True Systems precision8 led issues?

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alexdingley
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True Systems precision8 led issues?

Post by alexdingley » Thu May 20, 2021 4:23 am

I just bought a used Precision 8, and it sounds excellent! Basically noiseless and plenty of clean gain for what I was planning to connect it to.

One snag; the two lowest “signal” LEDs on the first channel are persistently it up. (It was like that on first power-up, even with nothing connected to it. I presumed that there was gonna be some kind of hum or noise on the channel, but the channel is perfectly quiet and when a source is connected, it works fine / sounds great.

I’ve tried toggling everything switch / exercising every pot/ changing the “meter reference” setting… but nothing really changes these first Two leds on ch1.

Also, all of the red signal overload lights come on at power up… and they clear when you clear/reset the meters.

Wondering if this is a common set of problems, or if this unit has a major issue.

Anyone else ever deal with something similar?

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Scodiddly
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Re: True Systems precision8 led issues?

Post by Scodiddly » Thu May 20, 2021 5:45 am

Tried asking the manufacturer? Might be a simple fix.

Old dbx 1066 and similar units would get meter LED ghosting after a while, and the fix was just to clean the ribbon cable connectors.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: True Systems precision8 led issues?

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Thu May 20, 2021 9:41 am

If you've got a frequency analyzer you can use it to spot any noise that's too low or high for your monitors to reproduce. Max out the gain on the affected channel and a non-affected channel so you can compare.
My old studio partner had the same box. I loved it. I seem to recall the peak lights coming on at start-up and when you switch on 48V but it's been a while. I wouldn't stress about it too much.

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Re: True Systems precision8 led issues?

Post by winky dinglehoffer » Thu May 20, 2021 1:08 pm

alexdingley wrote:
Thu May 20, 2021 4:23 am
the two lowest “signal” LEDs on the first channel are persistently it up.
Is the first channel by any chance the closest to the power supply?

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alexdingley
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Re: True Systems precision8 led issues?

Post by alexdingley » Fri May 21, 2021 10:04 am

winky dinglehoffer wrote:
Thu May 20, 2021 1:08 pm
Is the first channel by any chance the closest to the power supply?
Interesting question! But no... it’s actually the farthest from the PSU.
A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Thu May 20, 2021 9:41 am
If you've got a frequency analyzer you can use it to spot any noise that's too low or high for your monitors to reproduce. Max out the gain on the affected channel and a non-affected channel so you can compare.
I was wondering about “inaudible” sounds being what’s on the meter — this preamp does claim to go “fairly flatly from 1.5Hz up to 500KHz” so I wonder. That said — I’m not sure if my 0-scope would do the trick, but it’s worth a look. I’ll try to get into that approach over the weekend.

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Re: True Systems precision8 led issues?

Post by The Scum » Fri May 21, 2021 11:50 am

If you're in there, get some closeup photos of the guts!

I'd imagine the metering is a quad opamp per channel, wired as a string of comparators. So either the signal into it is funny, or the reference voltage is.
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alexdingley
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Re: True Systems precision8 led issues?

Post by alexdingley » Fri May 21, 2021 6:30 pm

Reverb.com support needed me to make a 24hr decision, and it was "accept 30% refund, to take it 'as-is', or return it"... so I'm gonna return it, as I don't have a clear sense of how bad the problem is / I haven't even had a chance to test the phantom power (which a friend says could be related to the problem)... so I'm just gonna have to send this one back and try my luck again on another.

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Re: True Systems precision8 led issues?

Post by The Scum » Sun May 23, 2021 11:16 am

Did this one come from Colorado, by chance?

There was one for a steal on local CL that's not there any longer. I'd been considering it myself, but it it's a basket case, probably best to steer clear.
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Re: True Systems precision8 led issues?

Post by alexdingley » Wed May 26, 2021 6:52 pm

Nah;

It came from (and is now on its way back to) Kalamazoo MI.

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