Klipsch Promedia 5.1's - Amp repair

shoot an email to Henry. [email protected]

Not sure if he's still doing but he did mine just last year, right when covid hit. fixed up my dead 5.1 ultra amp. running like a champ now. paid to have the active cooling fan added so shouldn't have any burnout problems, which is basically what kills these amps. too much heat and it bakes the components dry most of the time.

They really are nice speakers, but when this set eventually goes I'm probably going to just move to some studios that have LFE output, I really only use my 5.1ultras in a 2.1 fashion anyhows.

https://www.kantoaudio.com/products/

you can usually get these Kanto's reasonable and beauty is they have LFE output which like %95 of studios don't have.
 
After all these years I still have the satellite speakers. I need to dig them out and pair them with something compatible.
 
shoot an email to Henry. [email protected]

Not sure if he's still doing but he did mine just last year, right when covid hit. fixed up my dead 5.1 ultra amp. running like a champ now. paid to have the active cooling fan added so shouldn't have any burnout problems, which is basically what kills these amps. too much heat and it bakes the components dry most of the time.

They really are nice speakers, but when this set eventually goes I'm probably going to just move to some studios that have LFE output, I really only use my 5.1ultras in a 2.1 fashion anyhows.

https://www.kantoaudio.com/products/

you can usually get these Kanto's reasonable and beauty is they have LFE output which like %95 of studios don't have.
Hi,
It has been some years since I posted. I am still doing ProMedia repairs (begun in October 2005). 2020 saw three big improvements: a) an engineer (initials JH; not sure if he wants privacy) helped me develop replacements for the ceramic BASH HC1011 boards that become intermittent. About 1/3 of recent repairs are due to one or both ceramic BASH boards failing--distortion, no voltage, intermittent, or too high voltage. b) the same, generous engineer helped me develop a replacement daughter board for the power supply (AC-DC converter board). The original daughter boards have components sitting at 185 degrees and will char and fail if there is no fan over them, and an undersized resistor changes value until it silences the system. c) I switched to using Noctua fans. These 150,000 hour fans are quiet and so durable. With these improvements, plus upgrading fourteen other vulnerable capacitors, resistors, a transistor and two diodes, the ProMedia 5.1 can be enjoyed for many more hours. People do reach me also via ebay (Stpeteshepherd), but then I am obligated to go through ebay, and the price is higher with their up-to-13% fees included.
Unfortunately, even as consumer video has improved by leaps--higher resolution, more vibrant colors and greater contrast, home audio has gone the other direction--toward cheaper, portable systems that produce distortion levels which years ago would have been an embarrassment. 20 years after the ProMedia 5.1 came out, it holds a welcome place in many homes.
Henry
 
shoot an email to Henry. [email protected]

Not sure if he's still doing but he did mine just last year, right when covid hit. fixed up my dead 5.1 ultra amp. running like a champ now. paid to have the active cooling fan added so shouldn't have any burnout problems, which is basically what kills these amps. too much heat and it bakes the components dry most of the time.

They really are nice speakers, but when this set eventually goes I'm probably going to just move to some studios that have LFE output, I really only use my 5.1ultras in a 2.1 fashion anyhows.

https://www.kantoaudio.com/products/

you can usually get these Kanto's reasonable and beauty is they have LFE output which like %95 of studios don't have.
Thank you for the recommendations, I originally had them fixed by Henry. They broke again after that, I was hoping that Henry might be still around. I have been collecting started with Klipsch Promodia 2.1(sold), 4.1(Sold), then 5.1 ultras(Still have), Logitech z5500s(Still have) and now I have Vanatoos both versions encores and zeros site URL: https://vanatoo.com/ .
 
Yeah. I had Henry (stpeteshepherd) fix my amp for the third and last time. Had the BASH chips upgraded to his own home grown ones now, too. Been working fine for a few months now.
 
Henry told me about his new fixes, I can't wait to get him to look at mine and fix it with his new repair ideas.
 
