Trouble with my XPA-5 gen 2

[leonski]

The 'Rust' is LEAKAGE from the big electrolytic caps. The rabbit turds are resistors and don't look good, either. Maybe they got hot? The stripes on the resistors are the color code, indicating the VALUE of the part.

The large PS Caps should last 20 years or longer, in a regularly used amp.

Ask the service department if the caps going IN to the amp are '105c rated'. This is a high temp rating for this type of part.
If 85c? Could be part of the problem. Keep the amp Well Ventilated and do NOT allow it to overheat.

My Kenwood from the late 70s is still in service with my nephew.

[DavidR]

I am able to see 105'C on one of the caps.
Do NOT use the amp. If the caps run dry and ground out it will take out major parts of the amp along with them.

[leonski]

Did the amp ever get hot or used in Restricted AirSpace?

hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,110690.0.html

Discussion by amateurs, like us, of PS Capacitor lifespan. a few nuggets.


I read a Nelson Pass article where he thought PS caps should last 30 years.

An amp which is stored for years should be brought up to voltage SLOWLY using a variac so the insulator has a chance to 'reform'.

[novisnick]

Aug 6, 2017 15:10:04 GMT -5 leonski said:

Did the amp ever get hot or used in Restricted AirSpace?

hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,110690.0.html

Discussion by amateurs, like us, of PS Capacitor lifespan. a few nuggets.


I read a Nelson Pass article where he thought PS caps should last 30 years.

An amp which is stored for years should be brought up to voltage SLOWLY using a variac so the insulator has a chance to 'reform'.

Never air deprived, I'm the king of cool with more fans and blowers then most would believe. Part of my arsenal is a digital thermometer as well. I use this amp almost daily. It has never failed but has gone into protection mode. Emotiva tech told me to open her up and thats what I found. She's at her maker and hopefully Ill have some information about her soon.  It sits on the same shelf as my older Yamaha 3020 which actually runs warmer then the XPA-5 gen 2.

Perhaps a freak of nature, I don't know. 

[novisnick]

leonski , thanks for the information and your help. I do appreciate your input very much. I will call and inquire why they failed.

Nick

[leonski]

ONE other minor thing. When using fans, it is important not to blow air InTo a piece and actually restrict airflow. The air inside than gets hotter. When I used a fan for my Carver Cube, I designed an enclosure to hold the
fan in back of the amp, blowint OUT and drawing air INTO the amp, thru it and out, slightly warmer. Fan was LOUD but I only needed it when Really cranking it up.
Speaker had a 1 1/2 amp fuse for mid/tweet which I could pop if not careful. Amp had an LED 'ladder' display which while miserably inaccurate tells me, in retrospect, maybe 25 watts continuous and 250 watt peaks, given a 10db crest factor.
Speakers were old Magnepan MG-1 which were 5 ohm, and an easy, non-reactive load but pretty low sensitivity. Carver Cube was 200x2@8 and about 250@4, with 500 'bridged' into 8.

I'd sit and noodle my cooling solution.

Also? These days, I have an INFRARED Camera for my iPhone. Image is of a Parasound A23 after a couple hours of use at levels you could easily talk over.
No Stress on amp at all.   Hottest area is about 100f.   

Attachments:

[DavidR]

105C is 221F

I think it just a bad run of caps that wasn't caught or they didn't catch them all. I doubt something wasn't wired correctly but its possible there is some ground some where and it's doesn't belong there.

[leonski]

It probably woulnd't have worked AT ALL if some part were substantially mis-wired?
I know NAD went thru a run of bad caps a decade or more ago. Unless this is a pattern of probems wiht the XPA-5g2, I'd write it off to the luck of the draw or
perhaps simply been used in a too-hot enviroment.

To determine bad or somehow underspec'd caps (They were 105c, after all) you 'd have to know return rates and for what cause.

I have the Gen 2 of this model, which falls between the new pro @400$ and the entry level model @200$.

www.flir.com/flirone/

[novisnick]

Aug 6, 2017 17:26:18 GMT -5 leonski said:

ONE other minor thing. When using fans, it is important not to blow air InTo a piece and actually restrict airflow. The air inside than gets hotter. When I used a fan for my Carver Cube, I designed an enclosure to hold the
fan in back of the amp, blowint OUT and drawing air INTO the amp, thru it and out, slightly warmer. Fan was LOUD but I only needed it when Really cranking it up.
Speaker had a 1 1/2 amp fuse for mid/tweet which I could pop if not careful. Amp had an LED 'ladder' display which while miserably inaccurate tells me, in retrospect, maybe 25 watts continuous and 250 watt peaks, given a 10db crest factor.
Speakers were old Magnepan MG-1 which were 5 ohm, and an easy, non-reactive load but pretty low sensitivity. Carver Cube was 200x2@8 and about 250@4, with 500 'bridged' into 8.

I'd sit and noodle my cooling solution.

Also? These days, I have an INFRARED Camera for my iPhone. Image is of a Parasound A23 after a couple hours of use at levels you could easily talk over.
No Stress on amp at all.   Hottest area is about 100f.   

Is that an app for the iPhone? INFRARED?

[leonski]

No, Sir,
The IR images I made are with an Add-On camera plugging into the 'lightning' port and supported by the FLIR-ONE application.

In actual Pitch Black testing, I can identify a Biped walking at about 100 feet. I can photograph a car and tell it's been run in the last
few hours. More experience should allow a better guess.

Anybody for a BigFoot hunt?

You can call me the Gadget Guy



I have the Gen2 version which is technically Similar to the Pro but lacks a few features.


www.flir.com/flirone/

[DavidR]

Nick, did it smell of an electronics smell when you used it?
My first XSP-1 G2 would always smell when used and got warmer than usual. I sent it in and they said they couldn't find anything wrong. Well, UPS crushed the box on it's return and the unit was replaced. No smell and no getting warm from the replacement - ever. I know that if I still had the original unit I would have ended up with something like you.

[novisnick]

Aug 7, 2017 8:52:46 GMT -5 DavidR said:

Nick, did it smell of an electronics smell when you used it?
My first XSP-1 G2 would always smell when used and get warmer than usual. I sent it in and they said they couldn't find anything wrong. Well, UPS crushed the box on it's return and the unit was replaced. No smell and no getting warm from the replacement - ever. I know that if I still had the original unit I would have ended up with something like you.

Thanks for your inquiry. I have an extremely acute sense of smell, drugdogish and it never had any odor at all. It had always worked flawlessly. It never did fail, just went into protection mode two times.

Ill keep y'all posted.

Nick