Threshold 400a Blowing Rail Fuses w/ All LEDs illuminated
- By hadley
- Solid State
- 31 Replies
While I'm waiting for other parts and in an attempt to use extra parts from the NOS Threshold SA-1 restoration/upgrade project I posted about here, I purchased a 400a with blown 6A rail fuses. I've seen similar threads about this exact issue. It'll be something like "rail fuses blow immediately and LEDs on meter are all illuminated". Unfortunately, no one who takes these projects on really ever seems to post a conclusion or any kind of useful info. I'll try.
The amplifier came in yesterday, so I got to work and took the cover off. Immediately found a cracked emitter resistor and given the current consumption needed to blow the fuse I could reasonably guess the associated NPN was shorted. Unsoldered it, tested it with my Peak DCA75 and it was shorted. However, as it typically goes, I didn't stop there. I tested all of the CLASSA8 NPNs and found most of the β values were in the teens (15, 18, 19, etc) with the exception of the device connected to the 10 ohm resistor, which tested at 93. The SCA-75 has shown to be predictive of what my Tek 576 would trace.

The big picture here is that the β is degraded because the transistors have likely slowly been destroyed by the conditions present in the circuit, so if you find one of your transistors has shorted, you likely need to replace all of them.
By the way, this 400A is really overbuilt and probably better than the later amps (which are still overkill mostly and easier to disassemble).

Now I'm waiting for new output transistors, and will rebuild the power supply in the meantime. I think I have the right capacitors.
The amplifier came in yesterday, so I got to work and took the cover off. Immediately found a cracked emitter resistor and given the current consumption needed to blow the fuse I could reasonably guess the associated NPN was shorted. Unsoldered it, tested it with my Peak DCA75 and it was shorted. However, as it typically goes, I didn't stop there. I tested all of the CLASSA8 NPNs and found most of the β values were in the teens (15, 18, 19, etc) with the exception of the device connected to the 10 ohm resistor, which tested at 93. The SCA-75 has shown to be predictive of what my Tek 576 would trace.

The big picture here is that the β is degraded because the transistors have likely slowly been destroyed by the conditions present in the circuit, so if you find one of your transistors has shorted, you likely need to replace all of them.
By the way, this 400A is really overbuilt and probably better than the later amps (which are still overkill mostly and easier to disassemble).

Now I'm waiting for new output transistors, and will rebuild the power supply in the meantime. I think I have the right capacitors.