Hi,
It has been some years since I posted. I am still doing ProMedia repairs (begun in October 2005). 2020 saw three big improvements: a) an engineer (initials JH; not sure if he wants privacy) helped me develop replacements for the ceramic BASH HC1011 boards that become intermittent. About 1/3 of recent repairs are due to one or both ceramic BASH boards failing--distortion, no voltage, intermittent, or too high voltage. b) the same, generous engineer helped me develop a replacement daughter board for the power supply (AC-DC converter board). The original daughter boards have components sitting at 185 degrees and will char and fail if there is no fan over them, and an undersized resistor changes value until it silences the system. c) I switched to using Noctua fans. These 150,000 hour fans are quiet and so durable. With these improvements, plus upgrading fourteen other vulnerable capacitors, resistors, a transistor and two diodes, the ProMedia 5.1 can be enjoyed for many more hours. People do reach me also via ebay (Stpeteshepherd), but then I am obligated to go through ebay, and the price is higher with their up-to-13% fees included.
Unfortunately, even as consumer video has improved by leaps--higher resolution, more vibrant colors and greater contrast, home audio has gone the other direction--toward cheaper, portable systems that produce distortion levels which years ago would have been an embarrassment. 20 years after the ProMedia 5.1 came out, it holds a welcome place in many homes.
Henry
Is it for real? Still going? My dead pro-media 5.1 ultra's have been moving with me from place to place for 15 years? If I remember well, they had the humming issue, and may have stopped. I was eager to repair it on my own one day.

Just this weekend I was looking at sound bars. Then I remember I have these ultra's in my crawl space still lol and did a casual search cause I remember many years ago wanting to get them fixed... then this thread pops up and it's alive and well lol. Amazing.

I'm in Canada so it's not economical to get it shipped for repairs but is the EBay package for real? Get all the parts swapped out and voila? I wouldn't do it myself anymore, but I think I have a buddy who could.
 
I've kept this thread 'favorited' for years; I knew I would one day need it. I just hope that Henry's services are still available.

My 4.1 system started going downhill 15 years ago; still usable but suffered from the crackly muffled problems. They still worked but the February rolling blackouts, in Texas, finished them off. Ditto for my 5.1 system ; that hum was just getting louder and louder. I hope they can be repaired. Those blackouts and power surges ruined a lot of stuff not just speakers.

I bought a new 2.1 system from Klipsch to hold me over until I can have my 5.1 and 4.1 systems repaired. The 2.1 just isn't the system the other two are. Still, there are much better than other speakers at their price point. Much better.

I bought the 4.1 system in the late 90's and the 5.1 in the early aughties. I also had the 4.2 but my son took it to college.

These little Klipsch systems are just great small-room setups.
 
Hi all,
Old thread but just what I was looking for. I want to strip the circuit board, amp, wiring etc out of my Klipsch Promedia 5.1 sub and then hook up a small mono amp to make it an active (or powered) subwoofer. Then I'll hook that to another little amp that can drive 2 of the old Klipsch horns and have myself a 2.1 system with bluetooth capability. On another forum someone stated the subwoofer is rated for 170W (is this correct?) and I don't know how many Ohm. The speakers appear to be rated 6 Ohm, so does it follow the sub would be the same?
Last question - what would be the calculation to figure out the Watts needed at 6 Ohms? The amps I looked at gave figures for 4 and 8 Ohm respectively. Is there a constant in this equation or is it more complex than that?

Many thanks for any light you can shed.
 
Despite mine getting repaired, it's broken again. Most of the speaker connections don't work now. For being such a great brand and set, they sure are cheap.
 
Hi all,
Old thread but just what I was looking for. I want to strip the circuit board, amp, wiring etc out of my Klipsch Promedia 5.1 sub and then hook up a small mono amp to make it an active (or powered) subwoofer. Then I'll hook that to another little amp that can drive 2 of the old Klipsch horns and have myself a 2.1 system with bluetooth capability. On another forum someone stated the subwoofer is rated for 170W (is this correct?) and I don't know how many Ohm. The speakers appear to be rated 6 Ohm, so does it follow the sub would be the same?
Last question - what would be the calculation to figure out the Watts needed at 6 Ohms? The amps I looked at gave figures for 4 and 8 Ohm respectively. Is there a constant in this equation or is it more complex than that?

