Accusound N11640 Subwoofer- Clicking sound

[restorer-john]

restorer-john, I'm glad i stumbled across this thread today.
I replaced the main power caps today in this exact sub (with some 1000uF 63V Mundorf) as I was having the same issue being described. I didn't test the board further as they both tested bad and hoped by replacing them I might jag it and resolve the issue, it didn't. Thinking I might as well (mainly for the fun of it) replace all the caps.

I saw you mention that when you first repaired your friend's sub that you told them it would likely happen again. Why was this and how can that be avoided? Can i choose a type/make/value of cap which will increase the longevity of the unit?

The main power caps aren't the problem. Have a look at the picture above and the two small caps I have circled, replace them as a matter of course- they filter the +/-15V rails to the front end and the trigger circuitry. On the main board, there are also delay caps around the driver Tr for the relay- they are also trouble. It's really not a subwoofer you'd want to replace all the caps on- it's just not worth it IMO. But it could be done.

 

[S0und_Junkie]

The main power caps aren't the problem. Have a look at the picture above and the two small caps I have circled, replace them as a matter of course- they filter the +/-15V rails to the front end and the trigger circuitry. On the main board, there are also delay caps around the driver Tr for the relay- they are also trouble. It's really not a subwoofer you'd want to replace all the caps on- it's just not worth it IMO. But it coud be done.

Yeah I figured that out today haha. Okay I'll give that a whirl, mainly doing it out of enjoyment more than the whole time/cost benefit side. I'll avoid going deep on all caps and see how this pans out. cheers!

 

[Wayno]

I had mine repaired by a local electronics guy. He charged me $150. When I asked what the problem was he said it was a bad IC (yeah sure). I looked at the curcuit boards and couldn't find what, if anything had been replaced (those 2 small caps circled on the picture by "restorer-john" had not been replaced). Anyway, it works and it was cheaper than buying a new one.

 

[Wayno]

So did anybody else manage to fix their Sub? A few months later and mine is still going so happy enough even though it cost me $150 for the repair.

 

[Soundproof 23]

Hi guys I started this thread, still haven't figured this out, but hopefully someone did find a solution?

I'll go through the thread in detail and report back if any of these works for me.

Cheers

 

[Soundproof 23]

So did anybody else manage to fix their Sub? A few months later and mine is still going so happy enough even though it cost me $150 for the repair.

I know it's a bit too late but this is the email they responded to [email protected]

He said auto standby has failed and it is a $10 fix. Can't be the IC then eh?

 

[Wayno]

So in case it happens again, how do you fix the "Auto Standby"??

 

[snapper]

I've been following this thread since I discovered it last year - I have an Accusound Reference XD subwoofer, which I bought 2nd hand and didn't use much. I set it up to try it in my 5.1 loungeroom configuration and discovered the aforementioned clicking sound followed by it not putting out much sound at all except for a bit of a hum. It did work initially albeit quite weak. After quite a few attempts I managed to get in touch with Alan, who said the common fault meant some capacitors and zener diodes need replacing. He referred me to a repairer in Mortdale (I think?) but I was hoping to avoid forking out for repairs on something that is presumably not worth that much now. I decided to try replacing the capacitors myself as recommended by restorer-john, which I think I managed successfully. It now powers on, there is no clicking sound, but there is still no sound coming out except for a hum. Any suggestions of what to test or replace next?

 

[Viper]

I have exactly the same issue so it must be a common fault. Did anyone get to the bottom of the faulty component?

 

[Viper]

I decided to replace all the caps. I thought if I pull them out to test I may as well replace them simultaneously. Replacing them has fixed the issue and after testing all the caps only one was faulty and its value was 47uF 50V. Hopefully, this helps someone.

Good luck.

 

[compugrid]

I decided to replace all the caps. I thought if I pull them out to test I may as well replace them simultaneously. Replacing them has fixed the issue and after testing all the caps only one was faulty and its value was 47uF 50V. Hopefully, this helps someone.

Good luck.

