Connected 8ohm speakers with monster wire to banana clips.Turned on unit says check speaker wires I then rechecked and turned it on then no sound but I can faintly hear the speakers -50dbs hat gives?

Check the wires to the speakers for continuity. The amp isn't seeing the correct speaker load so it warns to check speakers

I have the same tuner with the same problem. I have 2 pairs of Bose Acoustimas speakers and a pair of their sub woofers. I found it was the vibration from the subwoofers were causing so much vibration even using monster wire the crackling was caused by wire vibration at the speaker or subwoofer. if you are using twisted wire with a banana plug on the end or straight twisted wire into the speakers the constant vibrartion eats into the wire. Just pull the wires out re twist or tin (solder) the tips or move to a different location on the banana plug and really twist it will getting a bite into the wire. If you are using straight banana plugs use a screwdriver in the 4 slots to make them fatterso they stay tight. if they are RCA jacks pinch down the 4 outside tabs so they grip harder. Viva La France.

You have the live connected to a speaker, recheck the wiring diagram. Red is the acc power, Black Neutral usually and yellow is direct power from battery. Wire just these and check if you have power and then do the speakers after you have that much working.

crackling noise or really bad distortion check wires and if blown send it to alpine

First, I have to compliment you on a thorough and comprehensive problem description and an apparent sense of how to troubleshoot. We're halfway there already.

Your Blu-Ray / PS 3 statement is intriguing but with the E-1 code that absolves it as the problem.

You have two opposing symptoms: the live failure says you have a short while the test mode implies an open circuit. We have to isolate everything and see if it moves to another channel.

Let's run with the "E-1: NO FRONT SP" error. I think it's trying to tell us we have an intermittent sensation of an open wire in one of the Front speaker channels. * Unfortunately, the manual doesn't break out Left and Right (but I'm sure the receiver knows) to help us isolate. You say it doesn't get past the Left test. I need you to decide by listening to the Left Front Speaker setup routine if it's really working or not, and if it seems to be working, maybe the receiver is really failing at the point it advances to the Right Speaker, assuming Right follows left in the sequence.

Verify for me: You swapped the two front speakers Left to Right and replaced both speaker wires with NEW wires and had no improvement.

I'm wary of a failcode that doesn't identify which of a pair is failing, so I 'd like to see ALL NEW speaker hardware and connections in place to avoid the pitfall of swapping the L & R with each other and having one of them be the problem without changing the symptom.

We can accomplish this easily: Try temporarily running the rear speakers as the Fronts just to see if the test can pass. If so, test the Fronts as if they're the Rears speakers. You should be able to just swing the receiver-ends of the cables among the speaker posts.

Something should change or else the problem is internal to the receiver. Good luck.

check the speaker wire that must be broken in between...

You can hook them up either way, the banana jacks are good for hooking two speakers to one terminal (ie one through the botton, one banana) but the electrical connection is the same either way. Sometimes the banana capable jacks are on speakers A and speakers B, and the surround don't accept banana plugs, your stuck with how your reciever is wired.

have you checked for the continuity of the wirings? check for the resistance of your speaker from it jack..... it should measure close to 8ohms or 4ohms using a digital multimeter (DMM). check also the sub out jack of your reciever if there is a signal from it using your main speakers if they come with jacks also (turn the volume low to prevent damage to other speakers you connect on it!

I had this same problem and it turned out to be a twisted kink in the speaker wire. Run a sound check to each speaker separately (from your receiver menu) and turn each one up until the receiver shuts off. Check the wire to the speaker that caused it to shut off and make sure the +- ends are not touching each other at either end, and that there are no twists or kinks along the way.

Looking in the manual (link below) I see that this receiver uses 8ohm speakers, check that your speakers are 8 ohms or more. I think that connecting 2 sets of speakers to the same output is the problem as when you connect speakers in parallel (i.e. just twisting both pairs of wires together) you effectively half the impedance. So if 2 sets of speakers of 8ohms are connected this way the result will be 4ohms which is too low and will cause the unit to go into standby. Try removing the additional front speakers & see if the fault persists. If it does then it is likely a fault in the wiring. http://www.harmankardon.com/product_support/support_detail.aspx?Region=USA&Country=US&Language=ENG&cat=&prod=AVR%20110&sjump=om&#active