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viseral audio

Audioholic
I,m curious how many people recap their power amps and besides afailure or leak how you know you have to. I ask because most of my audio equiptment is from the mid 90,s and sounds good but wondered how long they lasted?
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
I have had a 50 year old power amp which still peforms well with its original power caps. IMO, if it works well, you don't have to replace them.
 
V

viseral audio

Audioholic
I have had a 50 year old power amp which still peforms well with its original power caps. IMO, if it works well, you don't have to replace them.
hope I have as much luck as you have, sounds like a great system you have noticed your amps are Qsc they are pro audio amps aren't they, have you had issues with hum I just added a crown xli3500 to drive my subs and had to eliminate the ground prong on the plug to get rid of my hum.
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
hope I have as much luck as you have, sounds like a great system you have noticed your amps are Qsc they are pro audio amps aren't they, have you had issues with hum I just added a crown xli3500 to drive my subs and had to eliminate the ground prong on the plug to get rid of my hum.
No, there is no trace of hum coming out of the QSC amps, only a slight trace of hiss which I can hear at a distance of a few inches from a tweeter. That kind of hiss can also be heard with a lot of high end and expensive power amps as well.
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
No, there is no trace of hum coming out of the QSC amps, only a slight trace of hiss which I can hear at a distance of a few inches from a tweeter. That kind of hiss can also be heard with a lot of high end and expensive power amps as well.
Those QSC amps are part of the Digital Cinema Amplifier series amplifiers used in cinemas worldwide. Cineplex theaters all across North America are equipped with QSC DCA series amps, speakers, DSPs and other controls:

https://www.qsc.com/cinema/products/power-amplifiers/dca-series/

http://www.brucesentertainment.com/QSC_Cinema_Catalog.pdf
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
hope I have as much luck as you have, sounds like a great system you have noticed your amps are Qsc they are pro audio amps aren't they, have you had issues with hum I just added a crown xli3500 to drive my subs and had to eliminate the ground prong on the plug to get rid of my hum.
@viseral audio,
See Post #5 relating to some QSC info.
 
Out-Of-Phase

Out-Of-Phase

Audioholic General
I,m curious how many people recap their power amps and besides afailure or leak how you know you have to. I ask because most of my audio equiptment is from the mid 90,s and sounds good but wondered how long they lasted?
You can have the electrolytic caps checked by a tech. Looking for leakage, bulging and looking at capacitance and ESR.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
hope I have as much luck as you have, sounds like a great system you have noticed your amps are Qsc they are pro audio amps aren't they, have you had issues with hum I just added a crown xli3500 to drive my subs and had to eliminate the ground prong on the plug to get rid of my hum.
You would generally disconnect pin 1 from the audio cable- removing the ground pin is a safety concern.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I,m curious how many people recap their power amps and besides afailure or leak how you know you have to. I ask because most of my audio equiptment is from the mid 90,s and sounds good but wondered how long they lasted?
Equipment from the 1990s isn't old and the components were manufactured differently from the really old stuff. If it was an amp with tubes, I would be more concerned- at 400VDC and above, the capacitors are hammered every time the amp is powered if it has a solid state rectifier. With a tube rectifier, the inrush current is much less.

There's a huge trend among people to recap their equipment and speakers- it's usually not needed unless a problem occurs/exists.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I have had a 50 year old power amp which still peforms well with its original power caps. IMO, if it works well, you don't have to replace them.
I have a lap steel guitar amp that's over 80 years old- yes, I recapped it but the filter caps were huge, even though they were only rated for 30uF. They're the two Aluminum cylinders are the rear left, near the speaker.
 

Attachments

highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
unfortunately I have to run unbalanced, thanks
It hummed with unbalanced? Are the power amps (or, just one of them) on a different circuit from the preamp (or AVR)? That's a good way to create a ground loop.

For future reference, EbTech makes devices for this and another way to address it is by isolating the inputs & outputs with a good audio transformer. Don't immediately think it will kill the sound- they're used in recording studios all the time. Jensen Transformers and Edcor make them in various configurations (balanced vs unbalanced, stereo/mono, RCA vs XLR vs Phoenix connector)- Edcor products are less expensive but they're very good. Jensen has several excellent white papers on grounding, isolation and noise reduction, too.
 
V

viseral audio

Audioholic
really appreciate info. T.he crown xli3500 is on same dedicated circuit as avr, rest of power amps on their own circuit. works good with third prong defeated on power cord to crown. just have to have wife turn on amp in case of short.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
really appreciate info. T.he crown xli3500 is on same dedicated circuit as avr, rest of power amps on their own circuit. works good with third prong defeated on power cord to crown. just have to have wife turn on amp in case of short.
You could use a smart power strip with your avr as key device...then neither of you would have to touch the amp :)
 
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