Sudden Prism Orpheus power off

[sparrow]

About four months ago I got a brand new Prism Orpheus . I have to say it's a delightful piece of equipment to work with. The drivers are stable, the sound is just perfect, even the preamps are very good to me.

I've just been having the following trouble, and it's happening more often now:

After a few hours of recording the unit will simply power off by itself. It will only let me turn it on again after about five minutes.

It looks to me like an overheating issue. I just don't understand the causes of this.

I wonder if anybody has had any such problems with the Orpheus. I will of course contact the manufacturer to inquire what must be causing this issue, but maybe it's just something as simple as leaving more space in the rackmount between the Orpheus and the other gear. Place a fan?

I'd appreciate your advice.

Thanks.

[Phaidon]

Do you have it in a rack? Do you have blank space on top and bottom of the unit? If not try this to see if it's overheating or not?

Still I would say it's not normal behavior. You should maybe get in touch with Prism.


Cheers

[OJS]

I have an Orpheus and it's switched on for HOURS. Never had this issue, though.
Contact Prism. They take their customer support very seriously.

Good luck!

[techsupport]

Hi

My Mate has the following problem with his orpheus:

Get up in the morning, walk down to the studio, turn the gear on.

Orpheus will not power up. unplug orpheus, go into another room, plug it in, it powers up. go back to studio, plug everything in, orpheus powers up no problem.

This happens no matter what start-up or shut-down order is followed.
I am an electrician, checked the electrics in his house, no problem.

As for prism, they are happy to take a look, for £275, paid upfront.
Yes, the unit is more than a year old, but surely they should be willing to investigate it first before taking any money. A piece of gear in the price range should simply work, and not just for the one year warranty period!

[pdiddy boy]

I must say this thread is worrying, especially as I planning on using my Prism Orpheus in a humid country in the future. Hmmmm.

[sparrow]

First of all I'd like to thank you mates for the replies.
Yes, it's worrying indeed... I haven't been enjoying much any tracking sessions at my studio lately.
The humidity thing is something I haven't really thought about. Buenos Aires is a very humid place and the moments the unit powers off are moments when the mixing room is particularly crowded (high levels of dampness in the room). Mine is a rather small room. Am I making sense here?

The first time it shut down I had my API 2500 and a stereo tube preamp on. Both are basically underneath the orpheus as you can see here:





What really worried me was when it shut down while recording and the only machine on was the Orpheus itself!

Anyways I'll be calling Prism Sound first thing Monday.


Thanks.

[pdiddy boy]

I must say looking at your photo the Orpheus does look extremely tightly racked. I would definitely look at providing more ventilation to the unit and remember heat always rises to the top so having the Orpheus on top of other really hot units is surely going to make it hotter is some instances.

[The MPCist]

Originally Posted by techsupport

As for prism, they are happy to take a look, for £275, paid upfront.

Yikes! I guess I'm not getting one.... And I thought Prism was serious about their tech support?

[The MPCist]

Originally Posted by pdiddy boy

I must say looking at your photo the Orpheus does look extremely tightly racked. I would definitely look at providing more ventilation to the unit and remember heat always rises to the top so having the Orpheus on top of other really hot units is surely going to make it hotter is some instances.

Looking at the pic --shouldn't be a problem since the top unit is a patchbay which probably is just a few inches deep with cables so there would be plenty of room for heat to dissipate.

It's probably one of those weird electro vibe things... I've got a few in my studio as well . Just gotta go get a cup of coffee, read the paper, and when I'm back, problem's gone... lol

[pdiddy boy]

Originally Posted by techsupport

As for prism, they are happy to take a look, for £275, paid upfront.

Yes, the unit is more than a year old, but surely they should be willing to investigate it first before taking any money. A piece of gear in the price range should simply work, and not just for the one year warranty period!

I definitely agree on both points, that just isn't right, for the £3000 + those units cost Prism should be rushing out to you with a replacement unit whiles your unit gets repaired. May be they only do that for big name high profile users... I am extremely concerned about this.

[sparrow]

Originally Posted by The MPCist

Looking at the pic --shouldn't be a problem since the top unit is a patchbay which probably is just a few inches deep with cables so there would be plenty of room for heat to dissipate.

It's probably one of those weird electro vibe things... I've got a few in my studio as well . Just gotta go get a cup of coffee, read the paper, and when I'm back, problem's gone... lol

That's exactly what I thought when I racked it -let's put it on top of the rack so the unit can have plenty of ventilation- that was my point. But the real point here is that the last time the thingy shut down there was no other gear engaged underneath it at all, just the Orpheus.

What's the explanation regarding these electro vibe events within a studio?, I've never heard about them.

