WHAT WOULD CAUSE JC-1 MONOBLOCK TO SELF DESTRUCT?


Hi all,
I own Parasound Halo JC-1 monoblock amps, and have never had any reliability issues at all with them.
I have a friend, however, who had a JC-1 monoblock to literally self-destruct.
He said he was listening to it at normal levels, and heard a loud pop that almost sounded like a firecracker went off, the amp went completely dead, and the smell of toasted components filled the air.
He shined a flashlight through the top cover and said that it looked like at least 8 to 10 of the black square Sanken transistors mounted on the sides of inside of the amp, on the heat sinks, had literally blown to pieces!
He said the Sanken devices were still there, but the centers of many of them had literally blown out.
I would assume that these square black Sanken devices are the output transistors?
He checked the power cord, speaker cables, speakers, interconnects, etc., for short circuits and found nothing!
Has anyone else out there had this to happen to their Parasound Halo JC-1 monos, or any other amp before?
What would cause such an incident to happen?
Any answers, ideas, or help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a million!
Angela
audio_girl

Showing 2 responses by bignerd100

That sounds bad but assuming no damage was done outside of the amplifier the 10 year warranty from Parasound should take care of any problems. I haven't heard of the JC-1's doing that. I don't think that this is a problem that is happening in the JC-1's on a regular basis. The company should replace the amplifier without any hassel I would imagine.
The Parasound amps do have a protection circuit for extreme low impedances (as in a damaged speaker). This will turn off the unit before blowing up (usually). If your buddy blew it up once then there are probably parts that sustained damage but tested ok at Parasound. THese parts were likely starting to give out before the thing finally blew up (again). It has been my experiance that once an amp has been blown up it will never be the same unless you replace everything inside the chasis (in which case you might as well buy a brand new unit).

I guess that the 10-15% discount from retail that the average retailer is willing to give looks good after buying used, repairing used, then having to decide if repairing used is worth it the second time. Not trying to add insult to injury but sometimes it is better to drink fresh beer than second hand champaign.

Sincerly, good luck to your buddy. Having big $$$ go up in smoke is tough.