out of sync

i feel weird..... and i think the active mode is driving me nuts

on one hand, it's more exciting and dramatic but then i had a problem getting the right volume ....

at between 7 and 8 o'clock position, the transition from soft to loud to LOUD is too abrupt and sudden and there's nothing in between that feels right.....

so it's either too soft or too loud....... and because of this, i ended up listening at a level that was a wee bit uncomfortable.......

then there's something else.....

during certain passages, there was a hint of compression or even distortion from the left loudspeaker....... something i'd never experienced before

i tried my best to pinpoint the source but it remained elusive.....

strange that it didnt manifest itself when i use the passive mode.....

is the high gain from the DAC giving the system a problem??? maybe maybe.....

then i continued listening and trying to catch the problem......  

i thought i caught it but i wasnt 100% sure.....

in my mind, maybe the speaker clips to the mid-woofers were loose or it could be something worse......

since there's no harm making sure and i simply had to find out, i carefully and gently unscrewed and removed the lower mid-woofer to check.......

sure enough the clips were slightly loose..... !!

before i removed the clips, i'd prepared contact solution ....... and upon pulling them off, i wiped all the contacts with a pre-soaked cleaning swap........

you can call me anal but i always make sure i keep electrical contacts clean and fresh......

after cleaning, i used a long plier to squeeze the sides of the clips to tighten the grip and guess what? i snapped one side of the wider clip before i could say anything.....

DAMN!!

i cursed myself for being clumsy and foolish but hey, i was not going to murder myself for this....

fortunately the grip was still ok with only one side and everything seems alright after i fixed everything back......

somehow i still feel the distortion was there..... but again i was NOT very sure......

fearing the problem could persist and lead to other headaches, i switched the preamp back to passive mode and all seemed ok again.......

maybe i should just stick to the passive mode......

my worry now is should i...

a.        replace the broken clip with another? or

b.        remove all clips and solder the cables to the mid-woofer? or

c.        replace all clips with mini spades and connect everything together with screws and nuts?

the problem with me is i cant do nothing about it.....