For those that repair amps:What brands or problems do you prefer to stay away from?

[MadMutt]

Gotta love real backyard boys.
Just dump more heat into it till the chip falls off.

yes, have used the hakko.
Haven't got a reflow at the moment cause I very rarely need it.
Oh, And their about Au$900

Hakko tip 'A' (?) does me well enough for the moment.

But I think i'll have to buy another very shortly.
Just picked up a batch of headunits that need some smd reflow lovin.
Would make life so much easier.

Thanks for the reminder, need to get some more ultrafine solder too.

And people wonder why they get charged so much for a 'simple' repair..

Can spend $10,000 per benck station without even thinking about a cro...

[1moreamp]

Originally posted by MadMutt
Gotta love real backyard boys.
Just dump more heat into it till the chip falls off.

yes, have used the hakko.
Haven't got a reflow at the moment cause I very rarely need it.
Oh, And their about Au$900

Hakko tip 'A' (?) does me well enough for the moment.

But I think i'll have to buy another very shortly.
Just picked up a batch of headunits that need some smd reflow lovin.
Would make life so much easier.

Thanks for the reminder, need to get some more ultrafine solder too.

And people wonder why they get charged so much for a 'simple' repair..

Can spend $10,000 per benck station without even thinking about a cro...

AMEN Brother AMEN !

[MadMutt]

There used to be a group of car mechs that got together once a year and have a 'party'.
They'd grab a few old cars or motors (junk yard clunkers), drain the oil and water, give them some petrol, start them up and hold them at high revs.
They'd place bets on how long they'd last and what sort of death they'd die.

Wonder what we could do.
Could be difficult cause if the amp is dead or u/s, who wants to repair it just to smoke it again ?

Guess we could see who comes up with the most creative/novel way of destroying the remains.

I recon one of these industrial shreaders would be fun.
A bit to fast but fun.

[1moreamp]

I see shredded amps daily, with owners looking at me to repair if for next to nothing when it needs a entire new amp board inside of it due to over fusing

I been thinking about dumping amp repair for HU repair lately. it just seems to have a future that cheap Asian amps don't have. Amp makers are happy but their margins have ruined a good business I had for years.

I recently saw a JBL amp test where they used a new Class D high voltage amp to run a saws-all to cut a old school JBL amp in half. I got a kick out of it as it was a old JBL amp they were cutting in half with a new Chinese JBL amp as a power supply

(If I could find it now I would post a pic of a SS amp that had been burned up in a car fire and the guy wanted it repaired

[MadMutt]

Head units are a different kettle completely.

Blown amp ic's are a great way to make money.
But after that, you either need service manuals or previous knowledge of that unit.

One of the units I do, oh my.
I have the service manual.
It covers the basic alignment proceedure etc alright, BUT.
This unit also has a second service manual.
25 pages of modifications to the mech side.
And most are not doable unless you buy the actual 'modified' parts for it.
Then there's the equipment needed for firmware up dates.

Some can take over a day.

Then theres the little matter of some units needing to be fully assembled before they fire up.
Which if your trying to find a fault in the centre of the board under the mech is just great.

I try to stay away from h/u's.
The ones I do are 'special', rare, old, expensive (Au$2,000 +)
Plus no one else wants to touch them.

I'm not saying you shouldn't.
Just maybe dip a toe and test the water first.

Some cust for h/u's don't care about cost, they just want it fixed. I like them
But then you can spend alot of time on some units and get nowhere.

EDIT,
Oh and small screws that are so tight you need a jack hammer to loosen them.
Seriously, Buy the most expensive, strongest set of jewellers drivers you can.
And have a spare set for when they break.

I sometimes need to use multigrips on the shaft of the driver. Seriously.

Damn, that reminds me again.
Need to get another set of those as well...
Looks like being an expensive week.

New meter, new mag lamp, new drivers, more fine solder.

[normalicy]

I'm no pro (have only repaired 2 amps with minor problems). But I'm trying. Oddly, despite my meger beginnings, I have about 30 bad amps (half due to "AS-IS" auctions that I won on ebay or half because I thought I could fix them & think they're out of my league). I have learned a few things though. I certainly don't like the MESHA Rockfords. Aparently there is an easier way to get the FETs off, but I'm not sure what that is. I played on a Punch 150s & had to pull out my 250w soldering gun to get them off. Same to get the new ones back on. And yes, I'm aware that heat is bad for the FETs, but I couldn't see any other way.

Another thing I don't like is amps that are held together with 100 ******* screws (not kidding). I end up with about 4 bags of screws for the things.