Troubleshooting Guide; No Sound (From One Or More Speakers Connected To The Bpa-1); The Amplifier Shuts Down Unexpectedly; Poor Bass Performance From Full Range Speakers Connected To The Bpa-1 - Emotiva pmn User Manual

Troubleshooting Guide

The Emotiva BPA-1 is expertly designed and built to provide years of trouble-free performance. Most
problems that occur can usually be solved by checking your setup or making sure that the audio and
video components connected to the amplifier are on and fully operational. The following information
will help you deal with common setup problems you may experience during normal use of your unit. If
problems persist, contact your Emotiva Dealer for help.

No Sound (from one or more speakers connected to the BPA-1)

• Speaker cables may have come undone. Turn off your system and check the cables, and tighten the amplifier and
speaker binding posts.
• Damaged audio cable.
• The preamplifier volume level is low for the channels concerned. Recheck the preamplifier calibration procedure.
• A preamplifier Mute switch may be on, or an external processor loop or a tape monitor loop is engaged.
• Check that your preamplifier or source is running the correct surround sound mode. Maybe it is set for 2-channel stereo
when you were expecting 5.1 surround sound.
• Check in case any missing channels have been turned off in a preamplifier setup menu. For example, the center ampli-
fier channel will not receive a signal if the preamplifier has been set to "Phantom."
• The AUTO/ON switch on the BPA-1 might be in the ON position but the power switch is off. Check the power switch.
• A fuse within the unit may have blown.
• The level on the BPA-1 is turned down

The amplifier shuts down unexpectedly

• Check that the positive and negative speaker wires are not shorted together.
• Make sure that no speakers are shorted internally. If you have an ohm-meter, disconnect the speaker wires and mea-
sure the resistance between the speaker's positive and negative terminals. If the reading is less than 4 ohms, you may
be using speakers with too low a nominal impedance OR they could be electrically shorted. Measure all speakers and
check their impedance specifications.
• If you have connected speakers in parallel, the overall impedance may be too low. It is recommended that you rearrange
the speakers in a series wiring configuration to increase the overall impedance, thus taking some of the load off the
amplifier.
• Make sure that the amplifier has good ventilation and is not overheating.

Poor Bass Performance From Full Range Speakers connected to the BPA-1

• Make sure that your preamp does not have the bass (tone control) level turned down.
• Many surround preamplifiers have controls which can direct all the bass to subwoofers or let your main speakers play
the full range. Make sure that the preamplifier has been correctly set. If you are not using a subwoofer, set the speaker
options to "Large" where possible.
• Check that the speaker wires have been connected correctly. Make sure that the positive of each speaker connects to
a positive output of the BPA-1 amplifier, and the negative of each speaker connects to a negative output of the BPA-1
amplifier. If one speaker is wired incorrectly, than it will be "out of phase" with the others resulting in poor bass perfor-
mance.

Turn-on and turn-off thumps

• Plug the amplifier into an un-switched AC outlet, and use the AUTO position of the turn on switch at the back of the am-
plifier. This will allow the amplifier to turn on and off silently.
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