive scrub on the Hana and we're good to go. Thanks for the help!
 
Oh man. It looks like I may have an intermittent issue w/ my Eros. Thought we were good to go. I listened to a few LPs which were as always, and the poor sound quality returned as before.
Am I perhaps looking at a failing tube? Given the effects are present equally in both channels I think I can rule out the EF 86's. I'm certain it's not my imagination as the sound quality is quite poor by comparison. Any ideas are appreciated.
 
You might want to carefully flip the Eros over after it has entered the bad sound operation, then measure the voltages to see if there are any differences.

If the voltages are OK, I would be going over the solder joints in the Eros, as a cold joint will sound really bad!

If the voltages change, that can suggest a tube issue, or it could also be related to a solder joint.

-PB
 
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