XPA-5 Channel 1 LED Light Not On

[ssvhd]

I noticed the channel one LED is not displaying on my XPA-5. All channels are working, but this one LED is not on.

Should I be concerned about a channel failure, or is it just a display failure?

[hemster]

If all channels are working it's likely an LED failure. Of no consequence IMHO.

[ssvhd]

Thank you, Hemster, that's what I'm hoping--but LED's aren't supposed to burn out!

I like your taste in Home Theater!

[hemster]

Nov 17, 2012 13:40:40 GMT -5 ssvhd said:

Thank you, Hemster, that's what I'm hoping--but LED's aren't supposed to burn out!

I like your taste in Home Theater!

Thanks! I can say the same for you. Nice setup!

[geebo]

Nov 17, 2012 13:40:40 GMT -5 ssvhd said:

Thank you, Hemster, that's what I'm hoping--but LED's aren't supposed to burn out!

I like your taste in Home Theater!

Most like just a cold solder joint. The center LED on my XPA-5 is intermittent. It in no way affects the operation of the amp.

[loupy31]

Hi Guys,
Same problem here, my CH 5 led is intermittent, No big deal, I just turn off the led display and its cool.

Peter

[hesster]

I have a led light out, and it annoys me. Anyone replace one of them?

[leonski]

LEDs should last thousand of hours.
And should be simple to replace. though I'd leave it to a 'pro' mostly.....
Some assemblies are needlessly complicated, like my old Carver Cube amp.

If designed for repairability? Just get the right part. I'd hope that EMO service
would advise on this point......Or maybe work some kind of exchange deal?

[cawgijoe]

You should be able to contact Emotiva support and ask what size and type LED it is. Likely available through Mouser or one of the other suppliers.
If you have the knowledge and skill to replace, you could DIY or find a local shop that will do it for you.

Edit: Ideally you should replace all the blue LED's so that they match in color and intensity...but that would be your call.

[hesster]

I did contact Emotiva, and of course they want to have it shipped back for repair, or replace at my own risk.  Any suggestions on how I can determine if it is in fact just a Crap LED, as in running a a speaker output test, voltage or OHM test, or running Dirac routine?

[405x5]

I’ve had multiple LED lit electronic components over the last 35 years of playing with this stuff and not one failure of any of them to my recollection.

They were the most fun in my Carver 1.0t’s where they were a contemporary replacement for the traditional VU meters that were virtually useless, but visually entertaining. The LEDs were much cooler, and in the darkness cranking loud music they were very entertaining to watch.

“LED” in the context of energy, efficient, home lighting, as in LED bulbs, became a four letter word with a higher than expected failure rate, and a very expensive per bulb cost. Little by little I’m getting the money back now in savings in my house, which was totally converted to LED lighting.

The other bear in all of this was getting educated to the K factor and getting the color of the lighting, correct for the application, and in some instances, having to find a new home for those bulbs, because the color sucked and you had to put them someplace where the light didn’t matter in terms of the color otherwise having to to eat the cost of the bulb, all of my kitchen bulbs as an example ended up in the garage door openers, where I wouldn’t give a sh** about the color, more importantly, that I could come into the garage and not trip on something and break my ass on the way into the house.

[cawgijoe]

Jun 9, 2023 8:55:36 GMT -5 405x5 said:

I’ve had multiple LED lit electronic components over the last 35 years of playing with this stuff and not one failure of any of them to my recollection.

They were the most fun in my Carver 1.0t’s where they were a contemporary replacement for the traditional VU meters that were virtually useless, but visually entertaining. The LEDs were much cooler, and in the darkness cranking loud music they were very entertaining to watch.

“LED” in the context of energy, efficient, home lighting, as in LED bulbs, became a four letter word with a higher than expected failure rate, and a very expensive per bulb cost. Little by little I’m getting the money back now in savings in my house, which was totally converted to LED lighting.

The other bear in all of this was getting educated to the K factor and getting the color of the lighting, correct for the application, and in some instances, having to find a new home for those bulbs, because the color sucked and you had to put them someplace where the light didn’t matter in terms of the color otherwise having to to eat the cost of the bulb, all of my kitchen bulbs as an example ended up in the garage door openers, where I wouldn’t give a sh** about the color, more importantly, that I could come into the garage and not trip on something and break my ass on the way into the house.

I've had multiple LED A19 (standard bulb) failures over the last few years, including lately with Feit bulbs from Costco. These particular bulbs are in an enclosed ceiling fixture and the packaging says they will work in one of those. After a few weeks/months, the bulbs will start flickering and eventually burn out.

I saw a hack online where a guy put some clear stick on "feet" in between where the fixture glass meets the fixture itself to give the bulbs some air. I did this and so far only one bulb has burned out.

Outdoors, over the garage and atthe front door, I have Cree bulbs that have been used for a few years now without issue. Fixture is open at the bottom. They are on a timer wired into the electrical switch. Dusk to Dawn.