Many thanks for any light you can shed.
The ProMedia 5.1 amplifier for the subwoofer section is rated for 170 watts. Each 8" sub speaker is rated 6 ohms and 100 watts, so 200 watts combined as a pair. In the subwoofer they are wired in series, so have an effective 12 ohm impedance. If they are rewired in parallel that would be a 3 ohm impedance. When matching an amplifier to speakers, a good amplifier will be able to produce double the wattage when impedance drops in half. So a 100 watt amplifier rating at 8 ohms should be 200 watts at 4 ohms, and 400 watts at 2 ohms. If you had an amplifier rated at 150 watts at 8 ohms and 300 watts into 4 ohms, that should work well the two 8" 6-ohm speakers wired in parallel. (Such amplifier quality is extremely rare these days; the last reasonably priced amplifiers of this capability I found were Rockford Fosgate car amps 20 years ago). You want to be sure your speaker impedance is not below the amplifier's minimum rating. If you like sound quality, beware of cheap class D amplifiers, especially for satellite speakers. Years ago total harmonic distortion over 1% was not welcome, and over 10% was considered noticeable. Now high THD is common. Klipsch used a nice class G/H design for low distortion while keeping efficiency higher than class A/B.
 
Despite mine getting repaired, it's broken again. Most of the speaker connections don't work now. For being such a great brand and set, they sure are cheap.
When individual satellite channels fail, over 98% of the time the problem is not inside the Klipsch amplifier. (I can only recall about 3 individual amplifier failures in 1000 repairs). First rule out the input cables. The factory input cables were not designed to last 20 years. Frequently they degrade internally, regardless of whether they were tripped on or tugged by grasping the cable rather than the plug. I no longer use Klipsch's original cables, but Monoprice has some very good 22 gauge heavy duty cables that work great. Less frequently (perhaps 1/4 of the time) there is a sound card/signal source issue that causes individual/multiple channels to drop volume, distort, or be silent. Sometimes people have had undetected speaker wire damage, where a nick caused the loss of signal. Still others have had too little insulation stripped from the ends of the speaker wires, and after fully inserting the wire into the output terminal, the metal & plastic contacts squeeze on the insulation, rather than making electrical contact with the short tinned length at the tip.
 
Thank you so much for your detailed and most helpful replies (y), that gives me a good idea what to look for. It's a slow boil project, but I'll be sure to return and let forum readers know how I got on, just in case it's useful for someone.
 
Dumb question but can the Klipsch speakers be run on a normal AV receiver?

I just threw out the subwoofer because my entire rear channel was gone and the sub was sitting in my closet for years.. If there is use for the 5 speakers, I'll keep them, but if not I guess those will go in the trash this week.
I've had the sub repaired a couple times before. But it's never a lasting thing, which is a shame. It was such a nice system. I don't even know what would be comparable in todays standards to the speakers.

-Nigel
 
What pendragon1 said.
Obviously the sub-woofer cannot be used without serious modifications, but center and satelites are normal.

No idea what newer systems are as good. My guess is few if any.

If you can retrieve your sub woofer/amp unit, there are some people who rebuild them. Was just looking on ebay and see some there now.
 
Dumb question but can the Klipsch speakers be run on a normal AV receiver?

I just threw out the subwoofer because my entire rear channel was gone and the sub was sitting in my closet for years.. If there is use for the 5 speakers, I'll keep them, but if not I guess those will go in the trash this week.
I've had the sub repaired a couple times before. But it's never a lasting thing, which is a shame. It was such a nice system. I don't even know what would be comparable in todays standards to the speakers.

