Something blew!

[lugano]

AFAIK, protections don't smell, fish do. Something fishy, therefore.

 

[Gordon Gray]

Sleepy,

Summits / audio system may have had a "bad hair" day. Sometimes, the audio gods have a habit of attacking without warning.

I had an experience with my AV system (independant from my ML based system) a year ago January, when I moved into my current house. Wired everthing up and checked it all out and all was fine. Next morning, I turned on the TV and NOTHING. As fate would have it, this was one week before the "pooper bowl". Turns out something inside the TV blew and it was pure coincidence.

Had a couple of people over and we watched the big game, without TV audio, on a 20" TV, with opera playing in the background.

My friends and I thought that the combination, which was quite enjoyable, was probably a "unique" way to experience the game.

Glad all is OK for the moment.

GG

 

[Dreamer]

I would agree with Lugano. If you smelled burning electronics, then SOMETHING is majorly wrong somewhere.

That smell is the only aroma that elicits the "fight or flight" reaction in me. I can smell regular fire, gunpowder, gasoline, all sorts of weird and dangerous smells, but the whiff of a toasted circuit board actually elevated my respiration and heart-rate...

I'd look at the protection circuits in your Summits (or have your dealer look at them). I don't know much about the ICE protection circuit, but if it's MOV-based, it's probably toast, and is now just serving as a very expensive straight-line connection. If nothing looks toasted on that board (and a toasted MOV or other solid state component are VERY easy to spot) then it's probably your Panamax "protectors".

Get ZeroSurge or Furman Pro filters. They use transformer and inductor-based tech to filter your mains, and don't rely on MOVs. (Well, the Furman units ALSO have MOV circuits, but they are modular and easy to replace, and are placed AFTER the main filters so they are actually protected...) If you can afford the ZeroSurge units, I'd go for them. they don't choke out the current flow-through like most other filters and they have no MOVs in their design, and they come with a guarantee to protect your gear, and will replace or repair anything that is plugged into one of their units if it's damaged by a mains surge.

I've seen, in the same server room, a server that got toasted, sitting beside the "surge protector" (and it was a BIG name unit!) that was also smoking, and right next to them, on the same mains circuit, was a stack of other servers happily purring along, fed through a ZeroSurge unit that was barely warm...

--Richard

 

[amey01]

Well, it's a relief, but now I'm sitting here on pins and needles, wondering if/when it will happen again, and whether I'll be as lucky next time!

I hate that feeling - I guess I'm paranoid - I regularly sit there thinking "is something wrong?", "Is the channel balance right?", "what's that noise?". Really, REALLY annoying. Good luck that nothing happens - I guess after about a week (if nothing happens) you'll have forgotton all about it!

 

[Sambob2]

Hope the recovery is a speedy one sleepysurf. I hate when that happens.

Knowing you were not in the room when this happened, if you think the loud pop you heard was not from the panel or woofer but from the inside of one of your pieces of gear, most likely the amp or a crossover circuit somewhere, it is usually a capacitor that blew. I've had a fairly small capacitor (electrolytic) blow on me once when I was repairing a car audio amp. The capacitor was about the size of a "C" size battery, and it made quite a loud pop! I'd take a closer look around inside the gear and look for an unraveled capacitor with it's top popped off.

 

[Audioseduction]

Heres a blown capacitor undressing itself. Looks like it got a little warm.

 

[tonyc]

I hope you get this sorted out. Have you and abhijit been sharing a hookah or are audio gremlins infesting all our systems? Probably a virus downloaded from one of the other websites to wreak havoc in MLdom.

 

[Audioseduction]

I would sniff each component to see if any of them smell like cooked electronics. I think that would give you a clue which one did it.

 

[sleepysurf]

Well, if a capacitor blew, wouldn't that render the component non-functional, or at least sounding "bad"? Right now everything plays and sounds entirely normal. If the Summit indeed uses MOV-based protection circuits, I suppose it's possible they are "blown" and the Summits are now functional, but no longer protected. However, the green LED power lights are both on, and everything sounds fine.

Maybe Roberto, or somebody else, can share some insights about the Summit (and I presume Vantage) ice-power protection circuits.

Maybe Kach's "ghost" has moved South for Spring Break!

