Very close. The cards are Active crossovers tuned to a specific Linn speaker model. The speakers can be configured to remove the passive crossover and the amp drives each driver directly. This Amp would have driven a pair of two way speakers each with a tweeters and mid/bass. The other two channels are missing cards and thus would have remained un-used. These amps also have a later model of PSU the "Dynamik" that can be swapped in for about $800 apparently this is an even lower noise switched mode supply. Amps are Chip amps with an extra bipolar driver stage that comes in at high power. The 200W (Akurate) version have another following transistor setup. These are some of the best amps I have ever listened to.
Where I work now and where I have worked before I've seen small SMD electrolytics as the source of a considerable bit of drama on NEW assemblies. The larger ones also like to pop off the board during drop testing--no idea why we still insist on using them. Some of those in that Linn looked like they were bulging slightly and had cracked screen printing. The ROHS lead-free reflow process often causes that and obviously isn't doing them any favors.
Gotta love how quickly things can pile up when you're busy with so many projects, reminds me of my own bench until I sorted it out recently and time will tell to see how long until it becomes messy again lol
Remember I work full time, 40 hours a week over 4 days. So the electronics work is done on my days off. Basically has be working 7 days a week but this year i am planning to do less. take more breaks and actually take a holiday this year. Have 5 weeks and I generally take them one week at a time as that way each week turns into 10 or 11 days. Plenty of time to get away for a few days.
@@12voltvids That's great to hear! hope you get the chance to relax some more if possible, I love the work you do and everyone needs some time off sometimes.
@Kent Teffeteller Bryston made in Canada. My big Crest is made in the USA and it looks to be relatively service friendly. Just remove the big heat sink and the board comes with it. The Linn amps however have a sound that is unlike most. I have only listened to 2 and they sounded amazing. Just like that class D VTV purify amp I was testing a few weeks ago. I heard stuff in the mix I have never heard before. Bongo drums, and other stuff burred in the mix just comes alive. For those that have never experienced this, you don't understand, but once you hear something that you thought you knew and all of a sudden there is more there. Its just like listening to vacuum tube gear. Once you hear it, you want to spend the money to continue to heat it.
@@12voltvids yeah I once had a demo of a complete Linn cd only system, it comprised of 12 separate boxes and two massive floorstanding speakers, needless to say it sounded amazing and had a retail price (at the time) of over £40k.
@Kent Teffeteller you have obviously not heard the NAD and VTV that use the purifi modules. I test drove one for a week and it was an experience. I was listening at low to mid levels too, nothing ear shattering and mostly acoustic music
Got my hands on a sort of working 20 year old Sony SACD player on the cheap, would replay CDs no problem, but had to be re-loaded multiple times to realize a hybrid SACD was inserted, but then would insist it was CD only once powered down and up again, so cue open/close and hope for the best. Decided to start by replacing all SMD caps and then try to figure out what's wrong with it later. Got a bunch of low impedance UCD/CL/CW Nichicons and had lots of fun trying to position them on the pads, as some turned out to be juat a bit larger than the originals. Managed nevertheless and guess what - that actually solved the SACD playback issue! Old caps measured tens of ohms in terms of ESR, especially on the RF board.
I have only worked on a small number of Linn amps despite living in the UK. Linn have always had a knack of making great sounding gear. I have admit to not liking amps that use switching power supplies, sooner or later they fail and 99% of the time it's bad capacitors. Easy for me to fix, but not for customers. I prefer linear power supplies with toroidal transformers, they more reliable and provide a cleaner DC supply.
Yes switch mode power supplies seem to inherit crap caps as I had a monitor audio Sub with a switch mode power supply and it went bad because of the Big caps
@@johnweegenaar7314 The problem is caused by poor design of placing capacitors close to components that run hot, then enclosing the whole pcb inside gear with no airflow. I have repaired hundreds of subs and it's nearly always the caps that go bad.
Switchmode provide much better regulation and are free from the 100/120 hz ripple that all unregulated linear supplies suffer. All linear supplies will dip when the load goes up. A switcher just hums along without breaking a sweat. A switcher also has over current shut down so if something goes south they can shut down much faster than any fuse can blow to prevent a single component failure from turning into a disaster. The caps fail due to internal heat generated inside the cap not so much external heating. Switch mode don't generate heat themself but the caps do get hot because they are dealing with khz frequencies all day.
@@12voltvids Switched mode may be more able to deal with loads and offer better protection, but from my experience they are a common source of problems in any gear that uses them. Oppo used them in their high end blu-ray players, and a very common upgrade was to replace them with regulated linear power supplies that gave a superior performance, this was one of my last jobs before i retired from the trade. You wont find them in Arcam amps or receivers for a good reason.
Surface mount electrolytics are terrible. You can't tell the series, they're a pain to remove, and they fail quicker. I would say to use surface mount polymers instead, but I don't think you can do that in a power supply.
On the contrary. I remember the first one i saw. It was a Sony amp back in the 80s and the pulse power supply as they called it was in a totally enclosed aluminum box.
