No center chanel sound (Marantz SR7200) (1 Viewer)

[DrSteve]

I've had something strange happen with my 3 year old Marantz SR7200. The center chanel appears to be dead! Sometimes when I switch between surround modes I will get about 0.5s of sound in the center chanel and then nothing. Several months ago the center chanel sounded "staticy" but I put this down to the source.

The speaker and speaker wire are good - I connected those to another output and got sound with no problems

I checked the amp set up and the center chanel is there and listed as "large"

I called Marantz and they suggested trying another speaker on the center chanel. Seems pointless. They also suggested a full system reset and promised to call me back to tell me how to do that.

Any other thoughts? I suspect it is likely a problem internal to the amp. Could I put a multimeter across the center chanel outputs and see if there is any kind of signal?

Many thanks!

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Steve,

If you’ve verified the speaker’s good, then it has to be the receiver (assuming you don’t have it set for “no center channel” or something).

With a multimeter set for AC voltage, you should get a reading when it’s playing. However, it will be a fluctuating reading with regular program material. Use something like a sine wave or pink noise to get a more steady reading. Get a reference reading from one of the left/right channels, in stereo mode. Then switch back to surround sound and check the center channel.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[DrSteve]

Thank you Wayne. After playing with it again last night I had pretty much come to that conclusion as well. It's strange that Marantz isn't coming to that same conclusion. I guess I'll call a service center.

 

[John Garcia]

Marantz wants to eliminate all other possibilities before having it come in to the service center. Did you try another speaker? That would be the FIRST thing I would have done, as well as try the center on the R or L channel to eliminate the speaker as a factor.

I had something similar happen with my PM7000 integrated amp. The shop where I bought it let me exchange it plus a little cash for a brand new PM7200 though, so I didn't have to send it in.

 

[DrSteve]

That was the first thing I did and I proved there was nothing wrong with my center chanel speaker or the 12 gauge wires connecting it to the receiver.

But since the unit is out of warranty, the service charge will fall on me anyway. The warranty expired about 3 months ago.

 

[DrSteve]

To add to this all, when I played some music form the iPod in CS5.1 (obviously without the center chanel - which wasn't even connected) I heard crackling from the rear left speaker, just how I heard it from the center speaker before it sopped working. Sounds like the amp is dead. Marantz never called me back (despite promissing to) and hasn't returned any of my calls. That's the last piece of Marantz equipment I buy.