Faulty Connected Acoustics SRI Duet

[mebeingadam]

I have a connected acoustic SRI Duet that is no longer outputting any noise to the speakers. The device can be found on the network and the LED on the front stacks up. Bright white when playing, dull white when paused etc.

Anyone have any clue where to begin fixing this? Not found anything on youtube/Google to help.

The OPs of the duet don't work into other amps which leads me to believe it's the receiver.

Thank

[mebeingadam]

Update.. so overnight it play out this morning. I did reset/power cycles yesterday evening, but got nothing.

Having now put it back in the loft with its ceiling speaker nothing again. The speaker is good and tested so no worries there.

It's a duet issue I'd say now, as there are issues with that side reported when others are using it into standalone amps.

[mebeingadam]

So put this on the back burner. Still seeing no luck with this one. I finally got round to getting some home plugs to give it an ethernet connection and still exhibits the same behavior. Can be seen on the server and my router. Now playing says music is playing, but no sound OP. Most people talk of faulty PSU in this instance, but being the combined amplifier version it's a genuine IEC so it's not an external PSU issue.

Any suggestions before I look at replacing it with a duet and an amp?

[Redrum]

I am not trying to be a smart a$$, sincerely, but what is a acoustic SRI Duet? I did a search on the web and only this post and guitars came up. If it's a regular logitech squeezebox duet, we might be able to help.

Jim

[mebeingadam]

Ah, It's a 3rd party box made by connected acoustic that essentially grafts a genuine duet into a case with an integrated amplifier. So the duet bit is the same as a regular receiver.

You are correct that does not appear to be much info left on the web this many years on
https://www.recordere.dk/2009/05/con...tic-i-danmark/

I've used the outputs of the receiver into another amplifier so in theory bypassing the integrated amp and still nothing.

[Redrum]

Thanks, interesting! You mention "the OP's" of the duet don't work in other amplifiers, which lead me to believe it's in the receiver". Outputs? Can you explain this a bit?

Also, are you using LMS on something (PC, Mac, Pi, etc)?

My experience with the duets is that they can get into a state where they are either locked up, or appear to work (navigate with controller, press play, see progress bar count up, no sound). This is usually corrected by factory reset of the receiver and controller. Not sure how in your box, but with a regular duet, it goes like this:

• Press and hold receiver power button until fast red flash, release, it will transition to slower red flash
• Press and hold controller power/home until it says bye bye and turns completely off. Press and hold the '+', then Press and hold the power, until the splash screen comes up, release.
• Go through the setup

The other thought is your box has line ins on the back. Do you have something that you can plug into them to see if your amp/speakers, are fine? You could use a phone with a headphone jack to RCA cable. I assume you have to select line in with your little remote?

Also, if you open it up and you have access to the receiver, I imagine the RCA outs are being used (?) if so, if you have access to the SPDIF and you have something you could plug that into (like a receiver/amp), you could see if it's just the analog (RCA) outs.

If you do open it up, can you post a couple pictures?

Jim

[mebeingadam]

Thanks, interesting! You mention "the OP's" of the duet don't work in other amplifiers, which lead me to believe it's in the receiver". Outputs? Can you explain this a bit?

So the unit still has the traditional outputs on the back of it. The RCA and optical you would expect on a regular receiver.

Also, are you using LMS on something (PC, Mac, Pi, etc)?
LMS is running on a Pi with picoreplayer on it. Also have a backup LMS on a very old Nas Duo. Connects fine to both servers.
Have loads of other players all functioning well. This is the only receiver I have in the system though.

My experience with the duets is that they can get into a state where they are either locked up, or appear to work (navigate with controller, press play, see progress bar count up, no sound). This is usually corrected by factory reset of the receiver and controller. Not sure how in your box, but with a regular duet, it goes like this:

• Press and hold receiver power button until fast red flash, release, it will transition to slower red flash
• Press and hold controller power/home until it says bye bye and turns completely off. Press and hold the '+', then Press and hold the power, until the splash screen comes up, release.
• Go through the setup
  
  This is all the same process, as the button is on the front still.. Performed this more than a handful of times on both the controller and receiver as per the method you describe

The other thought is your box has line ins on the back. Do you have something that you can plug into them to see if your amp/speakers, are fine? You could use a phone with a headphone jack to RCA cable. I assume you have to select line in with your little remote?

The little remote you refer to is for the 2nd different item. Mine is the top item and looks like this on the rear https://www.ericboisseau.com/wp-cont...-amplifier.jpg. I have always assumed these are the original receiver outputs and I put these into another amp as part of my trouble shooting. It might be they are in fact inputs but there is no way to select external inputs over the integrated receiver so I would doubt that

Also, if you open it up and you have access to the receiver, I imagine the RCA outs are being used (?) if so, if you have access to the SPDIF and you have something you could plug that into (like a receiver/amp), you could see if it's just the analog (RCA) outs.

