any suggestions as to a reputable electronics shop that can repair an Orion amp?

5/1/2006 9:19:57 PM

Cary Audio can probably do it. Any idea what's wrong with it?

5/1/2006 9:30:07 PM

which amp is it?? most places are gonna charge more for repair than it cost to replace.

5/2/2006 4:32:33 AM

ive got a broke sony xplod 2 channel if anyone wants it. it powers up but blows the onboard fuse as soon as i turn on my music. i think its like 150 rms 450 peak or something.

5/2/2006 9:27:16 AM

^^ & ^^^ it's an Orion XTR 800.4. the front left channel output is distorted. i am currently running the fronts (Polk db separates) in parallel off the right front only. it sounds great in this setup but it's mono. the rears are working fine. i think it's a problem with the inputs but i would like to get an estimate for repair before i junk it. the only place i know of is Audio Buys @ Five Points but i know there are others.

5/2/2006 8:12:42 PM

Quote :

"sony xplod"

Quote :

"blows the onboard fuse as soon as i turn on my music"

LAFF

5/2/2006 8:30:15 PM

try bridging the front channels see if that distorts. stop running just 1 channel it's not good for the amp. i know local places will probaly charge you 50-100$ just to look at the amp, if u don't mind shipping the amp i got the name of a guy who does great work and will charge like 100$ flat fee to repair including return shipping. personlay i'd sell it (probaly get around $100 for it, i got $65 fro mine that was completly blown) and pic up two of these of something else comaparable.


http://www.ikesound.com/product-product_id/2442

5/3/2006 1:08:05 AM

^i did and it's still fucked up. like i said, i strongly believe its something with the low level inputs since the fade and balance is all fucked up e.g. i fade to the front only and the rears still play but if i fade to the rear only then nothing plays and if i fade to the left, it goes to the right and vice versa. i wondering if it's something as simple as a loose connection.

and yes, it's hooked up correctly.

5/3/2006 9:20:43 AM

Quote :

"stop running just 1 channel it's not good for the amp."

What?

5/3/2006 9:42:59 AM

it's not good for the amp to run just 1 channel run either 2 channels or 4.

5/3/2006 1:23:53 PM

Don't restate what you have already stated. Explain why this isn't good for the amp.

5/3/2006 3:12:59 PM

the amp is designed for 2 or 4 channel operation it's a 4 channel amp not a 3 channel amp(unless it's bridged) i've always heard with unregulated amps such as the orion amp running 1 channel will put more of load on the power supply and possibly hurt it.

5/3/2006 6:10:50 PM

sigh

[Edited on May 3, 2006 at 6:49 PM. Reason : ]

5/3/2006 6:49:03 PM

I'll have to add SOME element of sigh to this...

..but I'll also note that there is some "general rule of thumb" truth to what he's getting at, regardless of whether the conclusion was 100% accurate.

Mike

5/3/2006 7:08:20 PM

I just want someone to explain to me the reason why running 1 channel of an amp is bad. I just want to hear it explained, not just pass along "what you've heard". Because it seems like everyone that "knows" car audio, knows it because it's "what they've heard".

5/4/2006 10:13:35 PM

Quote :

"the amp is designed for 2 or 4 channel operation it's a 4 channel amp not a 3 channel amp(unless it's bridged) i've always heard with unregulated amps such as the orion amp running 1 channel will put more of load on the power supply and possibly hurt it."

well, look at it like this.......the only reason i am running the amp like this is because it's already fucked up. so what does it matter if i run it one channel?

besides, i'm not concerned with fucking up an amp that's fucked up. i was just curious as to who fixes them.

5/4/2006 10:52:58 PM

i have mutiple trophies sittin in my room , 2 orion amps in my car including the amp in question and a car audio system that can wake the dead(with awesome clarity) all planned ,installed,payed for and built by me .not saying i know everything there is to know about car audio but it's what's i've always heard and it makes sense to me. it was explained to me that it puts stress on the psu because when u're running 1 channel the other channel expects there to be a load so that power has nowhere to go and is held in the form of heat and eventually causes the whole unit to fail. hell i may be wrong or this may be different for different kinds of amps tube,mosfet, digital etc , but tell me what makes ur theory any more valid than mine?


back to the thread topic here's the link to the place i know of http://www.kbaudio.com

owned and run by sergey kaplian ,from new mexico. i've had the chance to chat w/ him a few times real cool guy and does good work. he repaired my xtr 375 a while back. he used to be an engineer but got laid off and and has been doing this every since. but like i said he'll charge 100$, personally i would just sell it and get something new.



