Strange problem with my Parasound 855A (1 Viewer)

[TheLongshot]

I've just got mine in and hooked it up. The problem I'm having is when I connect the center channel. All the channel overload lights go on, then they cycle off and on. After a lot of testing, I've narrowed it down to the speaker cable for the center speaker. Currently, I have it connected to my receiver and it wokrs fine. My question is, what would cause this and why doesn't the Denon have a problem with it? I figure I'll probably will have to replace the speaker cable eventually, but that's going to be a pain...

Jason

 

[Brian AM]

I had this problem with my 855 as well. One channel clipped all the time. There is deffinitely something wrong with your speaker wire. In my case, I was allowing the positive and negative leads heading to the speaker to get too close and sometimes touch, causing a short.

 

[John H]

What type of termination are you using at the amp and speaker? Bare wire, bananna plugs, spades...

As Brian pointed out even if 1 strand of wire is shorted you will have problems.

John

 

[PomingF]

What speaker cables are you all using? Reason I asked is 'cause a while back someone was having kinda same problem with his Citation amp & it so turned out it was the in wall speaker cable he was using not compatible with the amp. He found out about it & had the problem taken care of by contacting Madrigal. So you guys may want to contact Ubid or Parasound about it.

PF

 

[TheLongshot]

I'm using banana plugs on the amp end and spades on the speaker end. (Actually, the only speaker set up this way. All the other speakers have banana plugs.) I have checked both ends and I don't think there are any stray wires. As for speaker wire, I'm using normal 12 gauge Home Depot speaker wire, which is what I use for all my speakers.

Jason

 

[ChrisB]

I have the same problem, it is in one of my rear speakers. I swaped the two, still same problem. Swaped the wires around still same problem. I am guessing that it might have to do with my speaker being close to a recessed can(my rears are inwall). Does that make sense? I guess I could take the speaker down, put on a extra piece of wire and see if it still clips when it is not next to the recessed can.

How can a wire not be compatible with a amp?

 

[Marvin E]

I have the same problem. I'm using my Sherwood R-863 as a preamp and two Parasound 855s. After I turn on the 855 I use for the rear surround speakers, I get overload lcds lighting in sequence and stopping on channels 1 and 4 even without the audio cable plugged in. I thought I had the problem isolated to the left rear center and the right side surround speakers, but when I plugged them into the other 855, I didn't have any problems with the overload indicators. That tells me it's not a wire or a preamp problem. Maybe the unit is defective. I contacted Parasound and they gave me an RA number to return it, but I would rather try to troubleshoot this myself. I don't want to waste time and money waiting for the unit to have them possibly tell me nothing is wrong with it. Does anybody have any ideas? I've averaged about four hours sleep for the last two nights with this.