Manley Chinook problems, Part II: Chinook's Revenge

A few weeks ago I posted regarding a problem I was having with my new Manley Chinook. The problem involved a loud BOOM sound whenever playing vinyl.

I took lots of steps to sort out the problem, but these are the steps that isolated the problem to the Chinook:

- Tried my set up with an inexpensive phono stage. No BOOM
- Took my table to a HiFi shop and hooked it up to an expensive rig. No BOOM
- Hooked up my table and Chinook to another system. BOOM

I sent it out to Manley three times for repair. Twice they repaired it, and the last time they sent me a new unit.

Just got a brand new Chinook and the problem persists. I’ve attached a link to a short YouTube video if you’re interested in hearing it. You’ll hear it as soon as the video starts, and at 3, 17, and 31 seconds.


Can anyone think of anything else that could be causing this problem? I'd love to keep the Chinook, but I can't have it if it's booming. The Manley people are baffled because they can't figure it out and can't reproduce it at Manley.

As an aside, I have a loaner JC3+ and it's working perfectly.

 

It sounds like a cap discharging, but I have no idea why.

 

Maybe it isn't coincidental that the pops are 14 seconds apart between 3, 17, and 31??

A cap discharging is a good guess.

Do you hear the pop on every LP played?

 

Yes most of them.

 

Have you timed it to be about every 14 seconds?

F1Nut may be on to a capacitor discharge problem.

 

Man what a headache. My educated guess (based on my static electricity buildup issue a couple years back) - is that the Chinook is creating some sort of voltage imbalance to the cart - which causes the cart to pop. I'm not an electrician or Tech - but that would make the most sense to me - like an imbalance between the cart - through to the phono pre. And you do not have another cart you want to try so probably time to give up on it.

My issue that I've mentioned in your other threads - would cause my cart to Pop then sound terrible - it would be fixed once I detached the headshell and reattached. Then it would come back again day or so later and require the same fix. Had to be some imbalance between the cart and the pre - when I switched the pre to MM - it eliminated the issue.


You get a buildup then POP. Same thing I had - at least very similar - buildup - pop.

 

It would seem to me if you've had a couple of repairs and a new unit do the same thing, it might be something to do with a compatibility issue with your cable/cartridge/phono preamp. Can you change phono cables and/or your cartridge and then try it?

 

I thought your phone was causing this Is this the same issue you had a month or so back?

 

It's the ghost of Bonham! Kicking the kick drum!

 

That's just in that clip. With other albums it was every few seconds

 

I tried different cables and different plugs to no avail

 

There is a section in the manual on cartridge loading I'd be playing with that.

 

Yeah I was totally wrong about that

 

I called Needle Doctor to get the right setting and they said anything above 400 ohms, so I tried 400 and 800. No change

 

Wish I could try that but my tone arm is 1 piece. A friend suggested that my graphite tone arm could be the problem because it's not neutral

 

Can you try other loading extremes higher to lower and see if that does anything. Also play with the gain as well high to low.

 

I was going to say set the gain to the lowest setting and see if this noise is still happening. The music won't sound good this way, but you're trying to identify the issue.

 

Tried that. Started at 400 ohms, went to 800. No change

 

It might be time to try a different cart. Do you have a second table you can swap into the system?

 

Unfortunately no

 

I've been in this spot and I had a friend come over with his table to test the theory.

 

Get 5 foot of tonearm internal wire or any other very light wire. Slip one bared end under one of the cartridge bolts connect the other end to the earth post on the Chinok. Lightly tape the wire along the arm tube so as not to impede arm movement. Let us know how it goes.

 

Thing is though that it's not the table because it's ok with the JC3+. But for some reason the table doesn't get along with the Manley

 

The chinook is a much better phono and much more sensitive. It might be picking up somthing the Jc is not or there is some kind of synergy between the two that is bunk.

There is somthing happening in your system that is causing it. All you can do is switch out things until you find it. Sound like you are running out of things to switch.

 

How much gain does it have compared to other phono stages you have used? Overdriving the input can cause a "popping" sound.

Tim