To be fair, I think Siglent has the same policy. My unit was 2 months old, so I got the regular warranty. Their tech support was easy to reach and pretty responsive, though.
And US-based. And definitely old-school, like a blast from the 90s. Remember when you could dial any company and speak to an actual American after 45 seconds on hold?
Just call Siglent, the giant Shenzhen-headquartered global manufacturer, to experience that small nostalgic snippet of Americana all anew 😂😂🤣
Yes, indeed ironic. Rigol much the same. Good service. Now state farm on the other hand, not so much anymore. Deny delay delay... 5 months and counting.
I finished fixing the known issues:
- Replaced trimmers with new Bourns (all 12 of them). The 4 bias trimmers sit right next to heatsinks; they were most likely cooked, in fact the current draw drifted from 0.50A per rail to 0.53-0.54A over the few weeks I listened to the pre several hours a day, Fast-forward months or years... That was most likely the root cause of the massive overheating of the power supply. The other 8 trimmers were probably still OK, but I figured I might as well replace the lot of them.
- Replaced the last two caps in the power supply stage. Nice Panasonic FC, 560 uF / 105 C vs the old Spragues at 470 uF / 85 C. Of course the Spragues tested just fine.
- Reinstalled the MC/MM selection toggle switch.
Testing will have to wait until I get my power supply back from Siglent.
Shoutout to my Hakko FM-301 desoldering gun! It desoldered all components with ease, even the caps soldered to the massive ground plane.
I bought it from eBay Japan for about half the US price. It landed on my porch, brand new and factory-sealed, in 3 days flat (faster than DigiKey shipments). It's a 100V unit, but I just run it off my variac and it works great. I recommend it.
- Replaced trimmers with new Bourns (all 12 of them). The 4 bias trimmers sit right next to heatsinks; they were most likely cooked, in fact the current draw drifted from 0.50A per rail to 0.53-0.54A over the few weeks I listened to the pre several hours a day, Fast-forward months or years... That was most likely the root cause of the massive overheating of the power supply. The other 8 trimmers were probably still OK, but I figured I might as well replace the lot of them.
- Replaced the last two caps in the power supply stage. Nice Panasonic FC, 560 uF / 105 C vs the old Spragues at 470 uF / 85 C. Of course the Spragues tested just fine.
- Reinstalled the MC/MM selection toggle switch.
Testing will have to wait until I get my power supply back from Siglent.
Shoutout to my Hakko FM-301 desoldering gun! It desoldered all components with ease, even the caps soldered to the massive ground plane.
I bought it from eBay Japan for about half the US price. It landed on my porch, brand new and factory-sealed, in 3 days flat (faster than DigiKey shipments). It's a 100V unit, but I just run it off my variac and it works great. I recommend it.