@mrdecibel Completely agree with you on all points. But, the difference here is there is one specific part that has already shown itself very prone to failure for a very specific design reason and, unlike many other older amps and makes it more than likely for the fail and not easily or cheaply repaired because of it. Again, my purpose here was to alert people who may be considering these 1990s amps, that come up for sale quite often, to at least be aware that they’ve got this very fragile and weak link that has, in fact, been failing because this specific part just doesn’t last much more than 20 years. Granted with amps of this age it’s totally buyer beware, but I thought it helpful given this specific situation and failing part that people might at least like to know this going in. Wouldn’t you? Given what I know (and have experienced personally) I certainly would not buy one of these amps unless my plan was to get it upgraded, because there are plenty of other great used amps out there that do not have this specific degrading part and that, even if they do have an issue, can be repaired much easier and cheaper. But that’s me.
Don’t buy used McCormack DNA 1990s amps
This is a public service announcement. There are some yahoos on other sites selling 1990s McCormack DNA amps, sometimes at ridiculous prices. While they’re great amps, and I happily owned a DNA 0.5 RevA for 20 years, they’re all gonna fatally fail. Why? Because their input board is at the end of its useful life, and when it fails your amp is dead and not repairable by anyone — not even SMcAudio. It’s a boat anchor. The only option is to sell it for scraps or get an SMcAudio upgrade that’ll cost around $2000. Given my love of my amp I chose to do full upgrades given what else I could’ve gotten for the same same price and just got it back and will forward thoughts if anyone cares. But the purpose of this post is to warn off any prospective buyers of a circa 1990s DNA amp that it’ll fatally fail soon, so unless you get a great price and plan on doing the SMcAudio upgrades just avoid these amps on the used market. You’ve been warned.
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You would expect that this was the case but there is a thread on Audioasylum with a 2009 date on it where Steve Mc. himself responded on a thread telling a user that PDF schematics were available and he normally responds immediately to email requests for them. That date was about 10yrs after CJ bought the rights to the DNA amps, so if a legal limitation was in effect then the last thing he would be doing is posting and publicly offering schematics to the amps on audio forums. There are also other threads on alternate forums with later dates where people supposedly emailed him and received the schematics. Suddenly in the last few years this openness is no longer the case. I should add that I did ultimately find the schematics by contacting users on DIYAUDIO, but it shouldn’t have to come to that for a 30yr old electronics design. They should be public info after a certain period of time. My suggestion of safety was not due to your prior statement. I understood your intent. I was just covering the "safety" aspect in case that was the motivational factor for SMc.
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Just looking for some advice based on the direction this discussion seems to be going: I have a DNA-1 Deluxe that took increasingly long to go through its safety checks before starting until it didn't. I have the box and am set up to send it in with a proposed total replacement of the main board and all power supply capacitors. How far should I go down this rabbit hole before opting out and getting a Benchmark AHB2 or other options? I'll be driving Harbeth M30.1's. an old pain of Celestion SL600's and a slightly new pain of Acarian Alon1's. Thanks. |
@davidbeagrace Good question to which there is no easy answer as it’s a very personal decision. I ultimately decided to upgrade my DNA 0.5 RevA at SMcAudio when it failed for the following reasons:
Taking all those things into account drove me to go with the upgrade. Due to a problem with my preamp I haven’t been able to listen to the amp but hoping I will this weekend, but I’ll forward thoughts once I’ve got some hours on it. Sorry about your amp — I know it sucks — but hope this helps, and best of luck with your decision. |
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