static popping in right channel speaker on some tones

[Bill]

Hello, I just received the xw-p1 synth and I have two questions...1) I am playing through my kenwood stereo amp and polk audio speakers and on some tones, particularly lower synth tones, I get some static popping through the right channel speaker.  It seems to be just on the right side and not the speaker itself...it also seems to pop on the initial note and does not continue with repeating strikes of the same note...but if you change to another lower note it will initially pop again.  I was playing a casio wk-7500 before the xw-p1 and on some strong drum rhythm accomps. it would have some popping there...just right side also....and 2) What should be the relationship of the two volume controls?...the volume control on the xw-p1 and the volume control on the amplifier?...should one be higher than the other?  Thanks for any replies...

[Patrick Arend]

Hi bill, the xw-p1 seem's to have a lot of volume, it and the motif are the only digital synth's I have owned that could probably blow my speaker's. I have to keep my xw-p1  volume at around two oclock,  if turning down xw-p1 doesn't work try testing your speaker's by running other gear or cd,mp3 player's through speaker's. Make sure volume of external gear is up. if other gear make's your speaker's pop, you could have a blown tweeter on the right speaker. if speaker's don't pop with external gear then it might be the xw-p1, on some tones the xw-p1 will slightly pop, if you turn the cutoff a little to the left it will eliminate the pop. I have found turning cutoff just a little doesn't effect the tone. if any of these thing's doesn't work then it could be that you need an audio mixer running through moniter speaker's. as opposed to using the stereo kenwood, that is if the kenwood is made for listening to music like cd's or mp3 player's . as far as what level,s of the gear, and the kenwood, when in doubt  just turn everything to about half volume, bring up volume's gradually til pop apear's, then back down the volume a little until speaker's stop popping.   hope this was helpfull.

[Bill]

Thanks for the reply...I don't think it is the speaker because I swapped speakers from right to left and still only popped on the right side. Volume is really not turned up that much...but you are saying to keep volume lower on xw-p1 than amp...will try that. I do have the treble turned up highest...and bass turned down lowest...on the amp...because this way provided the best sound with my wk-7500 keyboard and assumed that would be the case with the synth. Having the settings "normal" for cd's etc....the sound with the keyboards was too booming bass-wise and muted. I can try putting the speakers on some "rear" terminals on the amp to see if the problem is with the right channel on the "front" speaker terminals. Thanks...

[AlenK]

Hi Bill,

The XW's default equalization is probably different than the WK-7500's. I don't think it is lacking in treble. It also has a fully adjustable 4-band master equalizer that you could use to tame whatever imbalance you are hearing in your system. IIRC the 7500 has only some preset curves. So you might not need to, or want to, turn up the treble on the Kenwood amp. That might just be contributing to the problem (for instance, by internally overdriving the amp, which could just happen to be more sensitive in the right channel due to circuit tolerance differences - popping on the first note but not subsequent ones suggests an internal limiter is kicking in).

FWIW, I'm currently running my XW-P1 into a forty-year old Technics receiver with a paltry 30 watts per channel that drives a pair of nicely-sized PSB 500 speakers (my studio-office sound system), the latter with 8-inch drivers and silk-dome tweeters. The sound seems just right; no lack of treble or bass but not too much either, IMO. And no static popping as long as I keep the XW's output fairly low; I can hear popping (in both channels in my setup) if I don't do that, however.

[- T -]

Any time you are trying to isolate a sound problem either to the keyboard or to the external sound system, just plug a set of headphones directly into the keyboard's PHONES jack.  If you still hear the problem in the headphones, then the problem is definitely in the keyboard.  If you do not hear the problem in the headphones, then the problem could be in the keyboard's LINE OUT (R/L) jacks and their immediate circuitry, but it is most likely in the external sound system.

[Bill]

Hey guys, thanks for the responses....I think I found my problem.  I had my synth going through the phono terminal on my amp. For some reason years ago, I originally ran my wk-7500 this way too...maybe because I was using other terminals, tape deck etc. and not playing vinyl much any more.  To get the best sound I had to set bass and treble like I said.  The sounds were good...just could not turn up volume very much because it was overpowering...not distorted, just overly strong, with some popping on some hard rhythms. There must be something different about the phono jack...because last night I disconnected everything and patched the xw-p1 into an aux jack...now the synth sounds have no static pop at all...and my bass and treble controls sound good back to their normal settings.  I have to raise the volume more on the amp...but it is nice and clear now. 

[AlenK]

Oh yeah, the phono input has a COMPLETELY different equalization and sensitivity designed to compensate for the relatively weak and pre-equalized signal coming from a turntable. It all makes sense now. (I can hear the youngsters asking what a turntable is. In a few years they'll be asking what a CD is. )

[Brad Saucier]

Blame it on reverse RIAA Eq curve and magnetic cartridges..  ahh  memories...