Proceed AMP5 in protective mode

Did you try powering it up with no cables connected to it? This would rule out the amp. Did you check the speaker cables at the speaker ends too, or just the amp end?

I have a hpa-3 amp and it did the same thing. This is the second problem I have had. It is an internal problem on the circuit boards. If you open the unit up you will probably see a risistor on one of the boards that looks burnt. Madrigal will repair the unit by changing all the boards and is probably a slight upgrade to the amp. Cost is about $800 for a three channel amp. I sent my amp to David Schulte owner of the Upgrade Company and I am waiting for the unit to come back. I received the parts list from Madrigal (Harmon Group) and sent them to David Schulte with my unit. David upgraded my Marantz cd player and also sent me an upgraded 10 pound $100 JVC cd player that out performs a lot of high dollar stock cd players. It is incredible what he can do to these units. Send me an email and we can go into this further. Also, find mrhiendaudio under the advanced search and you will see a Sony scd-1 for sale. The upgraded JVC outperforms it by a mile. The upgraded JVC plays as well as a Reimyo cdp 777.

Roofus , Jp1208

I too have an Amp 5 with identical problems .

I did the same thing (removed all cabling), it will power up without going into protection mode but as soon as I reinstall the cabling , it will not go into a standby mode .

Fearing it was speaker or cabling shorts I threw in a Rotel 5 channel amp , no problem . Tried other power cords , removed line conditioner ...no go .

This took place after doing it a couple of times , once during a movie and once left idling in standby . I was able to restart it those 2 previous times by pulling the power cord and waiting a few minutes ( like a reboot)

I took it to the Levinson shop yesterday and the tech was able to start it with no load . We did not get into it any further as he's quite busy but promised he would call Harman to see if this was a common problem . The serial number is 1011.

Short of paying 800 repairs for an amp worth about 1800 on todays market , I would love to hear of a remedy that does not require transporting this 110 lb beast and in turn if I hear of a solution , I would be more than happy to share it.

It'd be really interesting to hear from others , especially if this is an ongoing problem .

Hopefully there is a cure without major freight and repair costs . It's too bad as the Proceed gear sounds wonderful .

Sounds like Dbtrucks and I are in the same boat. I would appreciate hearing from you when you have more information.
I have emailed Harman Special Products support to see if they have any information to offer.
Maybe somone else can repair the unit at a lower cost. I also do not feel like spending 800 dollars for a discountinued product that is worth 1800 dollars. Plus of course shipping which wont be cheap at 110 lbs

I talked with David Schulte on repairing these amps and adding the upgrades to them and he said he was no longer interested in doing the work after I sent mine to him. He told me that the Nuforce 9 amps are superior to any amp he has heard including upgraded amps he has worked on. If I decide to have him fix my hpa-3 I will ask him what parts he replaced and share it with you. If anyone knows the fix I am all ears! I just went on-line and saw the pictures and specs of the Nuforce amps. The nuforce 9 is only 7lbs.
I can tell you one thing, David has never steered me in the wrong direction. I am going to seriously consider the Nuforce amps.

Is your amp less than 5 years old? Harman Specialty Group honors Proceed warranties, at least that has been my recent experience with my AVP-2.

This is a follow up with a great ending .

After taking the amp to my local Levinson dealer , the tech pulled the control board and reinstalled . The problem was found to be a cold solder connection .

It's been home a month now and working 100%

I tried Dbtrucks solution and it didn't work. I had to send the amp back to Harmon Special Products. They reaired it for $800 plus shipping. The rpair description was really cryptic but it appears they had to replace several components on all 5 channesl and some of those components were resistors. Other parts were simply described by part numbers.

Roofus, does the unit sound different?
Hey there Dbtrucks how are the Genisis. Are you done looking for speakers? Nuforce is working really well for me. The sound for the money can't be beat.

The unit does not sound different but I am from the old school. I believe that cartidges, prea-amps, speakers, etc sound different. Amps pretty much work or don't work!

Roofus, the Nuforce amps in my system are twice as good as the Procced was. My room has never lit up like it does now. The instruments sound much more realistic and bigger.
The bass is lightning quick and deep which only happens on world class ss amps. They do not work with every speaker as dbtrucks explained to me. DB had them running a pair of wilson sophias which are hard to drive on the low end and these did it with ease. I think Amps make a huge difference, at least that is what I am hearing. When I get the Proceed back I am going to put it up against the Nuforce one more time even though I know what the results will probably be.

Lest one think Proceed stuff is troublesome, I have owned a PAV, Amp 2, and Amp 3 for years without incident. Several years ago I added a newer PAV and its PDSD, and these units have also been trouble free. Once, I dropped the Amp3 when pulling it from a rack -- I had forgotten how front-end heavy it is with those 3 big tyroidal power transformers. I shipped it to Madrigal; they fixed and updated it, and shipped it back to me all without charge, even though I told them I was culpable.

db

JP,
Regarding your post:
He told me that the Nuforce 9 amps are superior to any amp he has heard including upgraded amps he has worked on.

Was he refering to a stock Nuforce? :c)