XA 200 Mono amp repair & upgrade
Nov 16, 2012 12:15:37 GMT
Post by Crispy on Nov 16, 2012 12:15:37 GMT
The Panasonic 6800uf caps arrived the other day and I have been busy doing the final repair & upgrade to my amp.
The Panasonic caps are quite a bit smaller than the Jamicons they are replacing.
The new caps in place.
The speaker output cable replaced with some well burned in Kimber 4tc OFC I had lying around.
The input signal cable replaced with Evolution OFC.
An extra earth point added for star earthing
A pic of the completed board - no more Jamicons
Before
After
The finished amp back in its normal place and playing music again.
I would now like to say a very BIG thank you to Frans & Alex who helped me the most on this project - I could not have done it without you, but also thanks to Mike for a fantastic forum and website and to Chong making me laugh and spurring me on when I could have put a big lump hammer through the amp and to anyone else who helped me along the way.
Total cost to repair the amp was approx £30 - total cost to upgrade the amp was approx £30, so I am over the moon that I now have a better amp for approx £60.
One amp down and one to go - at least my other amp is upgrade only and I have learnt so much from the first amp that this should not be a problem at all? Nothing will be done to this amp for quite a while even though I have all the components waiting - I have been without music for far too long now and I need some very serious listening time, its a good job work is not busy.
So after the repair I left the amp switched on with a burn in signal running through it but with no speaker attached for 24hours - just to check for stability. Everything was fine so I attached a cheap speaker to check it was playing music, again everything fine (PHEW).
Next up a full blown listening session - what did the system sound like, arggh (DOG CRAP).
I could not believe it at first and you always assume that you have done something wrong.
After a while I thought Christ man, give it a chance the system has not played music for over a year so I persevered and the sound gradually got better and better. After about 3 hours it finally all came together and the music was sounding very good, it still needs a lot more time to burn in again before it will sound excellent.
Because I have done quite a few mods to my V2/pre and the power amp it is difficult to say what has done what, but my feeling is that the last mod to my V2/pre has given the power amps total control over the music, especially the bass - so low, controlled and tuneful (more lifelike I suppose).
So thanks again everybody, its time now for another serious listen.
Chris
The Panasonic caps are quite a bit smaller than the Jamicons they are replacing.
The new caps in place.
The speaker output cable replaced with some well burned in Kimber 4tc OFC I had lying around.
The input signal cable replaced with Evolution OFC.
An extra earth point added for star earthing
A pic of the completed board - no more Jamicons
Before
After
The finished amp back in its normal place and playing music again.
I would now like to say a very BIG thank you to Frans & Alex who helped me the most on this project - I could not have done it without you, but also thanks to Mike for a fantastic forum and website and to Chong making me laugh and spurring me on when I could have put a big lump hammer through the amp and to anyone else who helped me along the way.
Total cost to repair the amp was approx £30 - total cost to upgrade the amp was approx £30, so I am over the moon that I now have a better amp for approx £60.
One amp down and one to go - at least my other amp is upgrade only and I have learnt so much from the first amp that this should not be a problem at all? Nothing will be done to this amp for quite a while even though I have all the components waiting - I have been without music for far too long now and I need some very serious listening time, its a good job work is not busy.
So after the repair I left the amp switched on with a burn in signal running through it but with no speaker attached for 24hours - just to check for stability. Everything was fine so I attached a cheap speaker to check it was playing music, again everything fine (PHEW).
Next up a full blown listening session - what did the system sound like, arggh (DOG CRAP).
I could not believe it at first and you always assume that you have done something wrong.
After a while I thought Christ man, give it a chance the system has not played music for over a year so I persevered and the sound gradually got better and better. After about 3 hours it finally all came together and the music was sounding very good, it still needs a lot more time to burn in again before it will sound excellent.
Because I have done quite a few mods to my V2/pre and the power amp it is difficult to say what has done what, but my feeling is that the last mod to my V2/pre has given the power amps total control over the music, especially the bass - so low, controlled and tuneful (more lifelike I suppose).
So thanks again everybody, its time now for another serious listen.
Chris