The death of an amplifier

Keep water away from all electronics, that's my advice for the day.

I generally try to hose down my system with a pressure washer at least once a week. Should I stop doing that?

As long as your like that liquid sound. I hang my stuff in fishnetting from the ceiling, nice and airy sound....actually seriously, I bought a product Stererophile tried several years back. It's called Blocker2[vapor corrosion inhibitors made by Music Sciences, St. Paul min.USA. It is environmentally friendly. I don't even know if you can still get this. I think I bought mine from Muisc Direct. I used it in my preamp. Lasts2-5years. Anyone else try this? Is it still made? Good luck.

Is "religons" something new I need to be aware of?

Well Nrchy you can get away with it on the 4th thursday of every month as long as it is an odd day- I know it its tricky but stick with it and it will make sense ;) ~Tim

The last I heard the statistics read "there is at least one death per amplifier."

Joman- Religon is a belief in or worship of God or Gods; seeing as 95% of the world practices some form of "religon" you should make yourself aware of it :) ~Tim

Tireguy; If one is going to practice religion I assume in the USA it would be a first step to be able to spell it correctly. That's just my opinion and I could be wrong!

Hey, why all this religos discusson? My head hurts, maybe I have a concusson. Sorry for the intrusson, please continue you religos instructons, if you so have the noton. I didn't mean to cause such a comoton.

KP

I hope this is not too far off the subject but I'm asking about solid state amps. I have currently sworn off tubes, but tomorrow's another day. Actually tomorrow is Sunday so I hope all of you will follow your relijus convictions and go to church.

Oh GAWD!

This is silly - pressure washers and religion and liquid and airy sound. Nonsense!!! Everybody knows that to preserve the life of a SS amp you must put a piece of fresh meat on top of it periodically. Use only beef, lamb, or pork. NO CHICKEN - not even if it is free range! It is time to change the meat when it a turns light shade of taupe. Do not leave the meat until it is green - that is just plain cheap.

For tube amps, place a bowl of cooked lima beans on top each week, and keep the beans hydrated. Smear uncooked duck fat on the face plate and sides of the amp. If you use 300B tubes (or are just looking for a little extra insurance) smear the uncooked duck fat on your chest and forehead and dance naked at sundown on your front lawn/porch/balcony/roof to further appease the audio gods.

Hope that helps.

they finally pass away when the owner fails to recessitate the unit. might be a lack of out of date replacement parts, or murder! i've had a 'must be that time' run of three amps that went to the dr. in the last six months! if ya like the amp, dont give up on it. kurt

Okay Nate, I will answer your question. If you do not kill the amp by shorting the speaker leads, running too-low impedances,(or pressure washing it), and it is left to its own demise, the capacitors will generally be the first thing to break down. Electrolytics typically are the first to go. Usually in the power supply section. Also generally, the hotter an amp runs, the faster it will cause the passive components to fail. We are talking about SS amps here, so I am not talking tube life or anything. Of course, any part could fail at any time, so there are no guarantees. But, the things I mentioned would be typical. The other common failure item is the on/off switch.

Damn I guess I should use the cut & paste deal when I have had a few drinks this way little mishaps like that will be averted.

Twl- Thanks for getting us back on track.

Tom, are the things you mentioned preventable or can I take preemptive action? Will I be able to hear capacitors that are on the way out? The Aragon amp does not run real hot. It is warm to the touch but it is not in a rack. There is nothing immediately above or below it. It is about four inches above the floor with nothing above till the ceiling.
As far as the on/off switch, the only time I turn anything off is on the rare occasion when I move equipment around or when I am going away for a while. If there are things I can do to extend the life of these toys I would be interested. Thanks for your help.

Nate, no they are really not preventable, but keeping the heat low will help. You can quite often tell if a cap is going bad by some sonic indications, but it is possible that a cap won't fail first. It may be a resistor, or output transistor or anything. Since you don't really know what item will be first to fail, for sure, you can't do too much to prevent it, other than good general care, and using the amp within its design parameters(not pushing overly low impedances especially). After that, it's just the luck of the draw.

Actually, Religon is operated by the same folks that run Audiogon. It specializes in the sale of relics: antique furniture, spiritual items, old wives....

will

Actually religion is run by people who couldn't find God in their limited perspective which was the reason Jesus was so unhappy with religion. To give 'will' the benefit of the doubt though, I guess one persons pasttime can be anothers pointless religion.

Hi Nate, I agree with Tom that it is very difficalt to prevent a component going bad on you. Just keep the unit well aerated to avoid heat build up and try no to abuse it with too many parties! Other than that I persoanlly like to air blast the dust that accumulates in the unit once in a while, I clean the contacts (for better sound not reliability) and I like to spray the switches with some type of NON RESIDUE contact cleaner. Of course, ONLY do these things with the unit DISCONNECTED from electricity and ONLY if you are comfortable opening up the unit yourself. Otherwise DON'T do it! Aragon equipment are famous for reliability. Enjoy your amp and do not stress yourself over equipment failure.

Actually, religion is finite man's (homemade) attempts to reach an infinite God. Not real practical when you think about it.

Generally in electronics circuits, the capacitors are the first to go - but are generally replacable. Transistors should be the last to go if they are not overloaded or have very high bias current (heat is bad). Arthur

Keep the amp cool as possible. Only power on when you are listening. Blow out the dust now and then. Heatsinks must be sparkly clean, dust reduces cooling. 

I have severeal receivers that are 35 years old, Used daily, no repairs. no recaps. I find transistors fail as often as caps, again not too often. They are affected by temperature too.

Do not recap an amp just because someone tells you to. Im telling you not to. Caps are likely to go bad first though overheated resistors are close. Caps lose their moisture over time and when its gone its over.
Someone should look into replacing the moisture via a syrenge through the rubber end. Maybe 1 CC per cubic inch and wait a day roll it around to distribute.

 I have 30 year old caps in MR equipment 3000 tube units. less than 20 caps replaced except for a bad batch from Illinois. Bad chemistry they actually loose connection, then leak and end up open. 

Cap life is doubled for 10 degrees C you can cool it.