On Tue, 27 Jan 2015 17:06:33 -0800 (PST), wrote:

This one might not go well. For some reason at work I didn't get their website in a search but the PCs are a little screwed up. I am working on that. Anyway, it has a 180 watt class D amp. Says "icepower" on it. ocme to find out that Icepower is a subsidiary of B&O. The amp board is integrated with the power supply and dubbed 50ASX2.

So I find Icepower online and their phone number in Illinois doesn't work. Their website has no "buy parts" or any of that, which is typical here. So I just keep looking ont the net for one and someone has them on eBay. Hundred bucks apiece though. I think the amp might bring $150. Problem is that it already did that and now we gotta either fix it or trade the guy into something else. Or refund, which is really not the idea here.

One thing worries me about that board.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29948706/50asx2.jpg

The board is burned where the red circles are. The one spot apears to be where the power is supplied for the preamp and the other is where I believe is the signal input from the preamp. This leads me to believe that a high potential may have been places across the hot and cold sides, or something. It is also a concern that I might have to fix the preamp, but with any luck that won't be all that bad. Couple of TL072s and all that, doesn't bother me. (I didn't really look at that yet)

But y'all with the experience in music stuff and all that, should we just ****can the thing ? I'm not even completely sure what they're worth. I didn't find any on eBay.

Now once the boss starts searching the web for that part he might be able to do better than a hiundred bucks. I have sen him search. So if that happens, fine I probably ifx the preamp.

Questions are thus :

Does anyone know where to get a deal on that amp/power board ?

Is such a design more vulnerable to power fluctuations or big ESD like lightning than a conventional design ? If so, maybe it is better to blow off these class D amps.

I think we are going to see more class D in this business because of the allure of the no heat, no heatsink. Not to mention the efficiency. you know I am not afraid of class D amps, but this thing looks like a dman PCI cardd the way it is built. I ain't fixing that. We do not have the equipment for SMDs right now, and it is extremely small. What's more, the chips say "icepower" on them so if any of them fry that is that probably. I think you can actually get "That" ICs, but I am sure about these, plus they are surface mounts.

So are the outputs.

I don't like this really. If all the class D is going to be built practically unservicable like that I don't know what to do. I didn't learn all this **** to become a board jockey. I know sometimes there is no choice, but still.

Maybe we should stock up on tubes and try to gravitate towards that.

Whatever. Opinions welcome. Anyone knows where to get a deal on those amp modules I would appreciate it. If you tell me a hundred bucks is a good price, I'll have to consider that.

TIA


I used to work for Eden when there were two employees. I heard that
David Nordschow sold out to a Chicago company called U.S. Music. They
might have a parts department. Chuck