Still connecting your wave – Manley The WAVE DAC/Preamp 24/96 Version Serial Code WAVE016-present 2002 - present User Manual

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6. Turn ON the On/Off power switch (ON=1) and then push the STANDBY button to wake up the audio chassis.

Let the WAVE warm-up for a few minutes. You should be seeing the blue LEDs light up and some more
noticably bright than others. The MUTE button should have started out bright and probably went dim after
20 seconds. This is the warm-up delay which MUTEs the outputs until the unit is warmed up and ready to
play tunes. You may push a few buttons at this point. Notice that when a button is pushed it toggles from dim
to bright to back to dim (bright = selected status). When you first turn on the WAVE it may be in a random
state. Perhaps we should start off with some buttons in the "dim" unselected mode. PHASE, INSERT and
MUTE should be deactivated and dim as soon as the 20 second warm-up/wake-up cycle is over. (If one of
the four digital sources is selected and it is not sending data, then the WAVE will automatically MUTE. Try
selecting analog Input 1 (A 1) to verify this.)

7. Let us start off checking with a favorite CD. First select the input that you have chosen for the CD. If you

are driving your WAVE with one of the CD player's Digital Outputs, press the corresponding Digital Input
select button on the WAVE. If you are coming into the WAVE via one of the stereo analog inputs, select that
input instead. Press PLAY on the CD player. If you are using one of the digital inputs, then the 44.1 LED
will be on and the WAVE MUTE will go off and the MUTE LED will be dim. Slowly turn up the Volume
Control and enjoy the music. Next check the other sources to verify they all work fine. From here on out, use
the STANDBY button to power down the WAVE when you're not listening to it to let him sleep for the night...
you no longer need to crawl around the back of the power supply and you can hide him out of the way if you
like.

Troubleshooting: It is rare that any of these initial problems occur but if they do here are some quick things to try.
More troubleshooting hints are on page 16 and 17.

SILENCE on ONE SIDE: Sometimes we don't get an interconnect pushed in enough for good contact and it

disconnects while we plug other wires in or move the component. Power down, check the interconnects, re-
check all your cables. Power up and try again. If you have sound, sit back and enjoy. If not, you may want
to temporaily swap some interconnects left to right to verify that you a) have sound coming out the source,
b) each of the interconnects is verified to be working fine, c) everything IS plugged into appropriate jacks and/
or each of the Wave's inputs seems to accept signal.

HUM: First try the Grounding Posts on the back of the WAVE by un-strapping the two terminals and/or

connecting a wire from either terminal to the suspect device. You can also try a mains ground adapter if they
are legal in your country. They are also called 3 pin to 2 pin adapters or "cheaters" and are available in
hardware stores. There should be ONE GROUND in your system and only one. If two or more pieces of gear
are grounded into the wall sockets via 3 pin AC cables a ground loop can occur which will usually cause hum.
Today's power amps typically have 3 pin AC mains cables, so it is easy to see where between 2 power amps
and the WAVE, where one could have 3 grounds (at least) connected both via interconnects and AC mains
cables and that is two too many.

HISS: Usually one of the sources. This source may have a volume control that is turned down and forcing you

to turn up the volume of the WAVE to make up the gain you threw away. Adjust the source so that it is a similar
volume as your other sources. If it seems to be the one channel of the WAVE, then it is probably an input tube
(the shorter ones towards the front). Most tubes should last many years but sometimes they get noisy
prematurely. To verify, you can swap the two input tubes left to right (with the power off) then test again.
Be careful: tubes can be hot, don't bend any pins and gently wiggle the tube to remove it or insert it. Brute
force should not be needed. If it wasn't one of the input tubes then put them back into the original locations.
The output tubes will not contribute to the HISS category as they produce no gain in that stage.

NOISES: Sometimes a tube gets microphonic in shipping. This may result in a bit of "metallic ring" in the signal

or "ping" when the chassis is tapped, or even something that sounds like sputtering RF noise. Usually gently
tapping on the tube reveals the culprit and sometimes even cures it. Some amount of microphonics is to be
expected. If it is excessive, then time to replace an input tube. The output tubes will not contribute to the
NOISES category as they produce no gain in that stage.

BALANCE: The two speakers sound different. It may be the CD or source and the way it was recorded. First

try a different source. Next try swapping the inputs. Power down and swap left and right inputs. If it is the
source, then the problem will "follow" the swap. Return them to normal (L=L). You can check all the way
down the chain this way and really isolate and verify the problem. Was it the volume control on a power amp?

STILL CONNECTING YOUR WAVE