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Topic:
Head Scratcher Zone 2 issue
This thread has 3 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Saturday February 28, 2015 at 18:56
subwoofer
Long Time Member
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January 2010
18
I have a very simple installation that really has me baffled. I am adding a couple of speakers to another room to play audio via the Zone 2 out of an old Yamaha AVR. The unit is a Yamaha Rx-V2095. In the new room I have installed an inexpensive Lepai LP-168HA 2 channel amp. I am not using the sub base outputs of that amp.
I set up the Yamaha and tested the Zone2 out by using a simple set of PC internally amplified speakers and it works fine. I can control the volume and switch inputs as expected with my remote. Now that the Lepai amp has arrived, I connected it up and NOTHING! Thinking that it might be a defective amp, I drove the phone jack input from my cellphone and it works perfectly driving the new speakers nicely. This made me wonder if the RCA inputs were the problem so I connected the phone to the RCA inputs (they are actually in parallel with the phone jack input) and they worked fine as well.
I connected my scope up to the inputs to observe the signals from the cellphone and from the AVR and found that the AVR can drive every bit as well as the phone and more if I want to. I set the volumes of the phone and the AVR to give me the same peak to peak voltage (in case I was overdriving the amp) and still nothing on the Lepai using the Zone2. What the heck?
Again, the Zone2 output is identical in amplitude to the phone and I can drive a separate pair of speakers with built-in amp off the Zone2 out to verify the signal is good. Connect it to the Lepai and I get nothing! Both inputs of the Lepai play the phone through the new speakers just fine.
Any thoughts from you folks that are much smarter at this than me???
Post 2 made on Tuesday April 14, 2015 at 01:15
Ernie Gilman
Yes, That Ernie!
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December 2001
30,104
I tried, I really tried, to respond to this post. You're trying so many things that I cannot make sense of it. At one point I swear you are connecting together the zone 2 output and the phone's headphone output.

Go about this again, and in a very linear fashion. What you write is helter-skelter, all over the place. Verify that the mini jack on the Lepai works. Verify that the RCA jacks on the Lepai work. Verify how similar or different they are in operation.

Please name the kind of adaptors you're using for each step. I don't see any step you're making where you go from one amp to another without also changing adaptors, because the cabling is not identical for the two test setups.

The Lepai amp arrived and you connected it... how? You cannot have used the same cabling you used to test it. Come back and let me know.
A good answer is easier with a clear question giving the make and model of everything.
"The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." -- G. “Bernie” Shaw
OP | Post 3 made on Sunday April 26, 2015 at 22:37
subwoofer
Long Time Member
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January 2010
18
Must have been confusing to more that you since you are the only one who tried to reply. Thanks for that... Now... to put this is a simple a format as possible so as not to confuse let me try this................

1)tested Yamaha Z2 with PC amplified speakers - all works as expected
2)connected RCA inputs of Lepai amp to the Z2 RCA outputs - no sound
3)disconnected Yamaha and fed a 3.5mm phone jack from my cellphone output into the 3.5mm phone jack input of the Lepai - worked fine
4) connected my cell phone via RCA plugs into the Lepai inputs - worked fine
5) wondering if levels were the cause, I connected a scope up to the inputs of the Lepai and drove the Yamaha levels to the same amplitude as the cellphone using either RCA or 3.5mm jacks- still no output using the Lepai connected to the Yamaha

Now read these steps vs. what I originally wrote and see if my original helter skelter makes a bit more sense?

Now assuming you follow my steps 1 thru 5 in a LINEAR fashion as requested, what's your take on the situation?
Post 4 made on Friday June 12, 2015 at 11:48
Ernie Gilman
Yes, That Ernie!
Joined:
Posts:
December 2001
30,104
Sorry this took so long, especially as I have no help to offer.

It looks like you get audio out of the Lepai amp whether you feed cellphone audio into it via its RCA jacks or its mini jacks. This assumes you have the adaptors needed to go from the phone's mini connections to mini and to stereo RCAs.

But you don't get any audio output from the Lepai when the source is the Yamaha Zone 2, whether you use RCA or mini. Again, the assumption is that you have the adaptors to go from the Yamaha's RCAs to both RCA and mini.

And, adapting from RCA to mini, the Yamaha Zone 2 output works through the computer speakers.

You've proven that the phone and the Yamaha have output, but the Yamaha's output doesn't work with the Lepai. Try a different amplifier; maybe there's something squirrely about how the Lepai handles its inputs.

When I first read this I found a Lepai amplifier online that looked unique as to how its inputs were arranged and as to what they were capable of. I don't know what to say. Try... try putting the phone signal into the mini jacks when you're feeding Zone 2 into the RCAs and see what happens? Then switch them around, phone into RCAs while you're feeding Zone 2 into the minis?

Do you have ANY other amp you can try this with? Can you borrow one?

The RX-V2095 was my favorite receiver for more years than they produced it, so I've seen a bunch of them, but I never had this problem. The only problem I remember with it was that the subwoofer output did not output bass all the time: it only output surround bass effects. Surround, you get bass. Two channel, no processing, no bass.
A good answer is easier with a clear question giving the make and model of everything.
"The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." -- G. “Bernie” Shaw


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