(see thread... www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=3896)

 

[risabet]

Sleepy,

Just a wild guess but I suspect that, given the title, the label, and the amount of bass energy being played through the system, the XRCD may have been the culprit. Have you played this disc before and how loud was the system playing? Seems like a strange coincidence.

I've had a similar experience with my Classe CA150 amp with certain bass heavy material and volume levels. No smoke but the amp protection circuitry did kick in.

Good luck in trouble shooting the problem.

GG

Protection tripping (undoubtedly due to the complex impedance of ML speakers) is one thing but for a product to "break" due to high levels of bass energy is disturbing (speakers excepted). In the 30 or so years I've been in this hobby I've never had a piece of electronics break due to excessive bass energy. I seriously doubt that the CD is at fault.

Was the smell that smoky fire smell or that sweet ozone smell? The pop noise would lead one to think that something gave up, probably a cap, but if the protection circuit uses relays they can be loud also. If all is working OK than you can probably rule out the fried cap as those tend to be fatal errors.

Regardless, i would monitor things carefully and not leave anything on when not home for a while. Good Luck.

 

[sleepysurf]

In retrospect, I'd say it was more the "sweet ozone" smell.

Gators rule!

 

[MotorToad]

Capacitor generally smell like someone ****ing on a fire. An ozone smell would be more likely a current-carrying component, IMO.

[Comp chomp, two in a row, and I'd hate to be a Buckeye. ]

 

[lugano]

the capacitor striptease

here's some examples of what to look for.

 

[sleepysurf]

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME!

Just when I thought this issue was a fluke... KABAM! Same scenario this morning, listening to background music from my office, when lights flickered, I heard a pop, then sizzling, and ran out and unplugged everything. My Belles amp was CLEARLY the culprit this time, with something definitely frying inside. The Summits (fortunately) went into protection mode again.

I pulled the Belles out of service, and put my Sunfire back in, to test the system. Fortunately the Summits, and everything else seems fine.

I immediately called my Belles (Power Modules) dealer, and left a message. Unfortunately, as great as the Belles amp sounded, there is CLEARLY still a design problem. There HAVE been reports online of the older 350A and 350A Ref amps blowing up, but this newest design supposedly fixed the issue. Apparently not!

I can't find my allen wrench set right now, but will pop the top again and have another look ASAP.

 

[discocarp]

You've had quite the stretch of bad luck with equipment lately sleepysurf! At least you identified the culrpit and everything else seems ok.

 

[sleepysurf]

Yeah, but this is VERY frustrating. Even if Belles repairs the amp, I'd still be leery it will happen again. Might just stick with my Sunfire for now.

As for my Squeezebox issue, there is now a post on the Slim forum where the firmware killed their Transporter! At least Slim/Logitech seems to be standing behind the product.

Of note, I d/l the latest Slimserver 6.5.2 nightly, and that solved the problem with the recurring factory reset loop. My remaining two Squezeboxes are now working fine, with an even faster response time than previously.

 

[Joey_V]

SS,

Glad to hear, it's once again.... NOT the Summits!

Man, you keep scaring me here....

 

[Gordon Gray]

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME!

Just when I thought this issue was a fluke... KABAM! Same scenario this morning, listening to background music from my office, when lights flickered, I heard a pop, then sizzling, and ran out and unplugged everything. My Belles amp was CLEARLY the culprit this time, with something definitely frying inside. The Summits (fortunately) went into protection mode again.

I pulled the Belles out of service, and put my Sunfire back in, to test the system. Fortunately the Summits, and everything else seems fine.

I immediately called my Belles (Power Modules) dealer, and left a message. Unfortunately, as great as the Belles amp sounded, there is CLEARLY still a design problem. There HAVE been reports online of the older 350A and 350A Ref amps blowing up, but this newest design supposedly fixed the issue. Apparently not!

I can't find my allen wrench set right now, but will pop the top again and have another look ASAP.

Bummer Sleepy,

I am glad you found it. Hate it when you don't know.

GG

 

[sleepysurf]

Well, I found my hex set, and popped the top. It still has that burnt smell, but nothing is VISIBLY fried. The slow-blow fuses are still intact, and all the capacitors look fine. I'm no EE, and won't poke around inside. My dealer already emailed a reply, and said he'd call me tonight. Got lots of errands to run, so will update y'all later.

 

[risabet]

Only my opinion, sell that sucker or sell the Summits, the two seem to not like each other too well.