[Edited on May 5, 2006 at 2:25 AM. Reason : .]

5/5/2006 2:14:24 AM

Quote :

"hell i may be wrong"

Why yes, yes you are.

Quote :

"i have mutiple trophies sittin in my room , 2 orion amps in my car including the amp in question and a car audio system that can wake the dead(with awesome clarity) all planned ,installed,payed for and built by me"

Who gives a shit? Being able to throw money at and assemble the peices of a car audio system into a car and tuning it with an RTA is a joke compared to knowing all the physics behind the toys you are playing with. At least (I assume) you know when something sounds 'right', which is a shit ton more than the average bass head yokel driving around, but winning a few of trophies doesn't qualify anyone to continue to pass information on that they "heard and makes sense to them" about a completely different topic.

Quote :

"it was explained to me that it puts stress on the psu because when u're running 1 channel the other channel expects there to be a load so that power has nowhere to go and is held in the form of heat and eventually causes the whole unit to fail."

You just don't understand basic electronics. Spending mega bucks on car audio equipment, dynamating, building some speaker boxes, tweaking an eq against an RTA/SPL meter, and winning some trophies, doesn't an circuit guru make.

Nearly every A/B amp made since history has a DC/DC switching supply comprised of a controller, some transistors, and a big fat torroid with wire wrapped around it that converts 12V DC into anywhere from +- 25 up to around 40-50 or so. This single supply provides power to ALL channels in the amp. It has to be built to supply rated RMS current to all channels at once. When another channel doesn't have a speaker hooked up to it, the power supply isn't trying to create power for it, then having nowhere to go, just turn to heat. How the hell does this make sense to you? Current (thus, energy) has to flow somewhere you know, kinda like, when you hook up the speaker to both terminals it flows and energy is released in the form of sound and heat in the voice coils and in the transistors in that channel. There is really know scenario I can think of, where a single channel of a multi channel amp could stress an amp more than the other channels itself and this is so dumb knowledge that some dumb friend of yours mentioned to you.

Quote :

"but tell me what makes ur theory any more valid than mine"

Oh I dunno, my two magna cum laude degrees probably carry a little more weight than a few trophies.

5/5/2006 11:44:08 AM

Quote :

"There is really know scenario I can think of"

[Edited on May 5, 2006 at 11:52 AM. Reason : well if you're so damn smart....]

5/5/2006 11:52:06 AM

Sometimes I proof read, sometimes I don't. You gotta be a real tool bag for grammar mistakes to never get old.

5/5/2006 12:39:55 PM

it just bothers me when someone is all like "i'm so much smarter than you.." and then does some shit like that..

actually i didnt care that you typo'd.. just that you were being a toolcart

5/5/2006 1:29:21 PM

well i guess i was wrong mr. magna cumlaude, thanks for the explaination i can pass that info around now. i still don't understand when you don't have a speaker connected to an amp, the amp still heats up and if u connect a multimeter to it and you still get a reading if the amp isn't producing power why would either of these happen??

5/5/2006 4:26:24 PM

there is a voltage across the speaker terminals, but no speaker (no connection), so therefore no current... power = current * voltage

5/5/2006 4:33:18 PM

google "idle current", if you think your AB amp gets warm, see how much a class A pisses away.

5/5/2006 9:14:20 PM

^^ahh good ole ohms law. yea i know class a amps are crazy ineffcient . so if the amp is idling and changing the electric to heat wouldn't that be worse for the amp than running a load that changes the power into sound or allows the speakers'/subs' voicecoils to dissapate some of the heat instead of the heat building up in the transistors?

5/5/2006 9:38:43 PM

No, idling, per transistor pair is drawing no more than a watt or so. That is, you probably have 4-8 pairs in there, and 5W spread over the entire heat sink surface = slightly warm.

In the case of a speaker creating a load, you are talking about an a/b amp being 80% efficient, so if you are drawing out 50w out of that side, you are generating 10W of wasted heat. The 50w delivered to the speaker is different from this quantity of energy heating the amp, and it gets dissipated mostly in the voice coil.

This energy doesn't get created with nowhere to go when you don't have a speaker hooked up. Like I said before, current has to flow somewhere.

5/5/2006 10:04:09 PM

what about tube/class a amps that are alot less efficent??

5/5/2006 10:47:56 PM