-Nigel
Hi Nigel,
The satellite speakers are 6 ohm, so they can be used with most AV receivers. Typical home speaker impedance is 8 ohms, but good quality receivers can handle down to 4 ohms. They are are efficient and produce good volume per watt, but are not rated for big power.
You mentioned the "entire rear channel was gone". As I noted last October 23 here, it is extremely rare for a single channel to fail due to an internal amplifier problem, but $5 input cable failures after 15 to 20 years are actually common. For both rear channels to fail, that is either a sound card or input cable issue. Your amplifier may be due for some refreshening, but the rear channel failure is something external. Klipsch used better quality input cables for the 4.1 and v.2-400 systems, but the 5.1 cables degrade internally. Monoprice has nice 22 gauge replacement cables.
If you can still retrieve that subwoofer, the amplifier has a core value to me. I don't know of any system under $1000 today that has 24 MOSFETs for the amplifier output stages like the ProMedia 5.1 system uses. In the last two years an engineer helped me develop two new boards for the ProMedia, and results are excellent. Combined with a Noctua 150,000 hour fan and fifteen other upgraded components, these systems can perform well for many more hours.
 
Appreciate all the info. I replaced the cables long ago with higher end cables I had. I used to work at an audio video shop many years ago. I too thought something was odd that the rear channel went out but when I switched audio cables, sound card and ever tried a completely different computer, it experienced the same problem. I verified that all speakers were functional as well.

Unfortunately the sub is in a land fill. I have both a higher end Yamaha receiver and a Denon receiver, I just wasn't 100% sure if these speakers would work with it. Knowing that they do, I'll be using them in the garage now. So at least it won't go to waste :)

It's weird that Klipsch makes the promedia 2.1 still... we talking what 20 years now or so? But doesn't make the 5.1.. :-(

-Nigel
 
Does anyone know of there's anything that rivals these for pc? I got the 4.1 set back on 2000 and I did the Amp repair once. But now I can only run 2 satellite speakers now not 4 :(..I'm not sure what went wrong if rear channel is gone on Amp?
 
Hi Nigel,
The satellite speakers are 6 ohm, so they can be used with most AV receivers. Typical home speaker impedance is 8 ohms, but good quality receivers can handle down to 4 ohms. They are are efficient and produce good volume per watt, but are not rated for big power.
You mentioned the "entire rear channel was gone". As I noted last October 23 here, it is extremely rare for a single channel to fail due to an internal amplifier problem, but $5 input cable failures after 15 to 20 years are actually common. For both rear channels to fail, that is either a sound card or input cable issue. Your amplifier may be due for some refreshening, but the rear channel failure is something external. Klipsch used better quality input cables for the 4.1 and v.2-400 systems, but the 5.1 cables degrade internally. Monoprice has nice 22 gauge replacement cables.
If you can still retrieve that subwoofer, the amplifier has a core value to me. I don't know of any system under $1000 today that has 24 MOSFETs for the amplifier output stages like the ProMedia 5.1 system uses. In the last two years an engineer helped me develop two new boards for the ProMedia, and results are excellent. Combined with a Noctua 150,000 hour fan and fifteen other upgraded components, these systems can perform well for many more hours.
Hi Stpete,
I’m very interested in having my Pro Media Ultra 5.1’s repaired. You stated that you still do repairs on these. I developed the loud humming several months ago. I also had them repaired by someone about 10 years ago that used an alternate chip that doesn’t allow the system to switch smoothly between headphones and speakers. The satellites work fine. I love these speakers and do not want to sell them for cheap or discard them because they don’t work properly.
 
Does anyone know of there's anything that rivals these for pc? I got the 4.1 set back on 2000 and I did the Amp repair once. But now I can only run 2 satellite speakers now not 4 :(..I'm not sure what went wrong if rear channel is gone on Amp?
Are the 2 that work both either fronts or rears?
 
Are the 2 that work both either fronts or rears?
I'm not really sure how can I check? I think it might be an issue with the 3.5mm jack. Whenever I use the green one if you if slightly move it the sound coming from speakers sounds weird or distorts. When using the pink one it seems to be ok. But right now I can only use 2 speakers. I've already gotten this Amp repaired by the guy that was doing it here.
 
I'm not really sure how can I check? I think it might be an issue with the 3.5mm jack. Whenever I use the green one if you if slightly move it the sound coming from speakers sounds weird or distorts. When using the pink one it seems to be ok. But right now I can only use 2 speakers. I've already gotten this Amp repaired by the guy that was doing it here.
It's possible that the green connector is going bad. The flexible boot area where the bends occur can be the issue. It's also possible that the jack itself is the problem. You can try putting the pink one in the jack that the green one normally goes in to see if it still messes up. If so it's probably the jack.
 
