Audio Problems with Sony amp STR-DE575

[audionut]

Hi everyone- this is my first visit and post to AudioBanter...yeah who cares right ??? Anyway Im hoping there is someone out there who can help me...

I have the Sony STR-DE575 home theatre amp...overall, for the money, its been ok. The other night however I started getting distortion from my speakers. At first the problem seemed to be when it was decoding 5.1 on either Dolby Dig or DTS but it now seems the problem is across the board--tuner, ipod, TV etc... hard to tell which speakers are affected but I can hear it most from the fronts. The amp is decoding...meaning i hear the separation that you would expect on movies from my Dvd player...it's just really fuzzy...

Interestingly the sound is fine through headphones...

I read a post on agoraquest.com that talked about relay contacts or something? Obviously I am not a techie here so could someone explain to me in layman's terms what is likely happening, and some tips or suggestions on what to do....

Thx!

you can also email me directly if you want: thanks again.

[Mark D. Zacharias]

"audionut" > wrote in message
...
>
> Hi everyone- this is my first visit and post to AudioBanter...yeah who
> cares right ??? Anyway Im hoping there is someone out there who can
> help me...
>
> I have the Sony STR-DE575 home theatre amp...overall, for the money,
> its been ok. The other night however I started getting distortion from
> my speakers. At first the problem seemed to be when it was decoding 5.1
> on either Dolby Dig or DTS but it now seems the problem is across the
> board--tuner, ipod, TV etc... hard to tell which speakers are affected
> but I can hear it most from the fronts. The amp is decoding...meaning
> i hear the separation that you would expect on movies from my Dvd
> player...it's just really fuzzy...
>
> Interestingly the sound is fine through headphones...
>
> I read a post on agoraquest.com that talked about relay contacts or
> something? Obviously I am not a techie here so could someone explain
> to me in layman's terms what is likely happening, and some tips or
> suggestions on what to do....
>
> Thx!
>
> you can also email me directly if you want:
> thanks again.
>
>
> --
> audionut

I could be wrong - but this sounds more like a DSP problem to me. The amp
switches to regular stereo when headphones are in use, hence no distortion.
One possible way of testing:

Use the built-in tuner in stereo-direct mode playing over just the front 2
speakers. I think this would probably bypass the DSP.

Mark Z.