Solid. Messing around with that stuff so useful around practice studios, getting one working in the woods, in near darkness, that someone swears was working when it was humped into the van... this is the true measure of mettle. good catch on the wiper
I've come across that problem with those pots a lot, but mainly just a tired pot. A nice pair of ALPS pots, they're a little $$ but worth it in the long run. Glad I found your channel!
Hi Ian, if your doing regular audio amp repairs get yourself the other half to that signal generator ie a signal tracer with an earpiece much quicker than a scope, also build yourself a cheap old boys current limiter , basically a 150 watt lamp wired inline with the amplifier power feed, this will light if you get a dead short and not do further damage to the amplifier very handy, ps got here by looking at your segway, good stuff
Yep, as soon as I opened it up and saw the wiring cable tied to the side of the fan, and the fan itself lifted off the heatsink using a stack of washers I had thoughts......
Pots can act very oddly, i had a metal detector to fix for a mate. I found every pot to be faulty in the same way and it wasn't dirt or the wiper. it was the metal riveted terminals on each end of the track that didn't connect at all !. It just seemed that the conductive coating at the track ends became an insulator. Such an unexpected fault.
Hi I'm trying to find my problem with my TIBO AUDIO AMPLIFIER it just clicked and shut down no blown fuses in the plug or inside amp but smelt burning no smoke though any idea thanks
Is there a reason why a dual gang pot wouldn't be a better idea for this unit, or are the channels used independently in some circumstances? If that were mine and I wanted to ensure matching of the channel levels, I would just mod it to add a dual gang pot and plug up the other hole.
In most circumstances they would be left and right of stage front of house and therefore set the same, but very small gigs you could use left for front of house, and right for say on stage monitors, and depending on what desk is in use you may need to pull the monitors right down at the amp. Or, you might use one amp per side of stage, left for driving subs and right for tweeters etc where you would also may need that individual control.......It's just about flexibility and control. I was a soundman for 9 years for a big 14 piece soul band......and the flexibility is invaluable.
OK, so I should really be thinking of it more as a multichannel amp rather than a stereo amp. I did car audio for about 4 years as a hobby, I had an expensive (~$18,000) high quality audio system in my car, I built and tuned everything myself, it could produce 15Hz - 20KHz within 2dB of flatness at the drivers seat, with accurate staging and stereo imaging, I used to compete with it at car audio events and was one of the highest scoring cars in the country (only beaten on points for installation not sound quality by some pro audio stores with $50,000 installs in the car), I had fibre optic from the head unit to a digital time alignment processor, which split the audio off to 4 different amps, one for fronts, one for rears and centre channel, and two for the subs, it could do 136dB flat out (without distortion) AND still sounded clean and well balanced whilst doing about 124dB! I still have a few of the items I used, I still use the subs, they were rated to handle 1KW RMS so my 400W RMS amps weren't too hard on them, I never drove them into clipping either. I still have some of the processors and pre-amp units, and some of the component speakers too, they are in boxes, one day I might use them again in a car.
@@TheDefpom In a car that's unbelievable!.......In the soul band we had about 14kw front of house and 4kw on stage. PA system was Allen & Heath / Nexo combination.......there was no better at the time. 32ch desk, 90% populated. Sound checks were ace fun chucking an mp3 off a mini disk through it all.........Ahhhhhh, I miss those days!
great video as always. By the way, have you updated the firmware on 121GW? how is the speed now? I am considering buying one of these but seeing this video and a couple of similar ones discouraged me a bit. I am curious if the new firmware is substantially better or just a little bit better
I have installed it, and it is much faster........but havent explored it fully though. But yes, it was far too slow before.......almost to point of regretting buying!
This is one of the best handheld DMMs you can buy. The only drawback from my view - it was too slow measuring resistance, but it was corrected in a new firmware issue. It does have a uCurrent build-in. Excellent quality too.
Despite the relatively low price point these amps (if similar to one I have badged Warrior DA1000) are fantastic pieces of kit. Gigged frequently in a 350 capacity hall over 11 years , I never had to run each channel at 1/2 volume and sound is superb and the fan NEVER kicked in after hours of use on each occasion. I have measured the max output to be just over 400w per channel so on the unit you have, I would guess that should get about 200W per channel. I do wonder though whether there was a change when the name 'Warrior' was dropped for 'W-Audio'?
