Altec Lansing ADA885 speakers - sound cutting in and out

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 1:12 am

this just started happening today - any audio routed through the speakers very quickly cut in and out. i am assuming a power supply problem, but i do not have experience in this area. i already disconnected/reconnected all the plugs and jacks and plugged the speaker system into a different outlet.

any ideas of what to try? these are my favorite computer speakers and i will take them in for repair, if necessary.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:20 am

Sounds like a short in a wire somewhere to me. Check at base of plugs as well. Maybe something got pushed into one if them.

Biyobi · Post by **Biyobi** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 3:44 pm

hitbyambulance wrote:this just started happening today - any audio routed through the speakers very quickly cut in and out. i am assuming a power supply problem, but i do not have experience in this area. i already disconnected/reconnected all the plugs and jacks and plugged the speaker system into a different outlet.

any ideas of what to try? these are my favorite computer speakers and i will take them in for repair, if necessary.

Have you tried them on a different sound source like a smartphone or a tablet? From what you wrote we don't know if you've narrowed it down to the speakers or the sound card on the PC.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 9:17 pm

Maybe the sub is overheating ...or the amp in it.

disarm · Post by **disarm** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 9:30 pm

Unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised if your speakers are just starting to fail. I used the 885s for years and they are totally awesome speakers, but they're pretty old at this point. Mine died suddenly about three years ago (controls in the front speaker completely quit working), and I was very sad to give them up. I picked up a pretty good set of Logitech 5.1 speaker, but they still don't sound nearly as good as those old Altecs.

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:33 pm

Biyobi wrote: Have you tried them on a different sound source like a smartphone or a tablet? From what you wrote we don't know if you've narrowed it down to the speakers or the sound card on the PC.

I'll just stress what Biyobi asked.
Are you absolutely sure that it's the speakers?

I ask because I have had intermittent audio cut-outs due to other reasons in the past. I mean yeah, failing speakers are the most likely cause, but you may want to consider hooking them up to an entirely different system, just to make sure. It would be a shame to replace the speakers, only to be faced with the same problem.

Have you tried plugging in headphones to see if it's fine through those, for instance?

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Mon Mar 14, 2016 2:16 am

Giles Habibula wrote:
Biyobi wrote: Have you tried them on a different sound source like a smartphone or a tablet? From what you wrote we don't know if you've narrowed it down to the speakers or the sound card on the PC.
I'll just stress what Biyobi asked.
Are you absolutely sure that it's the speakers?

ok, thank you for shaking some sense into me. it was a software issue, thankfully. further details:

last night, i had run the speakers through an external soundcard (M-AUDIO Firewire 'Audiophile') and i was getting the same issue. today, i had also plugged headphones into the computer and there was no problem, sound was fine. HOWEVER, those were a pair of USB headphones, so they would of course bypass the motherboard's soundcard. i went back to do more troubleshooting just now, and sound had completely stopped working. i was about to try the analog audio cables (i'm using S/PDIF) when after a period of mucking about with the Windows sound control panel (and finally closing foobar2000), every single test audio source i had playing on the machine suddenly started functioning.

yeah, these speakers are nine and a half years old (and that's just from the box), but i hope they have another decade of life in them.

disarm wrote:Unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised if your speakers are just starting to fail. I used the 885s for years and they are totally awesome speakers, but they're pretty old at this point. Mine died suddenly about three years ago (controls in the front speaker completely quit working), and I was very sad to give them up. I picked up a pretty good set of Logitech 5.1 speaker, but they still don't sound nearly as good as those old Altecs.

yeah, that's why i didn't want these to die. but if they do, i'll just replace them with actual hifi-made-for-music-listening speakers. in the realm of actual computer speakers, does anyone know if something like the Audioengine A5+ is significantly better than what i have now?

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:29 am

I have the 885's and they are still going strong. Sound incredible, but they are the fugliest computer speakers ever created I think!

. Being beige doesn't help the aesthetics but I guess I could spray paint.

Also built like a tank. Kids have knocked off my left front speaker from the desk onto hardwood floor at least 6x and still working, busted grills and all.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Mar 14, 2016 11:22 am

In the 90s Altec Lansing was one of the big speaker makers for computers. I never owned a set...maybe price?....but I remember them. Seeing the name brought back the past to me again.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 4:04 pm

OK, more information - it's definitely not a software/OS issue:

when the speakers are powered off for a period of time (say, overnight) then powered back on, sound is extremely sketchy from the speakers until it 'warms up'. music first plays better from the Dolby Digital setting, though it is 'poppy and crackly' for a while. it refuses to play from the Stereo setting at first (no sound at all), which at some point (like after switching through all the settings) becomes verrrry pop'n'crackle. over a period of minutes it gradually becomes less so. after about 10 minutes it seems to be fine again.

i usually keep my speakers on all the time, which is why i didn't really pay attention to this issue before, but it's definitely real and likely gotten worse over the past few years. if i leave the speakers off for, say, a few weeks while on vacation, they seem to have problems even powering on.

so, bad capacitors, maybe?

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 9:05 pm

hitbyambulance wrote: ... these are my favorite computer speakers and i will take them in for repair, if necessary.

Normally, at this point I'd recommend just buying a new set of speakers. But I know what it's like to get attached to good things that have served you well.

A quick look turned up this old thread. Not the same problem, however that thread and a few others I found suggested that those speakers fail most often due to heat, and in most cases, it is repairable.

I know I paid $350 for my first set of Altec Lansings back in 1997. They still work great, and I still use them, and I still love them, and I'd probably pay to have them fixed.

Be prepared though. I had my 1989 Pioneer receiver repaired recently, and it was around $150 at my local shop to have a few cheap parts replaced and everything re-soldered on the main board. But when I got it back, it was just like new and I'm happy to have it back again. Speakers probably wouldn't cost that much to repair, I'm just using my receiver as an example.

Whether it's worth it is up to you, but if these speakers are your favorites, I'd certainly check into it at least. My local place charges $25 for an estimate, which you forfeit if you decide not to have them fixed, or it's applied against the cost of repair if you have them go ahead.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Sun May 22, 2016 12:17 am

i called the local audio repair shop, and because these are powered speakers, they won't even touch them.

problem is steadily getting worse - audio appears fine if you listen to it not-too-closely, but it skips and stutters occasionally. other symptoms above still apply. about at the point where i'm going to take them apart and poke and prod around.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sun May 22, 2016 12:22 am

The country is pretty shitty in the repair dept these days when professionals cant repair any damn thing these days.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Sun May 29, 2016 1:07 am

sound had deteriorated to the point where you could barely hear anything at all, so on a whim, i plugged in the analog cables and .. it works? so it's just the S/PDIF that died and went to hell. too bad the speakers don't have an optical connection, or i'd try that. i'm kinda tempted to take the subwoofer apart and check the S/PDIF jack solder connection now... but analog is functioning, so i'll just use that.

(i also seem to have much stronger bass from the subwoofer than i have had in a long time.)

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sun May 29, 2016 2:42 am

Octopus Overlords