Classe CA100 - Static, Cut Outs when cold. Ideas?


So I recently purchased a Classe CA100 amp. I removed my old amp from a perfectly working system and installed the Classe. Upon first playing music I immediately noticed something was wrong. The channels were dropping out at random and the was static coming through. I assumed the amp was broken.

Then as I left the music playing while I tried to to figure out the problem it seemed like the symptoms were going away. After an hour the amp sounded okay. Then today, after remaining on all night I played some tracks at a high volume and it seems okay. So I turned it off while I'm at work and I'm going to see how it does from cold again.

Any ideas what would cause this? There is a B&W service center (parent company of Classe) 10 mins from my house. I may look to see how much it would cost to give it a once-over. How much do you think?

Thanks
miatame
Hi Miatame - i have the same problem with my CA-101. It has been doing this for about 4 years now. I sent it back to Classe under warranty at the end of the 5 year warranty when it started and they could not duplicate it (neither could my dealer - though it is so intermittent, they may have missed it). I listened at the dealer for hours and it did not exibit the problem at all. It was at the dealer for a week.
In any event my dealer mentioned that he had a couple of these amps come back to him and he could not duplicate it either. They believe it may be a power issue....at least that is their thoughts.
Before you lay out some $$ on a bench check you can try this:
1)Try plugging your amp (with an extension chord) into different outlets throughout the house on different circuits to see if the problem persists. If so, then that rules out your current circuit.
2) Try your amp in a friends system or a friends house.
3)This may be a bit harder but if you and a neighbor are friends - see if you can get a long extension chord and use an outdoor outlet and snake it through a window if possible, plug it into your amp and see if the problem is still there. (BTW I was never able to do this). Or bring your system to a friend or family members house to see if it can be duplicated.

Sounds kind of weird, but if it is intermittent like mine, it will be hard to duplicate, unless you have an actual repeatable problem that a dealer can duplicate....you amp is older so it could be some old caps.

Just a thought and my experience. My Amp does it more frequently now, but I gave up trying to pin it down and spending money on shipping costs, as well as repair fees to bench check it.
I experienced a similar problem with a CA 100.

These amps are getting old so it could be a bad cap or even a bad solder joint somewhere. (The cost of repair could approach the price of a replacement amp, but then you don't know if the replacement might be close to developing a similar problem.)

Or, could you just leave it "On" and avoid the cold start problem?

I have had poor success with Classe repair for products manufactured prior to the acquisition. Factory support for these older lines seems quite inconsistent.
Had the same problem with a Classe' CAP 150. Amp would cut off and on when cold, left it on all the time and had no problems. It went back to Classe twice for this problem and both times they said they repaired cold solder connections.