Help! Yam DSP-A2 cutting out

[boltoa]

Hi all

My 3 year old Yam DSP-A2 has recently very intermittently been cutting out, but last night it started doing it every time it turned itself on. I know the protection circuitry is designed to do this if you accidently short-circuit a speaker, but I've removed every connection apart from the power lead, and it still turns itself off 3 seconds after turning it on every time .

I've opened the case and looked for anything obvious, but nothing that I can see with my basic knowledge.

Any clues on what to look for much appreciated.

If not, I'll be in the market for a new amp soon. I was thinking about replacing it in the next 12 months or so, but this is rather bad timing, having just splashed out 3 grand on a plasma screen .

Thanks

Andrew

 

[Nobber22]

I think I remember reading somewhere on the forum about the soldering on the A2 getting brittle and the loose connection setting off the protection circuit? I think the answer was to contact Yamaha UK and as it was a problem they were aware of, they would fix it Hope I am right anyway....

 

[boltoa]

I've spoken to Yamaha UK service manager, and he claims never to have heard of this problem before. He suggested I take it to my nearest service centre (which happens to be about 50 miles away). Apart from the inconvenience, no doubt this will cost me quite a bit, and I imagine this amp is currently worth £250 or less (I've heard them selling for this).

Swearword removed by Reiner. Please refrain from swearing in future and read the forum rules. Thank you.

Don't suppose anyone can suggest a general area of the internals to look at for this potential dry joint?

Oh well, I suppose it could be an excuse to buy a new amp .

Andrew

 

[General Skanky]

My Yam A2 had/has an intermittent volume pot fault.

It wouldn't respond to the remote control.

I think that the pot being mechanical in nature has a bit of grunge in there making a dirty contact. As a side effect it makes the audio cut out for the briefest of moments. Not the same fault as yours, but maybe of some help.

At the moment I've managed to clear the gunge as it works ok now. I considered repair at a wksp but as you said, it's not worth it unless you 'really' want to keep this amp. My biggest problem would be what to replace it with?

Some things to try.

Unplug overnight and reset the main IC.
As said, look for obvious dry joints.
Try another mains socket.
Does it click off from the Standby switch on the unit or the remote? If remote, reset that.

All a bit obvious I know, but it's a start.

Good luck.

 

[boltoa]

Ta for the suggestions. I've bought a can of air (ten quid for air!) for cleaning, and I've got some contact cleaner, but I'm not holding out much hope, as dry joint sounds the most likely cause.

Oh well.

It happens whether switched on from remote or front panel. I've wiggled all the card/connectors I can see.

I suppose I could measure resistance across each speaker terminal to see if there is an obvious short, but I'm not holding much hope on that either.

If I replaced it, the new Pioneer D2011 looks nice, as does the Yam AX2 or AZ2. Much as I'd like to, no way I could stretch to anything over a grand.

Andrew

Oh, and I can't believe a**e is considered a swearword, but you learn something new every day .

 

Never mind boltoa, perhaps it was a day he had nothing better to do...................

 

[General Skanky]

I'm not struck on the new Yamaha styling.

And I'm not partial to many other amps on the right side of £1000.

The one I looked at for now was the Arcam 200 amp. Ok, it's not got the bells and whistles, but the sound quality is what I'm after.
Considered bi amping with Arcam power amps, but then costs go up.

I'd miss the grunt from my A2, but with little else (for me) to go for, what can you do?

 

[boltoa]

Progress yesterday - I opened it up and had a good poke around (slicing my finger open on the heatsink in the process ). Tried various things, and it started working when I removed the u-shape couplers from the main pre-out to main-in. So thought it was something on the amplification circuit on the mains. Thought I'd try some speakers on it to see if couplers were necessary. They were, but then found that when I replaced the couplers with speakers actually connected, it started working ok. Which is odd. Definite connection with having speakers not connected and it cutting out. Realised that the start of the problem could have been connected with me unplugging the main B speakers during redecorating, but fairly sure I'd switched the B output off. Could be that I'd switched them on accidentally when not connected, but still surprised that could cause it to cut out. Going to set it up again and see if it happens again. Could end up being a fuss over nothing, apart from a useful tip about connecting speakers .

Thanks for assistance anyway. I'm still not sure this is a full fix, but given that I'm unsure what the original conditions were, more testing is in order.

Andrew

 

[General Skanky]

It might be worth searching the speaker forums about the couplers. I could have sworn there were more posts along those lines.

 

[jasonb]

I had this exact same problem with mine, and it took 2months to get repaired and cost £160.00.... It was a real bummer as when they thought they had fixed the problem it wasn't that.... never in my life have I been so p*****d off

 

[jasonb]

I had this exact same problem with mine, and it took 2months to get repaired and cost £180.00.... It was a real bummer as when they thought they had fixed the problem it wasn't that.... never in my life have I been so p*****d off with anything....See even now my blood is boiling. If it wasn't such a great amp I'd have taken a sledge hammer to the thing. I would advised taking it to a proper yamaha repair place though. might be less hassle. I had to supply schmatics of the amp.....Ah it was hell really!!!! Sorry about that I don't suppose I've made your day with that but it does sound like the very same problem.

 

[General Skanky]

What did your engineer's report say was the fault?

Who did the repair?

It may give Boltoa a head start.

 

[jasonb]

Can't rember to be honest but they kept everything logged for reference. Drayton Electronics in fen drayton Cambridgeshire. Give them a call and the maybe able to help 01954 211330. If you tell them my name they may rember quicker as I bugged them a lot to get it fixed. Just a thought anyway.

 

[boltoa]

Thanks for that. Might be useful. It would probably be more useful if I actually knew your name unless of course they knew you as "JasonB" .

If it does keep happening, and it's going to cost £160, I may as well get a new amp. It's a good excuse for the Mrs, anyway .

Andrew