A smokin' & smelly ET205s

[medward0]

I was listening to music the other night at a moderate volume.

A small pop and the right channel went silent.

A bunch of loud pops and then smoke coming from the top of the amp. And some sparks.

OK, turn power switch off, pull power cord.

While those CJD Teflon capacitors sound great, they smell bad when they melt.

I've never had an amp smoke on me...sheesh.

It's still under warranty, so I'll be sending it to the factory to see what can be done.

[jdandy]

medwardo.......It is never a good feeling to see and/or smell smoke coming from audio equipment. I'm sure Conrad-Johnson will have you back up and running quickly.

[bgiliberti]

Sorry to hear. This actually worries me... I leave my CJ MF2550 power amp on all the time (except when away on trips), and did so for 25 years with its predecessor, the CJ MF80. Never had a problem. Now I'm beginning to wonder whether I was just lucky. You do have a couple of input tubes, but basically, the 250s is a solid state device, like mine, so I can't take much comfort from that. Any idea what happened? Unless you tell me your martini fell into it, I may have to change my practice.

[medward0]

bgiliberti,

Nope, no martini spilled into the amp. No kids in the house and no pets stuck in the heat sinks or sitting on top the amp.

Same tubes and fuses and power cord/interconnects I've been using for at least a year.

Not certain what happened. It was just another normal evening listening to music.

Being the audio enthusiast that I am, at least I have a few back-up amps to use in the meantime. I had forgotten just how good one of these amps sounds...not certain why I felt the need to replace it with the ET205s.

[bgiliberti]

Originally Posted by medwardo

bgiliberti,
....I had forgotten just how good one of these amps sounds...not certain why I felt the need to replace it with the ET205s.

I have to say that the ET250S didn't ring my bell as much as I had hoped, although I think it was more a question of system mismatch -- Harbeth 30s need a more speed and burst than the 250s likes to give.

[medward0]

While I wait for my 250s to be repaired (if it can be), I'm using a Musical Fidelity M6PRX, a SS amp with ~230W into 8 ohms that usually runs my office rig.

With the Sophias, the MF amp is surprisingly good...fast, tuneful, great bass, gobs of detail, sweet treble with just the right amount of decay....

I always thought that the 250s had great decay with lots of detail...now when comparing it to the MF, I think that the decay in the 250s is exaggerated.

@bgiliberti, now I see what you mean about the 250s.

It's always tradeoffs, isn't it?