I have got the same problem. There is a clicking switch inside . Under the transparent plastic. It moves from one side to another creating the clicking sound - connecting / disconnecting the sound signal to sub's driver. Probably it acts like a stand by switch to awake it. My Sub is Accusound Ref 8.5. Which is the same as 8.6. I can see the switch under the transparent plastic (square box ) in the 5th photo in page 1 in this bloq. It was a bit of hustle to take off the cover which has 2 little pins at the base. It wasnt working for me . I use plise to turn it 90 degrees and crack the cover opened. I glued the cover together and placed it in later. So there is a switch that is tight to a spring. I took the spring off and put the 2 legged contacts behind the internal contacts. I did not anchored the plate with 2 contacts back . It just stay there under the plastic cover. You can sticky tape it if you want, I didnt, in case i need to come back . I left the spring off. It has no use any longer. The sub i reckon will stay on constantly now. This fix for tight arse noobs who has no idea which cap to change and finds mechanical solution preferable one instead of throwing the sub away or spend $150 to repair a sub that doesnt worth that any longer (IMO). Best luck to play with that. If you find the coz why that switch moves left - right instead of connect the signal and stay on if signal comes in , please let me know. My email address is compugrid AT hotmail.com

 

[compugrid]

I have got the same problem. There is a clicking relay inside . Under the transparent plastic. It moves from one side to another creating the clicking sound / connecting disconnecting the power to sub. Probably acts like a stand by switch. My Sub is Accusound Ref 8.5. Which is the same as 8.6

Here's the Accusound PS100 (N11640) subwoofer repair.

Rear plate, not too bad.
View attachment 130094

Decent enough woofer, magnetic grille attachment- nice.
View attachment 130095

150W claimed output, likely pretty accurate at 4R based on power supply.
View attachment 130096

Internal brace and reasonable magnet structure. Cabinet a bit resonant, but OK overall.
View attachment 130097

Main boards OK quality, lots of damping glue/adhesive makes for less fun when repairing. Transformer is a lovely toroid, nicely made and mounted on sub bracket. Capacitor quality- extremely poor.
View attachment 130098

Proper 240V toroid (Australia) and decent 10,000uF in filtering. Topcon brand however.
View attachment 130099

Nice to see component values screen printed on the PCB. Note the +/-15V rail connection to this PCB. Decoupled via a few 100R resistors and filtered with 100uF caps. These are your problem. The front end circuitry and the auto switch comparator are supplied from this. IIRC, the original caps were 100uF and maybe 50WV (you'd have to check yours), but very small for that WV and capacity. They were very high in ESR. These caps are replacements at 220uF. Check the voltage across the caps in operation and also check for excess upstream ripple from the main +/-15V regulators (zener/tr based) on the main board.
View attachment 130100

Replace the two caps and report back with you findings.
View attachment 130101

The entire subwoofer really could benefit from having all the lower tier capacitors replaced if you had nothing better to do, but from a time/cost perspective, it's probably not worth it.

I have got the same problem. There is a clicking switch inside . Under the transparent plastic. It moves from one side to another creating the clicking sound - connecting / disconnecting the sound signal to sub's driver. Probably it acts like a stand by switch to awake it. My Sub is Accusound Ref 8.5. Which is the same as 8.6. I can see the switch under the transparent plastic (square box ) in the 5th photo in page 1 in this bloq. It was a bit of hustle to take off the cover which has 2 little pins at the base. It wasnt working for me . I use plise to turn it 90 degrees and crack the cover opened. I glued the cover together and placed it in later. So there is a switch that is tight to a spring. I took the spring off and put the 2 legged contacts behind the internal contacts. I did not anchored the plate with 2 contacts back . It just stay there under the plastic cover. You can sticky tape it if you want, I didnt, in case i need to come back . I left the spring off. It has no use any longer. The sub i reckon will stay on constantly now. This fix for tight arse noobs who has no idea which cap to change and finds mechanical solution preferable one instead of throwing the sub away or spend $150 to repair a sub that doesnt worth that any longer (IMO). Best luck to play with that. If you find the coz why that switch moves left - right instead of connect the signal and stay on if signal comes in , please let me know. My email address is compugrid AT hotmail.com