[405x5]

Jun 9, 2023 9:55:41 GMT -5 cawgijoe said:

Jun 9, 2023 8:55:36 GMT -5 405x5 said:

I’ve had multiple LED lit electronic components over the last 35 years of playing with this stuff and not one failure of any of them to my recollection.

They were the most fun in my Carver 1.0t’s where they were a contemporary replacement for the traditional VU meters that were virtually useless, but visually entertaining. The LEDs were much cooler, and in the darkness cranking loud music they were very entertaining to watch.

“LED” in the context of energy, efficient, home lighting, as in LED bulbs, became a four letter word with a higher than expected failure rate, and a very expensive per bulb cost. Little by little I’m getting the money back now in savings in my house, which was totally converted to LED lighting.

The other bear in all of this was getting educated to the K factor and getting the color of the lighting, correct for the application, and in some instances, having to find a new home for those bulbs, because the color sucked and you had to put them someplace where the light didn’t matter in terms of the color otherwise having to to eat the cost of the bulb, all of my kitchen bulbs as an example ended up in the garage door openers, where I wouldn’t give a sh** about the color, more importantly, that I could come into the garage and not trip on something and break my ass on the way into the house.

I've had multiple LED A19 (standard bulb) failures over the last few years, including lately with Feit bulbs from Costco. These particular bulbs are in an enclosed ceiling fixture and the packaging says they will work in one of those. After a few weeks/months, the bulbs will start flickering and eventually burn out.

I saw a hack online where a guy put some clear stick on "feet" in between where the fixture glass meets the fixture itself to give the bulbs some air. I did this and so far only one bulb has burned out.

Outdoors, over the garage and atthe front door, I have Cree bulbs that have been used for a few years now without issue. Fixture is open at the bottom. They are on a timer wired into the electrical switch. Dusk to Dawn.

I don’t think it’s a temperature issue, but rather a design issue as these LED a bulbs, come in many different design configurations if you look at them closely. I have them installed in every manner of opened and closed air environment you can think of and the failure has been the same no matter where they are (a wide open table lamp as an example). I have three of them in a sealed up insulated kitchen light overhead and they are operating without issue. I think it’s just a matter of fact that compared to standard a bulbs. They haven’t been around long enough to establish a real standard for product longevity, and on how they make those filaments…… Then again, maybe it’s just plain voodoo!

[cawgijoe]

Jun 9, 2023 10:09:54 GMT -5 405x5 said:

Jun 9, 2023 9:55:41 GMT -5 cawgijoe said:

I've had multiple LED A19 (standard bulb) failures over the last few years, including lately with Feit bulbs from Costco. These particular bulbs are in an enclosed ceiling fixture and the packaging says they will work in one of those. After a few weeks/months, the bulbs will start flickering and eventually burn out.

I saw a hack online where a guy put some clear stick on "feet" in between where the fixture glass meets the fixture itself to give the bulbs some air. I did this and so far only one bulb has burned out.

Outdoors, over the garage and atthe front door, I have Cree bulbs that have been used for a few years now without issue. Fixture is open at the bottom. They are on a timer wired into the electrical switch. Dusk to Dawn.

I don’t think it’s a temperature issue, but rather a design issue as these LED a bulbs, come in many different design configurations if you look at them closely. I have them installed in every manner of opened and closed air environment you can think of and the failure has been the same no matter where they are (a wide open table lamp as an example). I have three of them in a sealed up insulated kitchen light overhead and they are operating without issue. I think it’s just a matter of fact that compared to standard a bulbs. They haven’t been around long enough to establish a real standard for product longevity, and on how they make those filaments…… Then again, maybe it’s just plain voodoo!

It may be a design issue, but some of these bulbs do get very hot, and heat kills with electronics. Some of the earlier bulbs had large heat sinks that burned your fingers when you touched them. I think it's a combination.

Edit: which brand have you had good luck with?

[405x5]

Jun 9, 2023 11:12:13 GMT -5 cawgijoe said:

Jun 9, 2023 10:09:54 GMT -5 405x5 said:

I don’t think it’s a temperature issue, but rather a design issue as these LED a bulbs, come in many different design configurations if you look at them closely. I have them installed in every manner of opened and closed air environment you can think of and the failure has been the same no matter where they are (a wide open table lamp as an example). I have three of them in a sealed up insulated kitchen light overhead and they are operating without issue. I think it’s just a matter of fact that compared to standard a bulbs. They haven’t been around long enough to establish a real standard for product longevity, and on how they make those filaments…… Then again, maybe it’s just plain voodoo!

It may be a design issue, but some of these bulbs do get very hot, and heat kills with electronics. Some of the earlier bulbs had large heat sinks that burned your fingers when you touched them. I think it's a combination.

Edit: which brand have you had good luck with?

Sylvania and fiet electric have been the two best overall for me with regards to Longevity. That being said, it’s hard to say for sure, because in order to make the color work right and the light out, put in every room, I’ve got quite a combination of lamps all over the place, including generic to fill in when I couldn’t find anything else.
I wanted wall wash in the garage instead of the traditional fluorescent tubes over the workbench and came up with something very cool. A pair of LEDs one for each medium base receptacle, that are dimmable and each put out the equivalent of a 250 W a lamp yet each one uses only 27 watts at full output. In normal use with the dimmer they probably only putting out about 5 W each. They’ve got the LED chips all around the outside perimeter like a disco ball throwing the light just exactly where you need it.

