Need help with Carvin R600 (Series II) head

0) If your Bass is Active replace the battery with a new one.

1) Turn Off Compressor, Noise Gate, Biamp, Bridge, Effects Loop, Graphic EQ.

2) Put the Amp Levels at 0, gain at 0, Volume at 0.

3) Now set the EQ Totally Flat. 0 Bass, 0 Everything. Also switch the Pre-shape Off.

4) Select Fully Solid State Mode, no Tube.

Now plug in your Bass (Either Passive or active, doesnt matter) and begin turning up the gain know until the Clip Light led fires up.
Now decrease the gain until it dissapears.

Now Plug the headphones. (Verify them by pluggin into another source. The Headphones must be TRS Stereo if fully inserted, if not.. Insert until you hear just 1 click)

Now begin turning up the Volume know until you hear a sound.

Then begin to adjust the rest of settings you like.

It could have been caused by:
1) Bad Tube (Check now by blending a little tube , then by using it alone)
2) Too much Bass, would almost destroy your headpones, so that distortion could be caused by that.
3) Gain Clipping
4) Who knows? Hehe

Please comeback and tell me if you continue having problems.

 

I'm not sure this is a factor, but the headphone portion of the amp is downstream of one of the bridge contacts. Make sure the bridge switch is off (out) in the back of the amp, and see if that helps.
- Mike

 

If you bought it used, how do you know it wasn't messed up before it was shipped?

 

Have you plugged some speakers into it yet? If you don't have a cabinet, use a local store's, or a friend's.
Doc

 

Carvin has a one price repair policy. It used to be $159 or maybe $179. That is, you ship them the amp and a MO for $179 and they fix it. No matter what is wrong with it. Whether they solder one wire or replace the entire IC board, it is the same price.

I would also contact the seller, if he/she still has the receipt, you may be able to get it fixed under warrenty. IF not, it'll cost you.

Go to http://www.carvin.com to get a toll free number or send them an e-mail. There is also a discussion board at that site. It is full of Carvin homers, but if you post your question, you'll get a straight answer. I think the moderators are Carvin employees.

You might also ask about how long it takes to get it back. I suspect you'll be without the amp 4-5 weeks.

Your other option is to look for a local repair shop to fix it. It may cost you a little less, but I would be hesitant. At least you can be mostly confident that Carvin knows what they are doing.

Chas

 

Congrats on getting it working! Having courage is a great thing, but be aware that there are dangers in them thar chassis. Unless you know exactly what you're doing, never touch anything while it is plugged in, and be aware that power supply capacitors can still kill you long after the cord is unplugged, unless they are properly discharged.

I have been inside my R600 II, but I don't recall seeing internal LEDs as you describe. The clipping lights are on the front panel of my amp. If yours are too, then the internal ones might be for use by repair technicians for something. However, I don't recall internal LEDs appearing on my circuit diagram for the amp.

- Mike

 

They probably didn't have a good reason to put clip indicators on the circuit board, but then again, those probably aren't clip indicators.

As Mike mentioned, they might be for diagnostic or QC purposes. But an LED is also an inexpensive way to get a voltage drop of about 1.6 to 1.8 volts in a circuit, so they might not be serving any sort of indicating function.

 

Actually the R600 is a Preamp + a DCM600 Power Amp In one unit.
The leds you see in there are posibly the standard cliping lights you should see in the front of a DCM600.