If you do open it up, can you post a couple pictures?

Yeah I think I will open it up now, nothing to lose

Jim

[Redrum]

My comment about line in and remote are from your original link (image above). The pic is poor res, but I zoomed up a bit and it did say inputs, and there's the remote. Your pic (previous post) is quite different. Yes, I would say from your pic they are probably outputs. Not sure if you have tried connecting that to anything. I'd be curious as to what the receiver is feeding the built in amp with.

You seems to be quite knowledgeable, so I am not sure what I have to add. I generally try to swap out things to try to isolate the issue. It seems you have. Maybe when you open it it's a situation where you could just replace the receiver.

Jim

[mebeingadam]

Sorry for confusion. The original link was for 2 items.

I've opened it up and yes it is simply a receiver card in a box with an amp. It appears that all the outputs are slaved into a PCB on the back, but I don't get anything out of those into another amp from the back, but if I plug direct into the receiver on the inside into an external amp it works.


I tried to send my phone to the amp by interrupting the RCA's but got nothing from the amp/speaker. Could indicate a dead amp, but below comment is not conclusive.

Based on cable colours alone, this leads me to believe that the output the amp receives is the digital toslink. I have no way to test the native output with kit at home to see if that is working directly from the receiver but will have to try that.

Multimetering an amplifier is probably beyond me if that is the issue, but based on 1st test receiver does appear OK. Could be the Toslink output has died if that is what is feeding the amp, or more likely now I suspect the amp has died or the PCB board slaving the outputs has somehow.

Based on all this probably not one for this board now.

[Redrum]

Looking at the pics of the insides and the one of the back, it looks like all of the receivers analog and digital (optical and coax) are passed through to the back. So, one of them must be split to feed your amp. If you get say RCA output when connecting directly to the receiver, but not out the back, I would suspect something to do with the passthrough section, maybe it is also part of the power management, who knows, right? If you do get it out the back, then maybe the amp/power management section is not turning on the amp.

I know that info on this unit was a hard get, any chance at some schematics?

All of these kits will have some type of power management, which is bound to have resettable/not fuses, relays (for turning on sections when power testing passes), etc. Take a look at where the power cable for the receiver goes and the line in power after it goes through the transformer (should be the power management section), then look around for some fuses and/or relays.

But the receiver gets power so that tells you at least part of power management is working. But I also remember you saying that the "pop" is missing. My receiver is hooked to an analog amp which will power up faster than the receiver, so I get the pop when the receiver turns on it's audio outputs. You unit must have behaved the same way, but it doesn't now. That tells me that perhaps the amp is not turning on.

Also, you have checked to make sure that you get no audio from both speakers right?

There are a number of things you can do from there, but it depends on how far you want to go. Allot of what I mention above is just fishing. If you only had schematics, you could go through the process of checking each section.

How old is this unit?

Jim

[mebeingadam]

Thanks, yeah finding schematics will be very tricky I imagine, but will have a trawl. Sound was coming out of both speakers when hooked directly into the receiver.

Unsure how old, but I imagine 10 years at least. I bought it 2nd hand, but that link I sent you shows it was released in 2009. So it's done it's time but nothing as convenient to replace it with hence the desire to fix it.

I'll do some tinkering and let you know what I find.

[Redrum]

Thanks, yeah finding schematics will be very tricky I imagine, but will have a trawl. Sound was coming out of both speakers when hooked directly into the receiver.

Unsure how old, but I imagine 10 years at least. I bought it 2nd hand, but that link I sent you shows it was released in 2009. So it's done it's time but nothing as convenient to replace it with hence the desire to fix it.

I'll do some tinkering and let you know what I find.

My question about the age was not "is it time to toss" but more of how sophisticated it might be, and how prone to age issues it might be as well. I have pulled apart and fixed a few amps, receivers, etc but they usually are ones from the '70s/'80's and may have sat for years. They can be susceptible of relay contacts that are stuck, switches and pots that are dirty, caps that are bad, etc. But working on those are much more simple than some of the newer equipment with uP's everywhere, much like working on cars these days . So with it being relatively new, the aging factor is less likely. I should have known it was on the newer side, it has a receiver in it, duh...

I like the process of elimination. It looks like you could just connect another receiver to the cables in your box and eliminate/identify the problem being the receiver. Do you have one? If not and you are in the US, I could send you one to test. I am also thinking about those pass through connections from the receiver to the ouside, are they just straight pass through, or is there something internal that is switching them on? You could take a DMM and continuity check inside to outside for each (unit both powered off and on). If you look at the toslink on the outside and see if there is light, etc.

I am assuming at this point you cannot get sound out of wither the speakers, or the external connects, right?

Jim