ARCAM AVR500--SAMWHA caps--Unbelieveable!

[Alastair E]

This £2,500 retail specialist 7.1 AV amplifier uses Cruddy SAMWHA capacitors in the PSU and the Power-Amp Stages.

There are a couple of 6800uF 35V in PSU that are already bulging, its only 4 years old.....
Next time Ive the lid off--To fix the faults it has, when I get some replacement caps and Transistors I'll take pics of the PSU, the O/P boards etc....

(O/P stages blown apart, due to equally crappy Bias-Setting pots!)

To say that I was amazed/dismayed is an Understatement! So much for Great British Engineering!

Perhaps that's why this particular model is known to have issues!

[retiredcaps]

Re: ARCAM AVR500--SAMWHA caps--Unbelieveable!

This £2,500 retail specialist 7.1 AV amplifier uses Cruddy SAMWHA capacitors in the PSU and the Power-Amp Stages.

I remember lusting over Arcam amplifiers, but they were out of my price range back then.

There are a couple of 6800uF 35V in PSU that are already bulging, its only 4 years old.....
Next time Ive the lid off--To fix the faults it has, when I get some replacement caps and Transistors I'll take pics of the PSU, the O/P boards etc....

Yes, pictures please.

Perhaps that's why this particular model is known to have issues!

I don't follow the audio world anymore, but for people who know how to fix them, it presents an opportunity to get a non working for cheap.

[Alastair E]

Re: ARCAM AVR500--SAMWHA caps--Unbelieveable!

Out of interest, I contacted Arcam with my problems and although this amplifier is well out of any warranty or any obligation for them to do anything, they have offered to renovate, repair and update it and completely free of charge.

They acknowledge that there have been issues with this model, and have developed remedies for the problems....

I am very impressed by this offer, and will let you know how it goes....

[momaka]

Re: ARCAM AVR500--SAMWHA caps--Unbelieveable!

Thanks nice of them. Keeps us posted.

I recently repaired a Behringer EPQ1200 rack amplifier. Although the problem wasn't due to the caps at all, I should still note that it used CapXon caps on the primary side and Decon caps elsewhere - including the PSU, which is of the switchmode type.

[quattro alex]

Re: ARCAM AVR500--SAMWHA caps--Unbelieveable!

Lets hope their customer service is better than their choice of caps ( I really hope they don't use those Samwha's in the AVR600)

Here's an interesting repair following a previous repair at the Arcam factory.

When you get it back can you do a followup report so we can see how good they are?

[retiredcaps]

Re: ARCAM AVR500--SAMWHA caps--Unbelieveable!

Here's an interesting repair following a previous repair at the Arcam factory.

Hmm, I don't see in the Rubycon YK datasheet where ESR is listed. There is a line about impedance ratio (MAX), but no individual parameters/values for each cap.

I wonder how the person in the above pdf file determined that 15 out of 19 YK capacitors exceeded the ESR limits?

[Khron]

Re: ARCAM AVR500--SAMWHA caps--Unbelieveable!

Well, the YK is an 85C general purpose series, so "of course" they won't have any impedance / ESR specs. Best case scenario, those particular ones were above some arbitrary "rule of thumb"-value?

On the other hand, even small-can caps from low-ESR series can have their nominal ESR in the low ohms range

[bcstedt]

Re: ARCAM AVR500--SAMWHA caps--Unbelieveable!

Any updates?

[bcstedt]

Re: ARCAM AVR500--SAMWHA caps--Unbelieveable!

Any updates? I've got an AVR600 that needs some looking after.

[nodols]

Re: ARCAM AVR500--SAMWHA caps--Unbelieveable!

Kind of an old thread, but got a non working Arcam AVR400 for cheap. Layout is nice, but components used. I don't know what happened, might be cheapening out them?

[spiros.p]

Re: ARCAM AVR500--SAMWHA caps--Unbelieveable!

not surprised by one 2000euros measuring instrument or lab psu and you see inside crap capxon or chang capacitors.take a look inside at motu expensive interfaces or 1000 + crown amp.or dell psus everyone cut the parts cost and the end user pay the bill.plus the destraction of the environment.they care only if you drink your coffee with recycled straw.only money matters nothing else.