Certainly they look the same so I think you are right about the name. They are no frills amps, and not a lot to go wrong so not surprised about 11 years service. How flat the EQ is I have never measured and although I don't think they are brilliant audio wise i.e. SM58 and some cheapish speakers they do the job. A shame this one failed in the way it did......but luckily was only used as a practice room amp. PS. I am used to Allen & Heath desks, Crown amps and Nexo speakers/drivers.........so not surprised I didn't care for the vocal capabilities of this wee amp!
@@IanScottJohnston There's an interesting debate to be had on the perceived practical quality differences between the 'high end' well respected kit (and certainly the kit you detail falls into that category) and lower budget kit. ... but that debate is probably not for this thread. One example though is the SM58, a great mic (I had 2) but when I needed to by 2 more for mics for a couple of bands I was engineering I decided to buy Behringer XM8500s at £25 each. Despite initial disgust from the artists, having used them they were all blown away by the sound and were more than happy to continue using them. With correct adjustment at the mixer stage (a smidge more gain and adjustment of mids, you would be really pushed to tell the difference.
@@standishgeezer To be honest, the band I was soundman for was a 14-piece soul band, and we had a number of SM58's, but also others in the Shure range which were much more dynamic, and when we first set up the Nexo/Crown gear we were blown away at the difference between it and the old Peavey gear we had......LOL! ua-cam.com/video/duPRamprMZo/v-deo.html (audio is from small camera)
Solid. Messing around with that stuff so useful around practice studios, getting one working in the woods, in near darkness, that someone swears was working when it was humped into the van... this is the true measure of mettle. good catch on the wiper
Great video as always Ian. Nice to see repairs on more obscure equipment.
I've come across that problem with those pots a lot, but mainly just a tired pot. A nice pair of ALPS pots, they're a little $$ but worth it in the long run. Glad I found your channel!
Good work Ian, thanks, love these repair vids.....
Great job =D Not what you expect as the cause!
Great video :)
Happy practicing for your friend :)
Hi Ian, if your doing regular audio amp repairs get yourself the other half to that signal generator ie a signal tracer with an earpiece much quicker than a scope, also build yourself a cheap old boys current limiter , basically a 150 watt lamp wired inline with the amplifier power feed, this will light if you get a dead short and not do further damage to the amplifier very handy, ps got here by looking at your segway, good stuff
11:45 - 12:00 There’s a wee bug walking about - it probably ate the PCB tracks!
I saw that when editing.....:)
....... You Could have De-bugged it first, @@IanScottJohnston
Great video pal very helpful and informative
Not a bad amp at all, but quality control during manufacture wasn't that great, likely. Nice solution, and great video, Ian!
Yep, as soon as I opened it up and saw the wiring cable tied to the side of the fan, and the fan itself lifted off the heatsink using a stack of washers I had thoughts......
Amazing what difference a little bit of cleaning will make. It probably won't fail again. Probably was just a little spec of dirt/dust.
Pots can act very oddly, i had a metal detector to fix for a mate.
I found every pot to be faulty in the same way and it wasn't dirt or the wiper.
it was the metal riveted terminals on each end of the track that didn't connect at all !.
It just seemed that the conductive coating at the track ends became an insulator.
Such an unexpected fault.
Thanks Ian!
Hi I'm trying to find my problem with my TIBO AUDIO AMPLIFIER it just clicked and shut down no blown fuses in the plug or inside amp but smelt burning no smoke though any idea thanks
Very Good, Would you know where I can get a Schematic or service manual for a NEC AV-350E?
Thanks
Is there a reason why a dual gang pot wouldn't be a better idea for this unit, or are the channels used independently in some circumstances?
If that were mine and I wanted to ensure matching of the channel levels, I would just mod it to add a dual gang pot and plug up the other hole.
In most circumstances they would be left and right of stage front of house and therefore set the same, but very small gigs you could use left for front of house, and right for say on stage monitors, and depending on what desk is in use you may need to pull the monitors right down at the amp. Or, you might use one amp per side of stage, left for driving subs and right for tweeters etc where you would also may need that individual control.......It's just about flexibility and control. I was a soundman for 9 years for a big 14 piece soul band......and the flexibility is invaluable.
OK, so I should really be thinking of it more as a multichannel amp rather than a stereo amp.