Is there anyway to fix the connectors ice heard that they often fail in the bend like you mentioned
 
Is there anyway to fix the connectors ice heard that they often fail in the bend like you mentioned
stpeteshepherd probably has replacement cable sets or you could search for solderable 3.5mm stereo jack plug 90 degree.
 
stpeteshepherd probably has replacement cable sets or you could search for solderable 3.5mm stereo jack plug 90 degree.
Soldering is required to fix the connectors? I guess I'll have to live with two speakers only lol
 
Soldering is required to fix the connectors? I guess I'll have to live with two speakers only lol
This "may" work for your needs but you would probably need an ohm meter . Would be better to check with stpeteshephard though. Search

10x 3.5mm 1/8" Stereo Male Plug To AV Screw Video AV Balun Terminal Plug Adapter on Ebay.​

 
Is it
This "may" work for your needs but you would probably need an ohm meter . Would be better to check with stpeteshephard though. Search

10x 3.5mm 1/8" Stereo Male Plug To AV Screw Video AV Balun Terminal Plug Adapter on Ebay.​

Is it only on eBay? Does Amazon carry it?
 
Closest I could find:

Poyiccot 3.5mm(1/8inch) Stereo Audio Balanced Male Jack to AV 3-Screw Video Balun Terminal Adapter Connector​

How does that work? I just cut into my line and attach it to the pins? What goes where? Nvm I saw in the pictures where it goes. But how can I know if this is my issue before?
 
Bump for help?
Closest I could find:

Poyiccot 3.5mm(1/8inch) Stereo Audio Balanced Male Jack to AV 3-Screw Video Balun Terminal Adapter Connector​

Is there anyway to know if the connector is the issue or if it's something else??
 
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I'm amazed this post of mine is till going after all this time. Sadly I gave up on my 5.1's during COVID as they became problematic again. I more than got my money's worth out of them, and now I have Logitech Z906's, though I mostly use headphones at this point. Glad there are still folks out there keeping these bad boys alive! Shame Klipsch doesn't see the love here. I did get there 7.1 Atmos for my living room where I also game at. So never truly cut the cord. :)
 
I'm amazed this post of mine is till going after all this time. Sadly I gave up on my 5.1's during COVID as they became problematic again. I more than got my money's worth out of them, and now I have Logitech Z906's, though I mostly use headphones at this point. Glad there are still folks out there keeping these bad boys alive! Shame Klipsch doesn't see the love here. I did get there 7.1 Atmos for my living room where I also game at. So never truly cut the cord. :)
I still haven't let mine go. Only 2 satellites work but that's actually enough for me I don't need it to loud. I think I'm having issues with my input cables or 2 channels of the sound board. All four satellites work but only on 2 channels instead of the original 4...
 
Dumb question but can the Klipsch speakers be run on a normal AV receiver?

I just threw out the subwoofer because my entire rear channel was gone and the sub was sitting in my closet for years.. If there is use for the 5 speakers, I'll keep them, but if not I guess those will go in the trash this week.
I've had the sub repaired a couple times before. But it's never a lasting thing, which is a shame. It was such a nice system. I don't even know what would be comparable in todays standards to the speakers.

-Nigel
Did you throw those away?
 
my original v2 400 has a constant hissing noise from the satellites now. Was working great for 22 years until now.

is this usually a capacitor problem?

I removed the amp, and I think I see a slightly bulging 47uf 50v cap, but I'm too uninformed to know if this is what might be causing the issue.

IMG_20220802_164458306.jpg


IMG_20220802_173241230.jpg
 
my original v2 400 has a constant hissing noise from the satellites now. Was working great for 22 years until now.

is this usually a capacitor problem?

I removed the amp, and I think I see a slightly bulging 47uf 50v cap, but I'm too uninformed to know if this is what might be causing the issue.

View attachment 497419

View attachment 497420
I think mine are around similar age. I did get them repaired by the guy here though. However I also hear the hissing noise but someone said it might be the 3.5mm Jack? For sum reason I can only run one or two satellites, in guessing the rear channel is maybe blown
 
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