MY XPA-5 Just Blew Up!!

[vvv]

I have had an XPA-5 for two or three years. I love this thing. It has worked flawlessly and is on at least 6 hours a day.

I was listening loudly but under reference level (regular occurrence) and suddenly heard load crackling followed by a fair amount of smoke.

I shut everything down as quickly as possible.

When I power the amp up It does not get past the self check. I get a flashing red channel two combined with a flashing yellow power button. Not sure if any other channels are effected as the test stops at channel 2.

I am not sure if i have any speaker damage but everything else seems to work.

[kse]

Houston, we have a problem...

[geebo]

Try disconnecting everything including speaker wires and try again. If it still does it, a call to Emo will be necessary.

[Deleted]

If you got the old "smoke" puff, then something fried.

[Mischief]

Before you hook back up look over every inch of speaker cable and look for loose strand of wires at the connectors.

[vvv]

I checked the speaker wires first. I has using banana clips and Emotiva XLR cables. Nothing was touching.

My house smells like a burnt tire

[Deleted]

DO NOT hook it back up.

Call Emo on Monday.

[drtunes]

Me thinks you have Fried output devices, take the cover off you'll see the cooking parts at the bottom of one of the amp boards,

[djoel]

Sounds like a fried cap..

Djoel

[Bulletdodger]

Sound like you wont be able to watch movies this christmas....

[Lonnie]

Dec 24, 2010 11:58:26 GMT -5 vvv said:

I have had an XPA-5 for two or three years. I love this thing. It has worked flawlessly and is on at least 6 hours a day.

I was listening loudly but under reference level (regular occurrence) and suddenly heard load crackling followed by a fair amount of smoke.

I shut everything down as quickly as possible.

When I power the amp up It does not get past the self check. I get a flashing red channel two combined with a flashing yellow power button. Not sure if any other channels are effected as the test stops at channel 2.

I am not sure if i have any speaker damage but everything else seems to work.

Your speakers are fine, but I can't say the same for the amp. Looks like you will need to get it to us and we will get you back up and running in no time.

[oregonkiwi]

Bugger!

[vvv]

Lonnie,

Any idea why this would have happened? Until this point, I brag to all my friends that my XPA-5 is basically perfect. Powerful, well built and cheap.

I am two years into this thing. Was this thing always defective and just happened to go?

Do I expect the same problem two years after the repair?

I love Emotiva but where should I set my expectations?

How long will this repair take?

Is this issue typically repaired or replaced?

[Lonnie]

Dec 25, 2010 0:19:47 GMT -5 vvv said:

Lonnie,

Any idea why this would have happened? Until this point, I brag to all my friends that my XPA-5 is basically perfect. Powerful, well built and cheap.

I am two years into this thing. Was this thing always defective and just happened to go?

Do I expect the same problem two years after the repair?

I love Emotiva but where should I set my expectations?

How long will this repair take?

Is this issue typically repaired or replaced?

I can't honestly say what would cause this because I am not there to see what died in the amp and then look at your speakers and such to see what would cause it to happen. As with all electronics, if it is defective, it will cut loose immediatly, so that fact it lasted 2 years is a good indication it was not defective from the start. Once we get it, we can usually get a good idea as to what happened by why cut loose. So we will just have to see once it gets here. As for the repair itself, we will usually turn things around in a couple of days, we're not like so many others an hang onto it for a couple of months. ;D

[cawgijoe]

All electronics can fail no matter the manufacturer.
Emotiva stuff is built better than most mass market. Things happen. Be glad it has a good warranty.

[Nemesis.ie]

My ch5 blew in my XPA-5 a few weeks after I got it in the same way as the OPs. It was repaired and has been working perfectly since (around a year I think.

This is why we have warranties, there can be the odd bad device or strange occurrence that can cause failure, it's how the fix is handled that counts and Emotiva do a top notch job in that respect.

As I am over seas and return shipping would have killed me, I had a new board sent out, installed it myself and all is well.

[vvv]

I really appreciate both the warranty and the attention from Lonnie. These are two of the things that got me interested in Emotiva in the first place.

It sucks that I will need to move this thing out of my rack and to fed-ex but at least I will not have to wait too long to get it fixed.

[sharkman]

So the amp is 2-3 years old and is on at least 6 hours a day, often at close to reference levels? Wow, I didn't know a theater system could be used that much, that's quite a torture test. Good to know how well the gear stands up!

[zstokes]

I have a Denon AVR that admittedly is 6 years old. One night last April I was listening at reference level for 6 hours and blew a channel. One night - I would crank the volume once in a while, but definitely not for extended periods like that one night.

I think the fact that this happened between 2-3 years with that kind of performance record is pretty impressive.

Question: what kind of speakers do you have? Maybe your mains require a little more power? I'm only planning on running the UPA-5 on the mains for a few months before I purchase a pair of UPA-1s for them. I'm 'over amping' according to the specs, but should leave plenty of headroom.

[richardrc]

Dec 25, 2010 6:46:13 GMT -5 Nemesis.ie said:

As I am over seas and return shipping would have killed me, I had a new board sent out, installed it myself and all is well.

Good to hear that they would ship a board. Did it cost you? I assume it was an amp module. So did the amp run on only the 4 channels with the dead board removed? Did you have to do any alignment, set the quiescent current etc?