Carnage - please look away

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by Rayooo

one of Murphy's laws: a component, i.e resistor or capacitor, will always fail so to preserve the fuse.

Sorry for what happened. Hope it will be resolved soon.

[LordoftheRingsEE]

---Could it be the proximity of a hot tube to that cap?

[Ritmo]

Joe,

I'm so sorry for you. Glad the rest of your system is ok. I'm sure ARC will make all gets resolved correctly.

Mike

[Amfibius]

Originally Posted by LordoftheRingsEE

---Could it be the proximity of a hot tube to that cap?

I think that that is where that cap happened to land?

[MPS]

Such a bad luck. There has been and always will be components which will fail prematurely, I'm sure ARC does some burn-in process but still..
I had one out of warranty second-hand power amp go bad and the local importer was kind enough to make mutually satisfying arrangements. Kudos to ARC and their dealer's organisation.

[microstrip]

One electrolytic capacitor of your amplifier just failed, perhaps shorting itself - nothing too serious. If you look at the photo you will see that it broke at the diagonal cross on top - this zone is purposely etched to weaken the aluminum can, avoiding a too violent explosion in case of failure. Happily this type of faults in the power supply are most of time very simple to solve - replacing the capacitor and at maximum a few power diodes and inserting a new fuse will have it as new again!

BTW, inserting an electrolytic with the wrong polarity in a circuit usually achieves the same effect - a common occurrence in electronics practical classes!

[Barry1]

Agree with New guy that that's a vented cap (totally!) but something on the output caused it. I had an output supply cap spilt like that and shoot more steam out than an old tea kettle. Very frightening!

Hope you're back in business soon.

[joeling]

Well, glad to hear that it's likely the cap. Hopefully not the rectifier as well. As for me, strangely, I do not feel that unhappy. Perhaps I was not looking forward to the 600hrs burn-in or maybe it's because I get to spend some more time with my dealer's ref 210s. This was the same ref 210s I bought 2 years ago but returned (full refund) to him insisting that there was something wrong (nothing wrong - my room was the problem - another story for another time). Took his ref 110s instead.

Anyway, he wanted to pickup the faulty unit anytime yesterday (on a Sunday) but I told him I was not free. Told him to come tonight. How's that for service ?

Regards,
Joe Ling

[Dafos]

Similar experience but different component. Four days after purchase, roughly 7 hours use, an output coupling capacitor (unmarked white Teflon cap) failed, taking with it 3 KT 120 tubes (or vice versa). Capacitor was replaced after a month's wait together with 3 output tubes. 250 hours later everything's fine, knock on wood.

[MyPal]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Joe.......I think you should have bought McIntosh MC2301's.

McIntosh owners have the comfort of knowing that they can rely on the EXCLUSIVE MCINTOSH POWER ASSURANCE SYSTEM. A collection of technologies that enhance performance and reliability while protecting the amplifier and loudspeakers.

POWER GUARD® A waveform comparison circuit continuously monitors both input and output signals. Power Guard dynamically adjusts the input level to avoid clipping while preventing harsh sounding distortion.

SENTRY MONITOR® TUBE PROTECTION Fuse-less short-circuit protection circuit disengages the output stage before current exceeds safe operating level – resets automatically.