Probably what I should do for the time being is anticipate to the crash and as you say, turn the unit off, take a five minute break and then get back to work. Within a twelve hour work day the Orpheus never collapsed more than once -great.

[bmanic]

Originally Posted by techsupport

As for prism, they are happy to take a look, for £275, paid upfront.
Yes, the unit is more than a year old, but surely they should be willing to investigate it first before taking any money. A piece of gear in the price range should simply work, and not just for the one year warranty period!

Holy crap! Is this true? Can anybody else confirm this?

I'm not very happy with the Orpheus as it's drivers are far from excellent and the unit is a bit temperamental (sometimes works on bootup, sometimes doesn't). The sound quality is of course stellar and it's the only reason I still keep it.

However, now that the Metric Halo ULN-8 is out I am seriously considering selling the Prism and getting the ULN instead.

I'm not at all convinced by Prism as a company, especially not if this 300 euro upfront service investigation/fee is true. Damn!

Cheers!
bManic

[Chris Allen]

Hi all,

'And I thought Prism was serious about their tech support?'

Yes, we're very serious when it comes to technical support. We're happy to help and depending on your location give us a call on -

UK: +44 1353 648 888
Americas: +1 937 289 3355

Alternatively send us an email at tech.support@prismsound.com or contact your local dealer.

Chris

[Empiria]

I've just purchased the Orpheus and I'd wish to avoid any troubles after a year. But if not, I truly hope "happy to help" means more than charging £275 just to take a look. That's made me sad.

[OurDarkness]

I have never heard of that charge before. Gee that's lame.tutt

[sparrow]

I've just sent an email to the tech support dept. Let's see what can be done.
I wanna make this very clear: I LOVE the Orpheus. Great sound, great features, etc... wouldn't like to see this thread turn into an Orpheus bash.

Nevertheless I'm quite worried. I've used other, less fancy interfaces and I never had this sort of thing happen.

I'll keep you posted.

[Blenn]

Originally Posted by Chris Allen

Hi all,

'And I thought Prism was serious about their tech support?'

Yes, we're very serious when it comes to technical support. We're happy to help and depending on your location give us a call on -

UK: +44 1353 648 888
Americas: +1 937 289 3355

Alternatively send us an email at tech.support@prismsound.com or contact your local dealer.

Chris

Chris,

Many thanks for the post. However you have not mentioned wether that £275 up front fee is correct or not.

Can you elaborate please.

From a fellow concerned Orpheus owner.

Paul

[Sinewave]

Originally Posted by sparrow

I've just sent an email to the tech support dept. Let's see what can be done.
I wanna make this very clear: I LOVE the Orpheus. Great sound, great features, etc... wouldn't like to see this thread turn into an Orpheus bash.

Nevertheless I'm quite worried. I've used other, less fancy interfaces and I never had this sort of thing happen.

I'll keep you posted.

I've also sent an e-mail to tech Support albeit for a different Orpheus problem.
I keep getting clicks being recorded into my audio files, when i use my old interface, no clicks no strange problems.

[hyper.real]

@techsupport:

If the item was purchased retail in EU then you probably have two years guarantee, not one, under Article 5 of the European Union Product Warranty Directive of 1999. This is not at all well known, but see outline position here:

Exercise your EU consumer rights | BitterWallet

If applicable, you would need to press your case with the retailer, not Prism, if the unit is less than two years old.

Intermittent problems are bothersome to identify, so it would help if it is clearly reproducible (no pun intended), e.g. isolating the unit, isolating the unit in another room and jacking up the ambient temperature, etc.

[Petrus]

Originally Posted by hyper.real

If the item was purchased retail in EU then you probably have two years guarantee, not one, under Article 5 of the European Union Product Warranty Directive of 1999. This is not at all well known,

Indeed consumers have more rights in EU than they realize (many appliances should last longer than the guarantee period and consumers can and do win these cases against the sellers. SELLER is responsible, not manufacturer).

If the buyer of the said appliance is a company, these consumer rights do not hold, as it is now a case between two busineses.

[Chris Allen]

Hi again all,

'I've just purchased the Orpheus and I'd wish to avoid any troubles after a year. But if not, I truly hope "happy to help" means more than charging £275 just to take a look. That's made me sad.' - If your Orpheus is still within warranty we'll fix any problems with your Orpheus for free. Of course a charge for parts and labour is applied if your unit is not within warranty. This price looks about right but contact your dealer for an accurate quote.

