A SNEAKY LITTLE PROBLEM

[HIGHWAY61]

For those who followed my thread on "COMPILING A LINN SYSTEM FROM E-BAY" on this site know that it is now a "one source" system. LINN SNEAKY DS to PRE-AMPLIFIER (LINN LK1) to POWER AMPLIFIER (LINN LK 280) to SPEAKERS (LINN KEILIDH). It sounds great and I have no problems with it. But i wondered if, following the theory that removing "boxes" in the chain, could improve the sound quality I could remove the PRE-AMPLIFIER as I no longer need a "switch" between sources. Reading the LINN DOCS concerning the SNEAKY DS seems to show that you can connect directly  to a POWER AMPLIFIER. This is done by enabling the "Volume Control" of the Sneaky and a couple of other changes. Well I followed the steps and.............

THE GOOD NEWS : Sounds better to my ears, more clarity and a better bass.

THE BAD NEWS : Only sound coming out of the left speaker.

I did all the usual swapping of cables/connectors/etc. and every time - left speaker only.

So i returned everything back to how it was originally and happily back to 2 x speaker sound, exactly as before.

I would still like to make the change, so any experts out there who may have theory and /or practice of the problem and have a solution ? I followed all the logical steps as far as I can see but I may have made a stupid error, but I doubt it. Of course i Googled the problem, but even Google could not come up with similar symptoms. Any advice appreciated.

 

[JPO2005]

Have you checked the exits? So take only one channel to the power amplifier and plug it first into the left output of the Sneaky and then into the right output.
WARNING: Turn off the power amp before you plug it in and wait a while.

Do you have sound on both outputs?

P.S. Do you use SO2? Then I could take a look (access required) at the settings in the sneaky.

By the way, your system should sound much better if you use the Sneaky completely without the 280
Plus, you can bi-amping out the speakers!

 

[SnapperMike]

That's a good find.

Have you checked that in Konfig that the Sneaky doesn't have its balance set to L speaker only? As in below:

Mike.

 

[HIGHWAY61]

Have you checked the exits? So take only one channel to the power amplifier and plug it first into the left output of the Sneaky and then into the right output.
WARNING: Turn off the power amp before you plug it in and wait a while.

Do you have sound on both outputs?

P.S. Do you use SO2? Then I could take a look (access required) at the settings in the sneaky.

By the way, your system should sound much better if you use the Sneaky completely without the 280
Plus, you can bi-amping out the speakers!

HI.............Thanks for the reply.

(1) Sound only appears to come from LEFT OUTPUT of the Sneaky. when connected to POWER AMP................comes out of LEFT + RIGHT outputs of Sneaky when connected to PRE-AMP.

(2) SO2 not enabled yet. 

 

[HIGHWAY61]

That's a good find.

Have you checked that in Konfig that the Sneaky doesn't have its balance set to L speaker only? As in below:

Mike.

HI MIKE..............Thanks for the reply. Checked that previously - its set to 0 DEFAULT. Thanks for trying. Yes it was a good find, even better news was that it had been serviced back in the factory a few months ago. LINN SNEAKY's are really cheap and plentiful on eBay in the post-Xmas period. At present three on sale (same seller @ £75 each at present bidding)........even though two of them are missing feet.

 

[Tendaberry]

Have you tried using only the Sneaky? I.e. leaving out both LK1 and 2. The Sneaky is of course less powerful, but there are many generations between the amps. Btw, bi-amping is only possible with the Sneaky DSM, not the DS.

 

[HIGHWAY61]

Have you tried using only the Sneaky? I.e. leaving out both LK1 and 2. The Sneaky is of course less powerful, but there are many generations between the amps. Btw, bi-amping is only possible with the Sneaky DSM, not the DS.

HI TENDABERRY.................Thanks for the reply. I have not tried it yet (I was aware of the possibility, even though 20 watts per channel is supposedly a bit weak to drive KEILIDH speakers). The reason being that the speaker wire I have is terminated with large banana plugs and the special inputs on the rear of the Sneaky are just too small to accept them.

 

[hifipm]

I think the issue is with the unusual cableing between the LK1 and 2 - these are XLR's but not in the traditional 'balanced' sense- you will need to make a custom cables to make this work

 

[HIGHWAY61]

I think the issue is with the unusual cableing between the LK1 and 2 - these are XLR's but not in the traditional 'balanced' sense- you will need to make a custom cables to make this work

Hi............Thank you. That is a logical idea I had not thought about. I guess its one of the problems of mixing old and new (ish) technology. I fear its not going to be worth the hassle in the long run. I am very happy with the LK1 + LK 280 sound so I will probably keep it as-is until I change the system.

 

[Tendaberry]

HI TENDABERRY.................Thanks for the reply. I have not tried it yet (I was aware of the possibility, even though 20 watts per channel is supposedly a bit weak to drive KEILIDH speakers). The reason being that the speaker wire I have is terminated with large banana plugs and the special inputs on the rear of the Sneaky are just too small to accept them.

Yeah, I think the Sneaky only accepts BFA's or hollow bananas