Ableton Forum

Hi all!

Absolutely gutted one of my KRK VXT 6 has gone caput! I haven’t had any problems up until now. Only had them just over 2 years from new.

They were working fine when I came home from work, switched them off went downstairs to make dinner, came back switched them on and noticed the left speaker’s KRK logo was not illuminated.

Turned everything off and on again and no luck. I tried to fault find the problem. This is what I did.

1. Swapped the power cables going into the KRK from the one that was working. Result KRK logo not illuminated. Therefore fuse and power cable was ok.
2. Took out the fuse from the offending speaker and saw it had not blown. Anyway there is a spare in there so changed it and again no light on the KRK logo.
3. I also plugged the speaker into a different socket in the house again no light.
4. The auto mute function on the speaker is off and has never been turned on so that is also ruled out as problematic.

I’m now looking for a repair centre to get it diagnosed and fixed. I can’t believe this has happened on a KRK monitor just only 2 years old!

Volumes used have been very low as I have them in a small box room so I haven’t ruined them by pushing them.

Has anyone else has issues with KRK VXT’s like this before?

Cheers!

There built to a cost but should last much longer than that. I have KRK Rokit 8 which are almost 10 years old and still function perfectly. I switch them off with a master switch when not in use but they get a lot of use.

I'm lucky since i'm an electronic engineer so I can typically fault find and fix these kinds of things myself and the fuse and cable are the first things to check.

If it is not powering up it could be a faulty switch, loose wire, dry capacitor, cracked/stressed solder joint, failed regulator, Blown component etc. For any basic technician it should be easy to test what is not the issue and pin point the possible cause but i'd hazard a guess that it will cost you about $100 to get someone to have a look.

You can do a basic check yourself first, always give it a go. Unplug it then take the amp out the back. Should be easy to remove with just a few screws and have a look for obvious things like a wire that may have come loose, push the power switch wires on the board etc. See if you can smell anything burned.

Next check for dry capacitors around where the AC power connects to the board. They will usually be larger capacitors and dry ones will have a bulge at the top like these:


If you find any cap that is a little bulged on top then that's probably the cause. I would only recommend replacing these yourself if you know about capacitors and their polarity and how to de-solder/re-solder components. Take it to a repair centre and tell them what you believe the issue is.

Beyond that you need to start doing PCB inspection and component/voltage tests which starts to require some working electronics knowledge.

Thank you very much for your reply. Very informative and well written. Appreciated. I since have, contacted and dropped off my krk to a company who deal with these products and can fault find and repair. Im no good at electronics so I'd rather get someone who knows to look at it.

Hopefully its nothing major. On an interesting note im always switching on and off the monitors when not in use with the switch located at the back of the monitor. I may have tired out the switch however I'll be surprised as the switches should have a long life.... not sure anything is possible.

I may invest in a master switch as you have so that I dont have to keep turning on and off my monitors from the rear.
Once again thanks for your reply!

Ravdeep wrote: I may invest in a master switch as you have so that I dont have to keep turning on and off my monitors from the rear.

i highly recommend a foot switch, like this:

Thanks for that!

I got in touch with the audio repair centre. They have found the problem. Some resistors in the power supply unit in the krk are dead. So they can replace them which will fix the issue. All in all its costing 88 GBP.

I know its a little expensive but rather just get it done and I was expecting that sort of price to do the job anyway.

On another note, if I get this foot pedal switch, will the speakers not make a 'popping' noise if I turn off the power to them from the pedal switch? Isnt this bad for your speakers if they are turned off from the mains?

Cheers!

Ravdeep wrote: On another note, if I get this foot pedal switch, will the speakers not make a 'popping' noise if I turn off the power to them from the pedal switch? Isnt this bad for your speakers if they are turned off from the mains?

it shouldn't make your speakers pop, since turning the power off at the mains—in the vast majority of cases—is more or less the same as flipping each speaker's own power switch. in fact, i use the foot switch to avoid the pops that would otherwise occur when my audio interface goes to sleep or wakes up...

Mine don't make a single pop or crack when they switch on or off. Most of these plate amps have delay circuits that delay the amp for a second while the board powers up to prevent pops.