 

[HZSM50]

I have got the same problem. There is a clicking switch inside . Under the transparent plastic. It moves from one side to another creating the clicking sound - connecting / disconnecting the sound signal to sub's driver. Probably it acts like a stand by switch to awake it. My Sub is Accusound Ref 8.5. Which is the same as 8.6. I can see the switch under the transparent plastic (square box ) in the 5th photo in page 1 in this bloq. It was a bit of hustle to take off the cover which has 2 little pins at the base. It wasnt working for me . I use plise to turn it 90 degrees and crack the cover opened. I glued the cover together and placed it in later. So there is a switch that is tight to a spring. I took the spring off and put the 2 legged contacts behind the internal contacts. I did not anchored the plate with 2 contacts back . It just stay there under the plastic cover. You can sticky tape it if you want, I didnt, in case i need to come back . I left the spring off. It has no use any longer. The sub i reckon will stay on constantly now. This fix for tight arse noobs who has no idea which cap to change and finds mechanical solution preferable one instead of throwing the sub away or spend $150 to repair a sub that doesnt worth that any longer (IMO). Best luck to play with that. If you find the coz why that switch moves left - right instead of connect the signal and stay on if signal comes in , please let me know. My email address is compugrid AT hotmail.com

 

[HZSM50]

Sorry new to this.
I have found this thread searching for the answers to the same problem.
So I have done some tinkering with different things changed the two caps as recommended, but to no avail.
So after checking all comments I could and tracing the circuit I found the culprit. It’s the 47uf/ 50 v cap next to the relay. I changed it out for a 220uf/ 25v. And bingo all fixed.
I hope this help all.

 

[DN38416]

I have got the same problem. There is a clicking relay inside . Under the transparent plastic. It moves from one side to another creating the clicking sound / connecting disconnecting the power to sub. Probably acts like a stand by switch. My Sub is Accusound Ref 8.5. Which is the same as 8.6

I have got the same problem. There is a clicking switch inside . Under the transparent plastic. It moves from one side to another creating the clicking sound - connecting / disconnecting the sound signal to sub's driver. Probably it acts like a stand by switch to awake it. My Sub is Accusound Ref 8.5. Which is the same as 8.6. I can see the switch under the transparent plastic (square box ) in the 5th photo in page 1 in this bloq. It was a bit of hustle to take off the cover which has 2 little pins at the base. It wasnt working for me . I use plise to turn it 90 degrees and crack the cover opened. I glued the cover together and placed it in later. So there is a switch that is tight to a spring. I took the spring off and put the 2 legged contacts behind the internal contacts. I did not anchored the plate with 2 contacts back . It just stay there under the plastic cover. You can sticky tape it if you want, I didnt, in case i need to come back . I left the spring off. It has no use any longer. The sub i reckon will stay on constantly now. This fix for tight arse noobs who has no idea which cap to change and finds mechanical solution preferable one instead of throwing the sub away or spend $150 to repair a sub that doesnt worth that any longer (IMO). Best luck to play with that. If you find the coz why that switch moves left - right instead of connect the signal and stay on if signal comes in , please let me know. My email address is compugrid AT hotmail.com

Thanks mate! This fixed mine as well.

I didn't have a soldering iron and I couldn't really be bothered with that.
I want to upgrade soon anyway but I figured I'd try your fix as a last resort to keep me going until then... didn't really care if I broke it.

To my surprise, it worked! Thanks again Is yours still working?

btw you were right about that plastic square box (what a pain in the ass that was to remove!)

 

[toxic1turbo]

Hi Guys,

Thanks fixed the issue, I replaced all 3 caps discussed here, couldn't see the point of just doing the 2, so did all 3 at 0.50c each was a no-brainer, and the problem is solved for $1.50 from Jaycar cat no. RE6324

220uF 25VDC Low ESR Electrolytic Capacitor | Jaycar Electronics

From our range of components and electromechanical semiconductors to suit your circuit.

www.jaycar.com.au