Help with tf Pro P2

[Neil Ton]

Hi there, im having some slighty strange goings on with my P2 unit in that i cant seem to get enough level out of it without it distorting? The input gain seems fine but i have to turn the output right up to get anything like a usable level and it sounds thin and distorted. Tried with a few different mics etc. The instrument input seems ok though. Any ideas?

Cheers

[Ted Fletcher]

Sounds like it could be a cabling problem…. You should be running the output balanced; If my memory is right there’s jack outputs, and you need to either use standard unbalanced jacks or balanced (3-pole) jacks. If the ‘ring’ is left disconnected, then the output may be low and thin.
If it’s not that, then it sounds like a real fault….. I fix all faults on gear of my design at a fixed rate…. #25 plus the cost of sending it back to you. I’m happy to look at it.

[Neil Ton]

Hi Ted, thanks for the swift reply, yes its jack outputs, i’ve tried a few different cables, standard jack cables which i presume are unbalanced and a jack to XLR cable which i presume is balanced. The unit used to work fine like this i just haven’t used it for a while. Is there an address on the site etc to send it to your good self?

Many Thanks

[Ted Fletcher]

Yes, it’s:
The Sound House,
Hunsdon Road
Torquay TQ1 1QB
I will have a look at it for you.

For general interest, I have seen this sort of problem two or three times before….. (weak output, very low level) and it was mystifying at the time, but was traced back to BBC installations where there were microphone inputs on jackfields…. with 48V phantom power! An accidental insertion of a jack plug could put phantom power up an output, sometimes with disastrous results.
The moral is, keep phantom power away from everything else! 😯

[Neil Ton]

Hi Ted, unit is on its way to you. I can think of a senario where phantom power might have been introduced through the jack input (not by me!) so that sounds like it could be the problem. Have you got an email address i can contact you on? Or shall i just use the sales@ address?

Many Thanks

[Ted Fletcher]

The sales address gets to me, or you can use my personal address [email protected]

[Ted Fletcher]

Ha Ha Ha! It’s great to be right now and again!
I have received this very nice old P2 (made in 2003) and the fault was exactly as I thought…. the capacitors in the output stage had been destroyed…. most likely by over-voltage, and the most likely cause of that is someone plugging the output into a mic input with phantom power on it!
So Neil, it’s all fixed…. don’t do it again!

[Neil Ton]

Thats great news Ted, good call on the diagnosis!

I sent the item saturday at 11am and you’d fixed it by monday lunchtime….thats pretty good service right there! so refreshing

I’ve sent you an email about what address to send it to and invoicing etc, let me know if you didn’t receive it

many thanks

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