Klipsch Sub-10 / Sub-12 / RPW-10 Repair Blog

SUB-12 PLATE JIDG050400766



This one was rather interesting. It came to me with all of the power wires cut. I had to do the repairs and rewire the plate. I am not a fan of these all in one style boards. They are a pain to work on. The wires going form the speaker terminals to the plate were also cut. It was almost like someone wanted the copper and trashed the amp. This plate had the glue monster do some damage which is 99% typical for these. PDC rebuild, full recap, new fets and Q5 upgrade.
 

Attachments

  • 20191221_111742.thumb.jpg.40fcb23e9c4944dd8814ffb006e4ff05.jpg
    20191221_111742.thumb.jpg.40fcb23e9c4944dd8814ffb006e4ff05.jpg
    46.4 KB · Views: 283
  • 20200124_221258.thumb.jpg.aeea8b28033a1fe38936da35e8f625b9.jpg
    20200124_221258.thumb.jpg.aeea8b28033a1fe38936da35e8f625b9.jpg
    99.8 KB · Views: 289
RPW-10 PLATE SI-00129



This plate is a trade in repair. I am trying to clean up my parts box that is overflowing, so I am going to start punching these out so I can get more organized. Typical repairs on this one. TH3 exploded, fets were shorted, PDC failed. Full recap and Q5 upgrade completes this one. The thru holes for the fets had damage from an attempted repair, so I had to freaking fix those.



IF YOU DON'T HAVE A VACUUM DESOLDERING TOOL CUT THE DAMN LEADS AND SAVE THE THRU HOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Attachments

  • 20200522_231209.jpg
    20200522_231209.jpg
    942.4 KB · Views: 283
RPW-10 PLATE A506220506



FINALLY, something different. This failure was not one I have seen before. C31 appears to have prematurely evacuated and caused all sorts of issues. Z2 was toasted, Q5 evaporated and R51 failed. The BASH board was taken out as well with a blown diode, transistor and the IC. The IC's are a pain in the *** to replace because of the glue or epoxy used to try and hide the UC3842 chip. The board did have some damage to the copper plane under the cap, probably from the electrolyte. This is a fairly easy spot to repair.



Best guess, Q5 failed and took out the bash board and caused Z2 to fail. R51 then failed from heat due to the current draw. When the bash board stops working the voltage on C31 goes over 100V, which it is only rated for and that would cause the leakage. Normal voltage is around 90V. This is why on later revisions this cap was upgraded to a 160V version. It is still OK to use a 100V cap here, as long as the amp is working properly. Go 160V if you want to play it safe.

As usual, glue removal and Q5 upgrade with a full recap.
 

Attachments

  • 20200522_235047.jpg
    20200522_235047.jpg
    705.2 KB · Views: 311
  • 20200523_032519.jpg
    20200523_032519.jpg
    883 KB · Views: 279
SUB-10 dead

Hi,ngen33r

Do you fix SUB10 amplifier with charge a fee?
I have SUB10 dead couple days ago, +-15v is good, but no 90v.

If you do, please email me (w_us at yahoo)

Thanks in advance.


I also have a SUB-10 that just tied. No power light. The fuse was blown, I ordered a replacement but it didn't fix the issue. No power light.

I am a EE but went straight to embedded SW right out of school so I have some basic skills and tools and I can follow instructions.

What do you charge to fix these amps or do you have a list of items to check (for newbe) to begin to diagnose the issue? If it is the PDC board 660038RA, is that something that can be sent to you to be rebuild/repaired?
 
Resistor or not?

I'm working on this SUB-10 amp and after cleaning the large glob of glue from the corner of the board, I notice that there are a couple SMD resistors missing from the board. Looking back to my original pictures, I see that R115 was never there but R127 was buried in glue. My question for anyone is whether or not there was a resistor there that I possibly removed while cleaning the glue? If so, can you tell me the value? TIA.
 

Attachments

  • 20210112_175731-1.jpg
    20210112_175731-1.jpg
    862.8 KB · Views: 134
  • 20210204_204340-1.jpg
    20210204_204340-1.jpg
    603.1 KB · Views: 148
Last edited:
Loud fan in sub

I think you repaired my dead sub many (~7) years ago. Part of the repair was to add a fan to help cool it. Now, when I start it up after it has been off for a while, the fan squeals for a bit, then stops. I thought I would ask you before I tore into it: what kind of fan did you put into the sub for cooling? It is something I can easily replace? Do I need any special tools. Unfortunately, I tossed all the old emails, so I could not ask you directly.
 
I'm t'shooting a non-working RPW10 PCB. I do not own a scope; just a DMM.
  • I get no sound from the speaker, no hum nor the power-on thump.
  • Power LED lights and the fuse tests OK. Fuse does not blown when amp is powered on.
  • Visually, the PCB is excellent: no smoked traces, lifted pads, blown caps a/o burned resistors.
  • I read ~26.3vDC across the voltage regulators.
  • I read ~5.6vDC across the two large resistors (volume at min.).
  • With board unplugged, I see normal cap drain-down: voltage drains to zero volts when measured across the voltage regulators.
Thus the usual culprits all appear to be normal.
 
Resistor or not?

I'm working on this SUB-10 amp and after cleaning the large glob of glue from the corner of the board, I notice that there are a couple SMD resistors missing from the board. Looking back to my original pictures, I see that R115 was never there but R127 was buried in glue. My question for anyone is whether or not there was a resistor there that I possibly removed while cleaning the glue? If so, can you tell me the value? TIA.
On my SUB-10 board SMD resistors R115 and R127 are not installed. R114 is 100 Ohm just in case.
 

Attachments

  • 20230701_184551.jpg
    20230701_184551.jpg
    565.9 KB · Views: 47