My amp goes into protection mode randomly and when I switch to phono setting. I did notice my banana plugs were loose on my homemade speaker wires (probably from moving speakers in and out during listening sessions) so I dumped them and bought new professionally made speaker wires. I also replaced my phono interconnects just in case. Well the amplifier worked fine in power amp mode and phono for a couple weeks with no issues, but then the amp would just randomly go into protection mode when in power amp setting. Now as soon as I switch to phono the amp immediately goes into protect mode.
I did unhook everything from the amp and tried switching to phono and again it still goes to protect mode with no speaker wires or interconnects. Is it possible the amp got damaged from the loose speaker wires? Please help.
The first thing to try is to disconnect everything and unplug the amp fora few minutes. Leave everything disconnected and restart it. Restart and then try switching inputs with no connections attached. Turn off the amp and reconnect things one at a time to see if something else is to fault.
Something in the phono hardware is causing a fault and inducing protection mode. Have you tried modifying phono settings to see if that affects a fault?
The only thing I changed was the interconnects from phono to amp, I replaced them. Right now I have my turntable totally unhooked and using the model 30 in power amp mode hooked up to a sprout 100 so I can listen to the tv through my speakers. Hopefully it won’t go into protect mode now that the turntable is unhooked.
Sorry to hear that. Well I drove 3 hours to the closest Marantz “approved” repair shop. They kept it for two weeks and never called to let me know what they found. So I called and they said oh it’s ready we just had to do a factory reset. I drive down there and they show me it’s working so I take it home. I start playing records and notice the sound is way off. I look and didn’t realize they had it set on the MC setting. I had at the time an ortofon red MM cart. I switch back MM and it goes into protection mode.
Then I call Marantz tech support to let them know and they say send it back in. Also they said there is no factory reset other than unplugging the power cord. The repair tech told me he opened it up and had to reset it from the inside. Which I don’t think he did, I think he figured out that if he turned it to MC it didn’t go into protection mode when I put it on phono setting and hoped I wouldn’t notice. Not sure but they didn’t fix anything. So long story short I bought a Hana EL MC cart and have been using that and as long as I keep it on MC it works fine, but will immediately go into protection mode if I switch to MM. I think I’m eventually going to send it to Marantz New York or New Jersey repair shop( the Marantz tech said those are the best repair shops)to get fixed here soon and then just trade it in on something else. Whatever you do, do not send to the Boca Raton, Florida repair center, they are definitely shady.
Thanks for the quick reply. I just saw this… I also have Hana EL low output MC and it did shut down on me earlier this morning. I just unplugged and plugged it back to the power strip.
I have been using the phono input for hours before with no issues so I wonder what is going on today ! I’ve never used MM input on the Model30. Sad to hear yours goes immediately to Shutdown / protect mode when switched to MM. I don’t see any posts online about this other than you ! Hmmm… We must be the “lucky” ones ! Sigh…
My Model 30 does the same thing on the MM input, but it’s very random and intermittent. I have a Marantz TT-15S1 turntable with the stock clearaudio cart. Occasionally after a week or so on non-use, I’ll turn the amp and turntable on to discover a bit more of a hum from the speakers than is usual (Tannoy Stirling GR). This is without any music playing yet. When adjusting the volume knob, I hear an oscillation through the speakers and you can see the woofer cones move. Again this is with no music playing. After a short while, the Marantz Model 30 protection circuit will trip, the speakers make a popping sound, with the amp indicating one slow blink, followed by 5 faster blinks of the display’s amber LED. Unplugging the system and plugging back in resolves the issue in the immediate term, but the problem comes back eventually.
I suspected a ground indifference issue b/w the table and amp, but don’t know how to resolve it. The Marantz doesn’t even have an earthing lead on the IEC connector. So the tonearm is grounded to the Marantz chassis, but the Marantz chassis isn’t grounded to true earth, so far as I can tell.
I also suspect a cartridge that is occasionally microphonic, causing a feedback that puts the amp into protect mode. But I’m less confident about this hypothesis.
Now seeing that others have this same issue with the same amp leads me to believe these units have grounding problems that Marantz is either unaware of or unaware of how to address them, or a problem in the phono stage altogether.
I checked my outlets and they are wired correctly.
When the system behaves this way again, I have my multimeter on standby to measure for ground problems.
