Need some help with an amp.

Yeah, the whole humming issue is just a minor annoyance that I may have been able to work out, but the current running through the chassis really had me concerned. I really didn't think that it was normal for any sort of current to be running through the chassis. Still, I didn't want to assume anything and thought I'd ask.

I contacted the seller and will give him the opportunity to make this right. Other wise, I'll just go through paypal.

Thanks.

Well, I contacted my local high end shop. The owner is a pretty nice guy. He referred me to a shop that happens to be less than a mile from my office. He tells me that he's been using this guy for 30 years and that he really knows what he's doing.

I'm going to drop the amp off tomorrow and let him take a look at it and see what it needs. If the amp can be fixed for a reasonable cost, I'd really like to keep it.

Thanks for all of the info.

Man, I did leave a pretty nasty feedback, but after thinking about it, I retracted it. In truth, I kind of screwed the pooch on this one. Although I think the seller was maybe a little less than honest with regard to the shape of the amp, it is also true that I could have gotten a refund rather than having it fixed.

Getting it fixed was on me, just because I wanted to keep the amp. They're pretty hard to come by.

OK guys. I really appreciate all of the words of wisdom and experience. I went and picked up my amp today. I got to talking to the guy, and it turns out that he does all of the repairs for most of the high end shops in my area and is the NAD warranty guy, so I feel pretty confident about his work.

He went through the amp to check things out and make sure that all was in order. He replaced the quad opamp ICs and the coupling caps. The good news is that the hum/buzz got better and it doesn't shock me anymore.

The bad news is that I still have a slight hum/buzz that I can hear when I put my ear next to the speaker. It isn't anything that I can hear from any sort of listening position, even during quiet passages, but it's there nonetheless; and I know its there.

More good news though, when nothing is hooked up to the amp except the speakers, I get dead silence. Due to limited space, I have my amp in an elevated area and it's connected to my preamp by way of a ten foot long IC cable. When I plug the IC cable into the amp (with nothing connected to the other end and it's just dangling) I get the hum/buzz. I think the long IC is picking something up. When I tried the test with a shorter IC, I got dead silence again.

As I said, now I think that the long IC cable is picking something up. I just can't figure out what. Either that, or there's something wrong with the IC. What do you think would be the odds of that? It's from Blue Jeans Cable.

Thanks.

I don't have balanced outputs on my pre nor balanced inputs on my amp, but I did order another IC to try out.

I also emailed the seller. He's giving me the silent treatment.

I didn't buy the amp on audiogon. I got it on ebay. Really, the guy didn't have much feedback, but what he had was positive, so I took a chance. The claim was that it was "like new" (exact words) and had been tested. Once I got the amp out of the box, it was clearly NOT like new, with scratches on the chassis and faceplate and rust on the screw heads. I also found out that his "testing" consisted of hooking the amp up to see if it played.

Anyway, the guy did contact me today and the position that he took was that it was working when it left him, so I must have done something to it.

The buzz/hum that I'm hearing now is much less than it was hearing before the repairs and the amp doesn't shock me any more when I touch it while grounded. I'm considering it fixed and I'm the proud owner of a tank of an amp. I really like the way it sounds.

I'm gonna email the guy a copy of the invoice and see what happens.

At least, now, I have an old amp that I've always wanted and that has been gone through and I have peace of mind.

Thanks again everyone.

Yeah, I know guys. I just let my emotions get the better of me. I've been wanting an Aragon for a while and I don't see too many 2004s for sale. When I saw this one, I snapped it up.

Tpreaves, you are right. Still, I wanted the amp and now I have it and didn't get ripped too badly. On the bright side, I have the amp that I wanted. I got it for around $350 and the additional costs that I paid are going into the peace of mind category, since the amp has now been gone through by someone that I trust.

Of course, the seller took the position that I must have broken it and he isn't helping out, so I'm kind of stuck; but I am sitting here listening to my system and loving it.