Ayre MXR overheating
 

I have owned a pair of MX-R amps for 2 1/2 years now. Bought from the dealer as a Demo pair, and have been very happy with the sound. Really transformed my system:) This week all of a sudden one amp shut down in protection mode due to overheating. I have tested it out and, just to the touch it heats up much quicker than the other and gets hotter before the shut down. I wonder if anyone has had this problem and what the fix is? I am seriously not looking forward to shipping them in for repair.....well if I am then maybe a Twenty upgrade??
I am waiting for a reply from Ayre via the dealer, which should happen early next week.
I saw on another forum that some of the earlier models had some substandard transistors that led to overheating and had to be replaced?? not sure.

Honestly if you can afford to upgrade just do it. The older amps ran hot. The double diamond circuit cuts that way back. I had the AX5 and it was too hot to touch. Now with the upgrade it's a totally different amp (light years better) and runs at normal temps even in a cabinet and driven hard. Let us know when you send them in for you upgrade. Lol. Promise you it's worth every dime. If you have a local dealer you may want to go through them as the. They can do all the follow ups etc and it costs nothing more to you. Let them pack , insure and ship for you lol.

I owned MXR's for a ~5 years. GREAT amps. And yes I had your problem. It's a bad batch of power output transistors. They can be replaced back to Ayre and back pretty quickly. My dealer had MXR-20's which I wanted to love. I liked em...all the typical things, better bass, more resolute, more quiet, better attack, more dynamic...but had this elusive thing missing that kept me wanting the MXR's back in.

I ended up getting a Nagra Classic Amp ... vs the MXR20 update.


Speakers: Rockport Altair 2
Preamp: Robert Koda K10
Amp: Nagra Classic Amp
Cables: Transparent Opus Gen 5 & Magnum Opus phono
Power Transparent Opus (x4)/Opus Source Power Cords (x6) Opus Power Isolators (x2)
Power Shunyata Typhon+Anaconda Zitron/DPC-6 v2
Digital dCS Vivaldi full stack w/ Transparent Reference XL Digital cables
Phono: Grand Prix Monaco TT, Spiral Groove Centroid, Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement v2, Nagra VPS/VFS/MPS
Racks: Grand Prix Audio Silverstone F1 (x3)

I sure hope you dutifully sent in your card within 30 days of purchase so Charlie would bless you with his wonderous extended warranty.

Now, why would an ethical manufacturer knowingly bring something to market that users couldn't even touch?

Hey, look who's here....it's aardvark bark.. boy and I'm surprised, lol. First off, you have brought up that 30 day card deal on other threads and been totally shot down by Alex from Ayre. You are 100% wrong. This is an Ayre thread, so please stop lying about things that you already know are incorrect.

As for it being 'too hot to touch', yes it was very hot, but I also kept it in a cabinet that didn't have the air flow the amp needed. There are plenty of amps that run hot like this. I had Quicksilver and Jadis amps that ran even hotter, so I guess that's ok because they aren't Ayre.

You really are a piece, lol too funny. Go back and play on the Pass site as they are the best ever amps and the best ever company and you are an expert on consulting and telling companies how great or how bad they are, LOL... Too funny man.

Great post and spot on!

jfaris... Welcome to AA! :wave:

Welcome to the boards. What's your system?

Just call Ayre, known issue and they are very supportive. Even though my amps are older than 5 years they told me they would take care of me anyway at no cost other than shipping if needed be. They offered to send the parts to my selling dealer which they knew had a strong tech and they would support install costs.

In my case I had moved one amp over the other, the heat of the one below brought the other one over the top. My cabinet is opened front and back.

Operating temperature is very close to overheating so make sure it's well vented. Try putting a fan on it and a meat thermometer to see what happens, it overheats at 65 degrees C. They also told me to leave it on for thermal stability.

Dan

Dan

Great post Dan. So what you are saying is that Ayre stands by it's products and even when they are out of warrantee, they will take care of something that should be taken care of. Some like to bitch and moan about Ayre not supporting their products or customers if they don't send in their post cards to extend it. Glad to hear your story and of course no one is surprised by that. I haven't sent my card in on my QX5 yet and I promise I'll have the full 5 year warrantee (had major surgery and am only now getting around and that hasn't been a priority, lol).

Like I said to the OP, IF you can afford the upgrade, I promise you that you will be VERY happy.