Distorted output...?

[discosteve]

Hi Guys

I cant find the answer anywhere on the net, and dont know if its a faulty DNX500 or something im doing.

Ive only had the mixer for a month and used it a handful of times, but every time the sound out of the speakers is distorted. Almost like im pushing the speakers too hard.

The mixer is feeding a RCF 705AS powered bass bin, and then into RCF 312A tops 9also powered)...it also sounds the same when i bypass the bin and just use the 312A's on full range.

Setup wise, i have the master volume knob set to 3 o'clock (im guessing this is right as the mixer has a more prominant marker in this position), and im running the individual channels on a perfect 0db, and the master the same. The powered speakers are running with the gain about half way.

The sound seems to distort more with bass intensive music....

A friend thinks that it may be a problem with the mixer preamp.

Oh...and i have the -10db attenuator switch off (but it doesnt make a difference if its on or off, other than the volume of the sound being output).

[gary]

Oh...and i have the -10db attenuator switch off (but it doesnt make a difference if its on or off, other than the volume of the sound being output).

Well thats definately working then - as thats exactly what an attenuator switch is supposed to do.

As for the distortion sound, the only 3 things which I can think of which would cause distortion on a mixer would be:

1) Line level signals (CD decks, Tape Decks etc) being fed into the mixer but with the Line/Phono level switches on the back of the mixer accidently set to "Phono", rather than "line".

2) The channel Gain control is set too high and the signals are bouncing way off into the Red.

3) Dirty/distorted incoming signal eg: A laptop built-in soundcard output(they're just not cut out for DJing), low quality encoding of ripped music eg: less than 192kbps MP3s etc.

[DJ_Double_A]

The first things that come to mind are 1 and 2.

[discosteve]

Nope on all accounts

Flick switch is set to Line,

Gain doesnt ever get chance to go into the yellow...let alone the red (i'm an engineer as well as DJ and its a pet hate of DJs riding the lights up),

Im running Serato Scratch Live with .wav files, so thats not the issue either.

Its really puzzling me.

[DJ_Scat]

Do you hear the distortion through the headphone CUE?

[discosteve]

Do you hear the distortion through the headphone CUE?

Nope...

Dry joints on the output circuitry maybe?

[gary]

You mentioned that the mixer was about a month old - whereabouts did you get the mixer from?

[DJ_Double_A]

Flick switch is set to Line....

Instead of using line 3 and 1, try using 4 and 2.... then retest and let us know.

[DJ_Scat]

Strange, it could be a fried preamp, I know your skilled but figured i'd ask , try different cables?

[discosteve]

Yeah. I only use Van Damme and that was one of the first things i swapped over. Its looking more like a preamp falt

Oh well...