A lot, but I endeavor to get 300K miles out of each.If we were only as concerned with all the other consumer stuff's longevity/disposability.....how many cars have you guys gone thru?
I do hope this is just trolling, sarcasm, satire, or irony.Why bother? It's a $100 module. Class D modules were destined for the landfill when they were designed/built. Just remove and replace...
I am afraid that it is not and that it represents opinion of many members.I do hope this is just trolling, sarcasm, satire, or irony.
For those without the skills and needed equipment for diagnosis and repairing, the only other choice is then to send it to someone for repairs. That will quickly cost more than the replacement for many devices, like a $100 device.I am afraid that it is not and that it represents opinion of many members.
In all of my stereo equipment that uses Class AB (2 receivers, 1 integrated amp, 2 preamps and 7 amplifiers). from 1973-Today I have had precisely 1 failure of one amplifier channel and that failure could not be attributed to the amplifier itself but to a home electrical system power surge from an outside source. I still own and use all of the stereo items that I mentioned.
Great news. The stars have aligned for us! Amir has agreed to do the extra visual inspections after amp operational testing is complete. Many thanks to @amirm and @restorer-john for taking on this extra work. Now we just wait for the amp to make its way from the “to do stack” to Amir’s Test Bench.
Arrrgh... will there be a pre-instrumentation "shake" test coming soon to weed-out loose screws (etc.) in DUTs?Amir has agreed to do the extra visual inspections after amp operational testing is complete.
Yes, this will be interesting. Though I think it would also be interesting to see more forensic analysis of failed modules. The challenge will be that some failed modules will be sent in under warranty, and then the failure analysis becomes secret.What happened with this? The amps are reviewed now, right?
Yes done and a tear down thread was posted. Amir disassembled the amp build as far as he was comfortable. He did not remove any of the modules. One of the takeaways was the area where the Hypex module is mounted is painted. @Buckeye Amps has agreed to have this area of the Amp case to remain unpainted to permit improved heat transfer to the case metal from the amp module. @Rick Sykora has also done his own inspection write-up and communicated his findings to Buckeye and posted about his observations in various Buckeye Nc502mp Threads.What happened with this? The amps are reviewed now, right?
Agreed. The reported failure area was not directly inspected as no one involved wanted to break down the new module. It would probably void the Hypex warranty and I was not willing to permit that amount of disassembly. So we did as much non-destructive disassembly as possible.This is nice but not sufficient to answer the issue that @restorer-john addressed in his post #54. PCB and Al base bent and MLCC failure/explosion.
Hold on a moment, as I see it: the lack of reliability, the lack of schematics & the lack of ability to get the parts to repair seems to me to be the discussion here. This discussion would not be happening at all if they were reliable.very real benefits to customers in terms of performance, reliability and utility with these newer manufacturing techniques.
I feel exactly the opposite way. If anything in my system goes down, in the time it takes me to re-route some of the wires, or replace one of the pieces with another that I have on hand, I am up & running my stereo again. Then I can diagnose & repair (or have someone else diagnose & repair) whatever it is that failed at my leisure. Anything that is in my system, I have another (it may not be the exact same make or model [but it can take over the function of the now non-working unit]). I started doing this in my teen years: that if I buy something and I like it: when I finish paying for the first one, I buy a second one so that I will have it when (not if) I need it. This goes for shoes, other clothes, audio gear, cars, homes, etc. example: My wife & I have one car each. And we own a third car for when one is in the shop. So we have a 2000, a 2007 & a 2012. When we sell one, we will buy another. The likelihood of us being inconvenienced by not having available transportation is slim. Everything we have, we own. Not us & the bank, us & the credit card company or us & anyone (except for the property tax aspect). And if you think you actually own your home: try not paying the property tax & you will find out who really owns your home. There are very few places that don't have property tax on your home.For audio components though, shoving an entire system into a single box at lower cost in my opinion just makes sense. These products can have long life spans and overall consume less than what I guess you would call more traditional and less integrated components. Having an extra rack with a class AB amp, pre-amp, digital front end, whatever else isn't in some way virtuous when you could have an integrated amp with DSP that lasts 20 years (if you want it to). Traditional electronics can be disposed and upgraded just as easily as any others, so I don't think that solves consumerism.
I feel exactly the opposite way. If anything in my system goes down, in the time it takes me to re-route some of the wires, or replace one of the pieces with another that I have on hand, I am up & running my stereo again. Then I can diagnose & repair (or have someone else diagnose & repair) whatever it is that failed at my leisure. Anything that is in my system, I have another (it may not be the exact same make or model [but it can take over the function of the now non-working unit]). I started doing this in my teen years: that if I buy something and I like it: when I finish paying for the first one, I buy a second one so that I will have it when (not if) I need it. This goes for shoes, other clothes, audio gear, cars, homes, etc. example: My wife & I have one car each. And we own a third car for when one is in the shop. So we have a 2000, a 2007 & a 2012. When we sell one, we will buy another. The likelihood of us being inconvenienced by not having available transportation is slim. Everything we have, we own. Not us & the bank, us & the credit card company or us & anyone (except for the property tax aspect). And if you think you actually own your home: try not paying the property tax & you will find out who really owns your home. There are very few places that don't have property tax on your home.
I currently own a 2000 Nissan Frontier, a 2007 Honda & a 2012 Lexus These vehicles are not out in the elements when they are at home. The 2000 Nissan & the 2007 Honda will likely make 200K. The Lexus currently only has 31K on it & has several computer failures (not fatal to the car yet) but will soon cause it to need a new main computer. At this time, I can still get one. But, based on this ones history (and going by time), I will need another computer for it in 9 years (or less), when the car will likely have 130K on it & the computer will be made of unobtanium at any price. I do not foresee the Lexus making 200K. In addition to that, the annual expense of the maintenance (even though there was less of it) for these three vehicles has been much more than my former USA & German cars. The Lexus is what tipped that away from being about the same as the former vehicles. Hopefully the next vehicle we buy will be a USA or German brand again.I remember when Japanese cars became really popular and everyone complained about how hard they were to be worked on. And then the people stopped complaining about that because it was so rare that you had to actually work on them.
When was the last time you had the motherboard of your desktop computer fail? These rarely do, and the SMD assembly is if anything more intricate than on an audio amplifier PCB. I'm around thousands of amplifiers daily and the number which come back for service could probably be counted on one hand over the course of a month. I can't speak to the reliability of other brands, but ours is impeccable.Hold on a moment, as I see it: the lack of reliability, the lack of schematics & the lack of ability to get the parts to repair seems to me to be the discussion here. This discussion would not be happening at all if they were reliable.