P7 just caught fire

chantrys

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We were just sat down as a family watching a BluRay, when about 40 minutes into the film all audio channels except the sub went silent. I turned around to look at my AV rack to see 6 red lights, 1 orange light and some lovely yellow/orange/blue flames coming out the top of my P7. The room quickly filled with smoke but fortunately the flames dies down once the power had been turned off.

I've had a few reliability issues with my AV9 and now with the P7 going pop I'm starting to get a bit frustrated with Arcam, although I must say I have never had any problems with my AVR350 or my Solo that are living in other rooms around the house (touch wood).

Does anyone know whether there are similar known problems with the P777 or should I be looking at alternative power amps to pair with my AV9?

Many thanks,
 
:eek: :eek: :eek:

I have not heard of this happening before. I can't see why it would set fire unless there was no proper ventillation around it and even then. My P7 hardly even gets hot. I would let Arcam know asap. Is yours still under warranty. You say orange & red lights came on. In the manual for the P7 it explains what these different combos of lights means, maybe this could shed a little light as to why this happened
 
There is plenty of ventilation around the P7 as it is mounted at the bottom of a 19" virtical rack system with approx 5 inches clearance above it. I've had it for around 3 years and it has never even got hot before tonight.

I'll try and dig out the manual to read about the different LED colours. Does the P7 have a 5 year warranty like the AV9 does?
 
That is really strange and a serious safety issue :confused:

Yes the P7 does come with a 5 yr warranty. Thankfully
 
Hopefully then I can get it repaired/replaced under warranty as I love the sound of Arcam gear.

What's most annoying is that I just installed a new JVC HD950 projector yesterday and was enjoying that when the P7 blew up. I guess I'll have to wait a few weeks now before I can use my home theatre again. :(
 
I don't envy you mate. You must be getting really frustrated now. :(

That's a nice PJ you got there :thumbsup:
 
Let us know how you get on and if you find out what caused the meltdown?

I have the same Power amp and wonder if there is a manufacturing fault with it.

cheers
 
Let us know how you get on and if you find out what caused the meltdown?

I have the same Power amp and wonder if there is a manufacturing fault with it.

cheers

I'll be on the phone to the Arcam dealer first thing in the morning and will let you know what they say.
 
I had a P7 for a number of years and it never missed a beat, hope you get it sorted quickly
 
I spoke to Arcam this morning and they are going to take it back and have a look at it. In the meantime they are lending me an AVR500 to fill the gap whilst mine is being repaired/replaced.
 
I spoke to Arcam this morning and they are going to take it back and have a look at it. In the meantime they are lending me an AVR500 to fill the gap whilst mine is being repaired/replaced.

Hmm, sounds like some upselling may be going on ;) Or, if you're lucky, a nice little compensation package for almost burning your house down
 
Hmm, sounds like some upselling may be going on ;) Or, if you're lucky, a nice little compensation package for almost burning your house down

I'd consider some sort of deal involving an AVR600, but not sure so sure about the AVR500.
 
Hey chantrys,

Pretty sad about your P7 doing that, I have one too and I would have got a huge fright had that happened to me! :eek:

But, I think this demo's a good side of Arcam that they loan you a descent AV amp while they check it out, many manufacturers would not I think...

When I bought my AV9/P7 I thought there was too much hum/buzz coming from the P7 and Arcam couriered the P7 (heavy) back to them, tested it and found nothing but replaced the transformer anyway and couriered it back all at there cost, the only sad thing was that when being re-wrapped in box the front facia got some minor marks on it but when i told them, again the couriered it back, replaced the whole case and back to me again.. :thumbsup:

Not sure how much the UPS bill would have been for that but glad I wasn't paying, Arcam didn't moan once just sorted it :thumbsup:

I really hope your's is sorted for you also, they are lovely power amps :)
 
Quick update.

I have received my P7 back from Arcam and it turns out that one of the "Output" connections failed on the left surround board, which caused a short circuit and fried the board. Fortunately they were able to replace just that single circuit board, which was nice and black & scorched.

Arcam were great in their communication and they gave me an AVR500 to keep me going, but why is it that whenever anything goes wrong (cars, washing machines, hi-fi) the standard response is always "oh, we've never seen that problem before."

Anyway, it's working again now and it's back in place as part of my new cinema. Happy days (again). :thumbsup:
 
Good that you've now got it back. I've always found Arcam staff very helpful and pleased you have experienced the same. Just as a matter of interest, what did you think of the AVR500 compared to the AV9 and P7?
 
Just as a matter of interest, what did you think of the AVR500 compared to the AV9 and P7?

The best thing about the AVR500 was the OSD and the fact that it could be displayed via HDMI. Sound wise I still prefer the AV9/P7, particularly for 2 channel stereo and standard 5.1 audio.

Whilst I got a little smile out of seeing DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby DigitalTrue HD coming up on the front panel with Blu-Ray, to be honest I still preferred the sound through the AV9/P7 using the the multi-channel analogue inputes being fed by the analogue outputs from my Panasonic DMP-BD80 player. I have to admit though that the AVR500 represents great value for an all in one unit and if I didn't have the AV9/P7 to compare it against then I would be very happy to have it in my setup.
 
Glad that you got it all sorted out :thumbsup:

Also I'm intrigued by your opinion of the AVR 500. sounds like a good machine but it's reassuring to see the old combo's still got it :smashin:
 

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