I also plan to disconnect the RCAs from the phono input next time in order to rule out cartridge microphonics.
I have no idea what else to do because I don’t trust a repair facility to adequately resolve the problem.
Sorry to hear you’re having issues as well. I’ve been using mine in MC mode with a hana EL and as long as I don’t turn it to MM setting the amp works fine, but I will eventually trade this in( I will let them know the issue) on something else or sell to a guy that works on amps. It hurts my heart because I love the sound of this amp, but have no confidence in Marantz any longer.
Yeah it’s a bummer all around. We can’t be the only few people with this problem. I’m going to phone Marantz about the issue when I get some time.
How do you like the Hana EL with the Marantz MC phono stage? I was looking into that cart myself…
I have an update after making some calls. I spoke with Fabian at Sound United tech support. Not much came of that call except that I need to get in touch with an authorized service center. I asked if the issue could be escalated to somebody that might have knowledge of this common issue, but that was met with a roadblock.
So I called the service center in NY, the line was busy.
I called the service center in Rockaway, NJ and spoke with Steve who was much more insightful. He had no knowledge of a common issue with this model. But he did advise the Model 30’s protection circuitry is indeed detecting some kind of fault or something it doesn’t like on that particular input, causing it to go into protect mode. The example he gave is potentially damaged or poorly wired cables in the turntable, which are all captive on the TT15, so the entire tonearm would need to be replaced.
I got the usual “disconnect everything, plug it all back in one by one speech”. But I already know the issue is isolated to the turntable, interconnects, or possibly still the amp itself. So I will try hooking up another turntable to my Model 30 for the time being and see if that replicates the issue. I will also hook up my TT15 to my Sprout100 to see if the problem follows the Model 30 or the TT15.
Once I confirm where the issue truly is, I will send either the Model 30 or TT15 to Rockaway for the necessary repairs, hoping they can actually replicate the issue and resolve it. I’m still not confident anything will actually be done about it but I have to go through their process and give it a shot.
RESOLVED. I have a happy update to my little Marantz protect mode problem. I plugged the table and amp into separate wall outlet locations back in October and the issue has not occurred again. I suspect there was a ground loop going on, and the Marantz was seeing DC on its input somehow, which explains why my speakers were moving the way they were. I confirmed Marantz’s protection circuitry will trip in the case it detects too much DC at the input.
Originally, I had the units plugged into the same power strip, and the problem occurred. Then, I plugged both units straight into the wall but to the same duplex outlet, the problem still occurred. Then, I plugged the table into a completely different duplex outlet and kept the amp where it was, which seems to have resolved the issue.
Great to hear! I did try two different outlets on mine and no change, but I did originally have it plugged into a power strip with Tv, turntable etc. So maybe I damaged mine with the feedback loop.
has anyone got the answer for this problem. I have got lot of filtering on
my electric and still get this protection problem.
I have an Amp (Marantz Model 30) which, very randomly, goes into
protection mode when I switch to Phono setting. I’ve checked all
speaker wire connections to speakers (Wharfedale Eco 4.4) and Amp
and all is well.
My setup is so
A Smart Power station (Thor PS10) which changes the input voltage of the
house from 250V-255V to 220V with a pure unpolluted sinewave power 24/7.
Connected to the Power Station is a power board (Thor SmartBoard A12BF)
which has 8 protected outlets across 3 isolated banks.
The Marantz Amp is connected to one of these isolated banks on the power board.
On one of the other isolated banks is a Rega Neo PSU MK2 which produces output
24V, 350mA and a perfect sinusoidal waveform to drive the 24v motor of the
Planar P3 Turntable.
I’ve looked on various HiFi sites and there are others who have this same problem
but no solution.
I’ve tried connecting and disconnecting all configurations with no success.
Thankyou for looking into this and hoping for a solution
Regards Neil
My guess would be it has nothing to do with the AC power. It’s more likely that when you switch to phono you get a big “pop” through the speakers and the amp sees that spike and shuts down the amp. Why you get that big pop is another problem to be solved but that would be my guess.
Try turning your phono setting to MC and then turn to phono. That works for me. I had to buy an MC cart and it works fine only on MC and has not gone into protect mode for me since. Not the best solution but works for me and I’m out of warranty so didn’t want to deal with that.