I did car audio for about 4 years as a hobby, I had an expensive (~$18,000) high quality audio system in my car, I built and tuned everything myself, it could produce 15Hz - 20KHz within 2dB of flatness at the drivers seat, with accurate staging and stereo imaging, I used to compete with it at car audio events and was one of the highest scoring cars in the country (only beaten on points for installation not sound quality by some pro audio stores with $50,000 installs in the car), I had fibre optic from the head unit to a digital time alignment processor, which split the audio off to 4 different amps, one for fronts, one for rears and centre channel, and two for the subs, it could do 136dB flat out (without distortion) AND still sounded clean and well balanced whilst doing about 124dB!
I still have a few of the items I used, I still use the subs, they were rated to handle 1KW RMS so my 400W RMS amps weren't too hard on them, I never drove them into clipping either.
I still have some of the processors and pre-amp units, and some of the component speakers too, they are in boxes, one day I might use them again in a car.
@@TheDefpom In a car that's unbelievable!.......In the soul band we had about 14kw front of house and 4kw on stage. PA system was Allen & Heath / Nexo combination.......there was no better at the time. 32ch desk, 90% populated. Sound checks were ace fun chucking an mp3 off a mini disk through it all.........Ahhhhhh, I miss those days!
Did you wash both the pots and use deoxit also ???
great video as always. By the way, have you updated the firmware on 121GW? how is the speed now? I am considering buying one of these but seeing this video and a couple of similar ones discouraged me a bit. I am curious if the new firmware is substantially better or just a little bit better
I have installed it, and it is much faster........but havent explored it fully though. But yes, it was far too slow before.......almost to point of regretting buying!
@@IanScottJohnston can you make a short video perhaps? I know Dave has one already but he doesn't fully test it.
This is one of the best handheld DMMs you can buy. The only drawback from my view - it was too slow measuring resistance, but it was corrected in a new firmware issue. It does have a uCurrent build-in. Excellent quality too.
Despite the relatively low price point these amps (if similar to one I have badged Warrior DA1000) are fantastic pieces of kit. Gigged frequently in a 350 capacity hall over 11 years , I never had to run each channel at 1/2 volume and sound is superb and the fan NEVER kicked in after hours of use on each occasion. I have measured the max output to be just over 400w per channel so on the unit you have, I would guess that should get about 200W per channel. I do wonder though whether there was a change when the name 'Warrior' was dropped for 'W-Audio'?
Certainly they look the same so I think you are right about the name. They are no frills amps, and not a lot to go wrong so not surprised about 11 years service. How flat the EQ is I have never measured and although I don't think they are brilliant audio wise i.e. SM58 and some cheapish speakers they do the job. A shame this one failed in the way it did......but luckily was only used as a practice room amp.
PS. I am used to Allen & Heath desks, Crown amps and Nexo speakers/drivers.........so not surprised I didn't care for the vocal capabilities of this wee amp!
@@IanScottJohnston There's an interesting debate to be had on the perceived practical quality differences between the 'high end' well respected kit (and certainly the kit you detail falls into that category) and lower budget kit. ... but that debate is probably not for this thread. One example though is the SM58, a great mic (I had 2) but when I needed to by 2 more for mics for a couple of bands I was engineering I decided to buy Behringer XM8500s at £25 each. Despite initial disgust from the artists, having used them they were all blown away by the sound and were more than happy to continue using them. With correct adjustment at the mixer stage (a smidge more gain and adjustment of mids, you would be really pushed to tell the difference.
@@standishgeezer To be honest, the band I was soundman for was a 14-piece soul band, and we had a number of SM58's, but also others in the Shure range which were much more dynamic, and when we first set up the Nexo/Crown gear we were blown away at the difference between it and the old Peavey gear we had......LOL!
ua-cam.com/video/duPRamprMZo/v-deo.html
(audio is from small camera)
Hello ! I wouldlike to know the colors code of the resistor lookated extrem right please. Thanks a lot.
....and too for the R36 and R37 please
Do u have a website for domestic electronic repairs or servicing ?
I just do this for fun. See www.ianjohnston.com
Hi Ian. Update the firmware on your mm. It should resolve the slow resistance measurements
Yup, I did that just after I made this video....certainly better.....:-)
Are you sure that was 100hz tone at 8:47? To my ears it sounds more like 1000hz.
Well spotted, most definitely 1kHz tone.........
Cheap amplifier with cheap pots.
Very commun problem.