I would like to clarify that we only charge for repairs if the unit is sent back to us and if it is out of warranty; we try to solve any problems or issues with any of our products over the phone and email (which I would like to add we do not charge for) regardless of the age or model. If the product obviously cannot be fixed over phone or email then we can arrange to get the unit back to us and, yes, you will then be charged if the unit is not within warranty but not before. But we do as much troubleshooting as we can before getting the unit back.

We pride ourselves on our technical support and it is not unknown for us to visit users personally, at our expense and try to solve any issues.

Do not think that we simply charge as and when we feel like it!

I hope this helps.

Best,

Chris

[h4nc0]

If it's out of warranty, there's a charge for sending in the unit? And additional charge if some part is defective? Or the initial charge covers everything? I don't think I am getting this.

[Blenn]

Originally Posted by Chris Allen

Hi again all,

'I've just purchased the Orpheus and I'd wish to avoid any troubles after a year. But if not, I truly hope "happy to help" means more than charging £275 just to take a look. That's made me sad.' - If your Orpheus is still within warranty we'll fix any problems with your Orpheus for free. Of course a charge for parts and labour is applied if your unit is not within warranty. This price looks about right but contact your dealer for an accurate quote.

I would like to clarify that we only charge for repairs if the unit is sent back to us and if it is out of warranty; we try to solve any problems or issues with any of our products over the phone and email (which I would like to add we do not charge for) regardless of the age or model. If the product obviously cannot be fixed over phone or email then we can arrange to get the unit back to us and, yes, you will then be charged if the unit is not within warranty but not before. But we do as much troubleshooting as we can before getting the unit back.

We pride ourselves on our technical support and it is not unknown for us to visit users personally, at our expense and try to solve any issues.

Do not think that we simply charge as and when we feel like it!

I hope this helps.

Best,

Chris

Chris,

I suspected as much and that is heart warming.

Many thanks for a great product and support.

Paul

[Chris Allen]

Hi again.

Back from the UK PLASA show, London. Awesome fun and got a visit from Jules too!

If it's out of warranty, there's a charge for sending in the unit? And additional charge if some part is defective? Or the initial charge covers everything? I don't think I am getting this.

If your unit is out of warranty and you experience problems I would suggest emailing or calling us and we will attempt to solve any issues this way. This is not charged for. We would try various things and trouble-shooting to try and find the cause of the problem as well as see if there is a way we can solve issues.

Should this prove futile and you are still having issues then as a last resort we will arrange to get it back. Then and only then would we charge you for a service; we would give the unit to our production team who will run their various tests, take it apart, probe this and that and replace anything that needs replacing. This is what the repair cost covers and no extra charge is applied for component replacements.

To dust off an old chestnut - think of it like servicing your car, you're paying for labour. Except our flat fee covers all parts and we will try to address your problems before even considering charging you and getting the unit back!

P.S. at the PLASA show and IBC, Amsterdam, we announced SADiE version 6. This will soon be released commercially and it will be native - no hardware required. For those who do not know SADiE historically has required hardware to run. This native version has resulted in a new pricing scheme and this powerful editing tool for post production and mastering has never been more affordable! Check out the SADiE website for more info or drop me an email.

Thanks all,

Chris

[h4nc0]

Thanks for clearing things up. Much appreciated.

[teworld]

I would like to send you a PM detailing my BIG issues with Orpheus...

[Funkasizer]

Originally Posted by teworld

I would like to send you a PM detailing my BIG issues with Orpheus...

I would certainly like to hear about your BIG issues, given that I am an Orpheus owner myself, but couldn't you just post your issues here instead of sending PMs?

[teworld]

Originally Posted by Funkasizer

I would certainly like to hear about your BIG issues, given that I am an Orpheus owner myself, but couldn't you just post your issues here instead of sending PMs?

So here is my list. Nota bene it was sent to Prism service a month ago.

Not properly working at sample rates higher than 44 100 Hz (there occur drop-outs)
Switching off (like it was a sampling rate changing) during playback and recording (all this unexpectedly and even in a computer’s idle state)
Sometimes complete re-connection is the only way to make Orpheus work properly
Loading some plug-ins with lots of graphics or some dialog windows just makes Orpheus switch off, that is sound fades out
Occasionally switching during disk defragmentation
Once, it was not possible to turn the apparatus on (in stand-by state)
Firewire controller is an independent device (Texas Instruments)
Tested on different computers and different operating systems – no differences in behavior
No additional Firewire devices plugged into PC
Changing FW cables didn’t help much

[da burf]

Reinstalling the firmware has worked in my case of strange Orpheus behaviour, have you tried that?

[teworld]

Originally Posted by da burf

Reinstalling the firmware has worked in my case of strange Orpheus behaviour, have you tried that?

Oh! How can it be done? Never tried...