Board repair for subwoofer

Would you recommend the class AB over the class D for subwoofers? (Hoping not to open a can of worms.)

A fair number of subwoofer plate amps are / were Class AB, but they tend to run hot when confined inside an unventilated enclosure, leading to their early demise.

At this point, most people agree that Class D does an outstanding job in low frequency applications. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Class D for subwoofer amps - all the more so if it’s a plate amp, due to Class D’s lower operating temperature.

If you have a high-quality subwoofer and you love its sound signature I would recommend converting it to external amplification, due to the added flexibility and elimination of the environmental challenges inside enclosures (temperature, poor ventilation, vibration).

@drbond what is your sub's model number?

@devinplombier It definitely sounds reasonable to try external amplification, especially if I can’t get the bad board repaired.  I have the Martin Logan Balanced Force 212’s.  (Dual 12 inch drivers in a sealed cabinet, with each driver powered by a 850W class D amplifier.  So there are two boards attached to one plate.)

You have very nice subs, there has to be a reason the amps keep popping. If you do a google search, that doesn't really come up with them.  Are they getting good clean power? How are you hooking them up? What gain are you running them at? Is it the same sub, or has it been both? Are you using the factory power cables?

Usually it's not hard to spot a component failure from heat/over driving. The board will show browning, or heat damage, usually the component will also show the same type of damage. 

Class D amps are perfect match for subs, lots of power/current, small footprint, low heat, low power consumption. 

It definitely sounds reasonable to try external amplification, especially if I can’t get the bad board repaired.

@drbond 

For sure you can get the bad board repaired, but the primary reason for which it failed (repeatedly) is the heat and lack of ventilation inside the enclosure, which put a lot of stress on parts, especially electrolytic capacitors which tend to dry out and go out of spec much faster when subjected to high heat. Often manufacturers pot the boards with various dampening compounds in an effort to mitigate the ill effects of extreme vibration; that in turn further restricts air circulation. 

In other words, your amps are most likely fixable but are liable to fail again in the not too distant future because the conditions in which they operate won’t have changed. If you wish to retain the factory amps, I would recommend having them completely gone through and fully tested after all electrolytic capacitors have been replaced with new, high-quality, name-brand 125C-rated parts sourced from a reputable distributor (ie Digikey, not eBay or Amazon!). Note that such an extensive rework may be unrealistic if the boards were too heavily potted by the factory in the first place.

@mswale 

I have the subs plugged into a surge protector (using the factory power cord) which is plugged into a power conditioner, which is plugged into a dedicated line, but all the other low power components are also plugged into that power conditioner, or surge protector.  My amplifiers for my speakers are plugged into their own dedicated lines.  They don’t have a gain knob, just a volume knob, and a low pass filter, and are getting a signal directly from the RCA connectors on the pre amplifier.