2. amps-preamps
  3. 1038466429

Help with blown amp

I have a Plinius SA-102 amp which I have had for a few months. It sounds great and I have never had a problem with it. This evening, I was in another room, not listening to music. The amp was on as always, but no music was being played. All of a sudden I heard a loud hissing sound which lasted for about 3 or 4 seconds and then a click. The amp has an automatic mute switch which kicks in when there is a problem. When I checked out what was going on, the mute switch was on and I could smell burning plastic. The mute switch will not go off, and the amp will not work. I immediately unplugged the unit and tried to remove the top lid (per the instructions) to see if one of the fuses has blown. Unfortunately, I can't unscrew some of the allen nuts as they are too torqued.

Can someone please help me get a good night's sleep and tell me that it's only a fuse? Could it be worse? Any ideas on how to get overtorqued screws out?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
gboren

Showing 2 responses by gboren

gboren OP
143 posts
 
Thanks for the responses. The user's manual actually advises the owner to remove the top and see if there are any LED's that are lit, which indicates a blown fuse. I can see an LED through the slits in the top and I'm sure that at the very least, a fuse is blown.

The fried plastic was worrisome to me too. Fortunately, the unit is under warranty and I have a very good relationship with the distributor. My sense of urgency was due to the poor timing: on the eve of a nice long Thanksgiving weekend with a few new LP's ready to spin! Poor me! Add to that the thought of packing, shipping, unpacking, reinstalling, etc. I guess I've been lucky thus far and it's time to pay my dues.

Thanks for the advice.
gboren OP
143 posts
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. I finally got the lid open and none of the user accessible fuses are blown. That means something more serious. Back it goes.

As for the warranty, the user manual actually advises the user to open the device up and change the fuses. If only that were the problem.

Now to figure out why the thing blew.
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