Post by thespianator on Nov 11, 2015 14:24:09 GMT -5
Here's another one of my favorites, been sitting on the shelf for a few years. Bought from CL to use as a high quality 2-channel preamp and it worked fine at first, but then would freeze up. If I unplugged it and waited for a bit, then plugged it back in, it would be OK for a while but the issue always came back and eventually became more frequent and pronounced. Finally I had to take it out of my system and it has sat idle for the last few years.
This thing is built like a tank, weighs a ton, and this particular one has several of the pricier upgrades, such as epoxy glass boards, special teflon connectors, and a few other things that escape me at the moment. In 1995-1996 this brand new technological wonder was priced at about $7-8K (Of course, in 1982 a 286 PC was $5K) This was one - if not thee - first multichannel surround pre/pros on the market. Sounds truly excellent, though a phono input would have been appreciated (guess not appropriate in an all digital unit). I have the factory remote control (made from a chunk of billet aluminum) and it functions OK, though using the remote is like running DOS instead of Windows.
Enlightened Audio Designs is out of business. I contacted Noble Electronics, which was advertised to repair EAD, since it has as its principals a few of the original mainstays of EAD. Spoke with one of the principals who confirmed my theory about a bad cap somewhere. Noble would not provide schematics, insisting on doing the repair and on an open-ended job at $75 per hour plus $25 bench charge. He told me he knew about the issue and knew which cap (and wouldn't tell me which, of course), but he insisted on doing a full re-cap of the entire unit with expensive Mundorf caps. He also told me that if I spent $8K for it then a $600-800 repair should not be a problem (again, I bought it off Craigslist probably thirdhand at least) . After much discussion he said he would repair just the one cap, but the charge would still be open ended and with freight and bench charges, it was more than I cared to commit to for such an old (though spectacular sounding) unit. I totally understand him not telling me how to fix it and not providing a schematic, but was put off by his attitude about how much he thought I should spend on the repair based on the MSRP and his demanding a blank check to fix it.
An audio friend suggested I look for the bootstrap cap. No idea which or where that would be, since the specs say there are 34 power supplies in it. As well built and heavy as this is, the designers still used a pan style case with no access panel, so the entire unit would have to be dismantled in order to access the reverse side of the main PCB. Of course, if I knew which cap was bad I could just do it from the top.
I know it's a long shot, but I'm hoping MT has an idea how to proceed with this. It's a great sounding unit and I would love to put it back into service.
Note: Some blurry pics - just let me know what you want me to zoom in on.
This thing is built like a tank, weighs a ton, and this particular one has several of the pricier upgrades, such as epoxy glass boards, special teflon connectors, and a few other things that escape me at the moment. In 1995-1996 this brand new technological wonder was priced at about $7-8K (Of course, in 1982 a 286 PC was $5K) This was one - if not thee - first multichannel surround pre/pros on the market. Sounds truly excellent, though a phono input would have been appreciated (guess not appropriate in an all digital unit). I have the factory remote control (made from a chunk of billet aluminum) and it functions OK, though using the remote is like running DOS instead of Windows.
Enlightened Audio Designs is out of business. I contacted Noble Electronics, which was advertised to repair EAD, since it has as its principals a few of the original mainstays of EAD. Spoke with one of the principals who confirmed my theory about a bad cap somewhere. Noble would not provide schematics, insisting on doing the repair and on an open-ended job at $75 per hour plus $25 bench charge. He told me he knew about the issue and knew which cap (and wouldn't tell me which, of course), but he insisted on doing a full re-cap of the entire unit with expensive Mundorf caps. He also told me that if I spent $8K for it then a $600-800 repair should not be a problem (again, I bought it off Craigslist probably thirdhand at least) . After much discussion he said he would repair just the one cap, but the charge would still be open ended and with freight and bench charges, it was more than I cared to commit to for such an old (though spectacular sounding) unit. I totally understand him not telling me how to fix it and not providing a schematic, but was put off by his attitude about how much he thought I should spend on the repair based on the MSRP and his demanding a blank check to fix it.
An audio friend suggested I look for the bootstrap cap. No idea which or where that would be, since the specs say there are 34 power supplies in it. As well built and heavy as this is, the designers still used a pan style case with no access panel, so the entire unit would have to be dismantled in order to access the reverse side of the main PCB. Of course, if I knew which cap was bad I could just do it from the top.
I know it's a long shot, but I'm hoping MT has an idea how to proceed with this. It's a great sounding unit and I would love to put it back into service.
Note: Some blurry pics - just let me know what you want me to zoom in on.