[405x5]

A pair of these Sansi LED for the garage wall wash was what I was talking about. They are of course dimmable and I picked that up from Home Depot.

[leonski]

When you talk COLOR?
Two measures.
Color Tempreture of the bulb. From very low.....which will render objects both 'warmer' and to the 'yellow' side
TO
Daylight types which are maybe 6000k or perhaps higher......they turn stuff 'blue'.

For LEDs? maybe from in the mid-2000 range to over 6000.

In the old days? I ran 2daylight and 2 cool white and got good color in my kitchen which had 4X of the 4' tubes.....with Ballasts.
This gave a nice result in the kitchen.
I'm less picky in the garage.

the other measure is CRI.....Some index of color 'accuracy'.
Higher is generally better with over 90 being pretty good while 80 may be unacceptable when it matters......

www.olightstore.com/blog/what-is-cri-and-why-does-it-matter.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg8GV4ve2_wIVkwh9Ch1xuQo1EAAYAyAAEgIDKvD_BwE


LED Indicator bulbs are another kettle of fish altogether.
Original was red.    And was basically originated in the '60s.
By the '70s, the red was improved (made brighter) and the Yellow came out.....
Blue was the Holy Grail
Somewhere in this mix came GREEN.  

White came later and that's the dawn of the 'modern bulb' for home use....replacinng incandescent and fluorescent types.....

My Kitchen?   4x4' LED tubes.    5000k and 2000 lumens EACH bulb.   No more ballast, these being a type which direct wires TO the house power.
Did I say bright?    WOW!    And if they last?    Should pay themselves back 2x or more over the next years.   Regular fluorescent tubes are going to get
weird within a few years.    And Disposal is already a mess.......the home store which SELLs them is reluctant to take dead ones back for disposal...

New bulbs came in a 2-pack with all wiring and 'tombstones' (those plugs for tube pins)      First one took me over an hour, since I didn't know the Easy
way to disassemble, but the 2nd went much faster.    The 2 kits went just over 40$ or so while to replace a ballast it would have been around 30$....EACH.....
I'd figure power consumption cut in HALF.....

[leonski]

Jun 9, 2023 8:55:36 GMT -5 405x5 said:

I’ve had multiple LED lit electronic components over the last 35 years of playing with this stuff and not one failure of any of them to my recollection.

They were the most fun in my Carver 1.0t’s where they were a contemporary replacement for the traditional VU meters that were virtually useless, but visually entertaining. The LEDs were much cooler, and in the darkness cranking loud music they were very entertaining to watch.

“LED” in the context of energy, efficient, home lighting, as in LED bulbs, became a four letter word with a higher than expected failure rate, and a very expensive per bulb cost. Little by little I’m getting the money back now in savings in my house, which was totally converted to LED lighting.

The other bear in all of this was getting educated to the K factor and getting the color of the lighting, correct for the application, and in some instances, having to find a new home for those bulbs, because the color sucked and you had to put them someplace where the light didn’t matter in terms of the color otherwise having to to eat the cost of the bulb, all of my kitchen bulbs as an example ended up in the garage door openers, where I wouldn’t give a sh** about the color, more importantly, that I could come into the garage and not trip on something and break my ass on the way into the house.

My Carver M400t also had what is called a 'ladder display'.....I think when all lit, the top lamp was labeled +3.....which is in db, probably and means roughly 2x rated power....

And while I'll agree that I've had too many LED lamp (screw base of various sizes) failures, they are fairly cool and provide 'good' light of pleasing color.

They are manufactured on some of the same equipment used to make semiconductors, being close cousins.    As the process gets worked out and failure modes analyzed,
I'd expect lifetime to improve as will yields in-fab.....

[hesster]

ok - LED 101 and we all weigh in.  BUT - has anyone replaced or fixed a bad LED in one of Emotivas's ampS?

[405x5]

Jun 10, 2023 17:12:44 GMT -5 hesster said:

ok - LED 101 and we all weigh in.  BUT - has anyone replaced or fixed a bad LED in one of Emotivas's ampS?

So sorry I am kind of to blame for hijacking the thread away from your original question.

Actually, the OP started this thread about the bad LED in 2012 with no answer either to the original question. i’m on familiar with the Emotiva amplifiers with respect to getting into the front panel where the lights are, presumably. why don’t you put the question directly to Emotiva technical support regarding whether or not you could obtain the part from them?

For example, the upgrade board for Emotiva‘s XMC1 is an end-user replaceable component, so maybe you could do something similar regarding the LED in the front end of your amplifier if you get directly with them. Approaching it from that angle certainly seems to me to be worth the phone call beyond that I can only tell you that the light in the front end of my own amplifier, which happens to be a Sunfire could be replaced by myself and the lights are available on eBay. So far the things still light so I’m good.