It can happen to anyone I guess. Simply, that the phones were not plugged all the way into the HP jack on my Phonitor SE, and I was letting it warm up. By the time that wanted to listen music, one channel was out, and even a burning smell came from the amp. Taking the top cover off allowed me to quickly witness the trouble. Two of the SMD resistors on one channel board were burnt right off. I bought this directly from The Music Room a year ago, but highly doubt that they will be much good in this case.
Having said all of this, my two choices are to find a schematic for analysis, or have it shipped to a qualified repair shop. Oh boy. What say you?
Having said all of this, my two choices are to find a schematic for analysis, or have it shipped to a qualified repair shop. Oh boy. What say you?
SPL in Germany has contacted me and will make a ticket to assign a technician here in the USA. I am not looking forward to what will likely be an expensive repair, all because a headphone extension cord was not completely plugged in. Yup, will be getting a full 14 ft> headphone cable to replace it.
Truth be known, when the Phonitor SE comes back it is going to be immediately horse raced against the Whammy/SS-X combo that I am using right now. Some things in life are discovered by mistake, and this combination is one that I strongly prefer. Where there are weaknesses in with my headphones this combination is 'correcting' that. The real curiousness that I have is just how close, if at all, will these two compare? The Phonitor has what I just had to hear in a high voltage rail system for the circuit. I forget but it seems that it runs at over 100v. Their point is that it allows more headroom although it is very unlikely that any known cans would require that kind of reserve.
All in all, I felt that the Phonitor sound was a bit dry (accurate) for my taste. Reminds me of what I hear in some Sennheiser headphones. Certainly a great start in reproduction, but not an end goal for me.
All in all, I felt that the Phonitor sound was a bit dry (accurate) for my taste. Reminds me of what I hear in some Sennheiser headphones. Certainly a great start in reproduction, but not an end goal for me.
Nice story with a happy ending, although quite expensive.
Then you wisely planned the heatshrink with glue, but with time since the red connector seems to be conical it could even slip out again (crossing fingers).
To avoid running 400 more risks why not cover the two connectors up to their constricted end?
Just sayin'...
Then you wisely planned the heatshrink with glue, but with time since the red connector seems to be conical it could even slip out again (crossing fingers).
To avoid running 400 more risks why not cover the two connectors up to their constricted end?
Just sayin'...
I thought the same but after testing the grip that this double wall heatshrink has on the connection, I couldn't move it even a tiny bit. There are indentations on both ends that allow extra grip. The real answer is to get a longer headphone cable, but I already have $100 invested in the 10 foot cable that is being used.
Just an update. The Phonitor came back from repair to surprise me with what seems to be a fuller sound. Originally, I found it to be a drier sounding unit, but now there is a fullness that makes me turn my head, expecting it not to be like that. I haven't checked, but the gain switches on the bottom of the amp may have been changed, as I also noticed that it doesn't have to be a so close to full volume now as before with the Hi-Fi Man 400SE. Honestly, I had planned to sell it for the price of the $400! repair. Sounds better than both the Whammy amps that I have (each with a different opa). These aren't all huge differences until you compare it to the Xiang Sheng DAC with headphone amp which then sounds pretty bright.
So what was the root cause of that failure?
You probably inserted the headphone jack "just right", to cause a short between the amplifier ground and one of the two channels' output, via the same headphone jack metal contact area. I would expect that such an expensive product would have handled the short condition much better. That is a design fault. A properly designed amplifier would have taken that failure mode into consideration, as it is one of the most probable failure scenarios. Any amp can be exposed to a short at its output. I am not sure if the metal contact's geometry (the headphone jack socket at amplifier end) can be fine-tuned to prevent the possibility of a short occurring when the jack is not fully inserted into the socket... But I am pretty sure that designers at SPL should have asked themselves that question.
Have you seen the spec sheet where SPL states explicitly that the amp does not have a protection circuit to handle an output short? If you have not, then the repair should have been covered by warranty.
This isn't an exact quote from the manual, but they couldn't have been clearer about the high possibility of damage either to the headphones, the amp, or both if the jack was not properly inserted. When such a statement is made beforehand, it then becomes the responsibility of the user to abide.
I do agree that any design that would have this possible outcome for a shorted output falls short of the reality out there that things happen, whatever the reason. We routinely accepted this for the decades that so many SS amps had little in the way of protection, and many times the attempt was no more than a fused output or something simple.
In my case, it was over a year since I bought the amp, and the warranty had run out. Otherwise, I might have made an attempt stating my case.
I should have been more clear about the fact that it was the connection between the headphone extension cable and the actual headphone cable where the connection was not fully plugged in. This is shown in the photo and I must state that the extension cable does not have a tight contact as is the amps headphone jack itself does. As I stated in one of my previous posts, it is on me to get the right (longer) length cable for the headphones to avoid this problem again. In the meantime, I am using a very effective adhesive heatshrink on that connection that will have to be sliced off to get it apart.
Your concern is well noted and yes, I agree with this sort of dropping the ball during design and then covering your 'behind' with a statement of warning.
I do agree that any design that would have this possible outcome for a shorted output falls short of the reality out there that things happen, whatever the reason. We routinely accepted this for the decades that so many SS amps had little in the way of protection, and many times the attempt was no more than a fused output or something simple.
In my case, it was over a year since I bought the amp, and the warranty had run out. Otherwise, I might have made an attempt stating my case.
I should have been more clear about the fact that it was the connection between the headphone extension cable and the actual headphone cable where the connection was not fully plugged in. This is shown in the photo and I must state that the extension cable does not have a tight contact as is the amps headphone jack itself does. As I stated in one of my previous posts, it is on me to get the right (longer) length cable for the headphones to avoid this problem again. In the meantime, I am using a very effective adhesive heatshrink on that connection that will have to be sliced off to get it apart.
Your concern is well noted and yes, I agree with this sort of dropping the ball during design and then covering your 'behind' with a statement of warning.