I believe its a class AB. See the output transistors/ There are 3 channels per side. 6 trasistors and 3 ICs. The IC would be the voltage amplifier / driver stage.
the voltage on a fuse is the arc over value and needs to be higher than the operating voltage. 2 amps is the trip current. It doesn't matter is it is 2 amps at 240v or 2 amps at 2 volts. The problem would arise if you put a 2 amp 30 volt fuse on 120 or 240v circuit. Would work fine till it tries to blow. Then it can arc over and not kill the power. a 250v fuse on a 12 v circuit will blow just the same.
The fuse's "marked voltage rating" has nothing to do with the devices actual input voltage requirement, that number is the maximum voltage that fuse can interrupt safely ... always check the devices actual listed voltage requirement and AC Frequency Range .
@@12voltvids That's what I meant, that Linn had to do something about the more compact SMD design, compared to pin/hole mounted. Saved money on some of the manufacturing, but couldn't rely on passive cooling. I didn't fall asleep :) I find your videos very interesting and I've learned from your knowledge.
@@rbtgmnstcs I'm sure the 4 smd were chosen for what seemed like a good idea at the time. Robotic assembly the most likely reason. All the SMD are relatively low voltage. All the higher voltage parts are thru hole. If high voltage SMD were available they probably would have used them as well as less hands on during production.
Regular human beings should not be working on Linn equipment - only those blessed in Scotland or their highly coveted dealers must touch the magic that exists inside a piece of Linn kit. I say that with tongue firmly placed in-cheek...
Its interesting to see how they have done it, because Sony was doing the exact same thing. Monolithic IC for the low signal level for precision sound, and bipolar outputs for power.
not sure exactly but doing a quick search I found a review of a different "Majik" product from 2008, in fact Linn's own website shows this power amp as still in their current lineup.
Hifi center in Vancouver has one in stock right now for only $5930.00 so that would indicate that this is still a current model. I notice they also have the Linn Klimax 2 channel amp. 200 watts per channel and its only $15,490.00. I think I will order mine today.
@@12voltvids great I'll order two, do they do shipping to the UK? 🤣 , downloaded the manual for this amp and it shows the first edition (for the manual) as March 2005.
@@markrowe8824 this one is dated 2008 right on the power supply. This amp is still current. You can buy one today. Well perhaps not today as it's a holiday but tomorrow.
Not a single Class D amplifier will last for 10 years. Nowadays you're way better off buying a secondhand Sony ES series amplifier than these switching turds.
Another Fascinating piece of equipment, as for the easy diagnosis and repair, well you made that look easy. The great ones make it look easy.
Very close. The cards are Active crossovers tuned to a specific Linn speaker model. The speakers can be configured to remove the passive crossover and the amp drives each driver directly. This Amp would have driven a pair of two way speakers each with a tweeters and mid/bass. The other two channels are missing cards and thus would have remained un-used.
These amps also have a later model of PSU the "Dynamik" that can be swapped in for about $800 apparently this is an even lower noise switched mode supply.
Amps are Chip amps with an extra bipolar driver stage that comes in at high power. The 200W (Akurate) version have another following transistor setup.
These are some of the best amps I have ever listened to.
Where I work now and where I have worked before I've seen small SMD electrolytics as the source of a considerable bit of drama on NEW assemblies. The larger ones also like to pop off the board during drop testing--no idea why we still insist on using them. Some of those in that Linn looked like they were bulging slightly and had cracked screen printing. The ROHS lead-free reflow process often causes that and obviously isn't doing them any favors.
I hate them I just replaced 22 of them on a Pioneer power amp !
Gotta love how quickly things can pile up when you're busy with so many projects, reminds me of my own bench until I sorted it out recently and time will tell to see how long until it becomes messy again lol
Remember I work full time, 40 hours a week over 4 days. So the electronics work is done on my days off. Basically has be working 7 days a week but this year i am planning to do less. take more breaks and actually take a holiday this year. Have 5 weeks and I generally take them one week at a time as that way each week turns into 10 or 11 days. Plenty of time to get away for a few days.
@@12voltvids That's great to hear! hope you get the chance to relax some more if possible, I love the work you do and everyone needs some time off sometimes.
That is a very nice AMP. Digital amp could of been a real service mess to service. Great repair Dave!
Made in Scotland. I believe this amp originally cost around 4000 GBP.
@Kent Teffeteller Bryston made in Canada. My big Crest is made in the USA and it looks to be relatively service friendly. Just remove the big heat sink and the board comes with it. The Linn amps however have a sound that is unlike most. I have only listened to 2 and they sounded amazing. Just like that class D VTV purify amp I was testing a few weeks ago. I heard stuff in the mix I have never heard before. Bongo drums, and other stuff burred in the mix just comes alive. For those that have never experienced this, you don't understand, but once you hear something that you thought you knew and all of a sudden there is more there. Its just like listening to vacuum tube gear. Once you hear it, you want to spend the money to continue to heat it.
@@12voltvids yeah I once had a demo of a complete Linn cd only system, it comprised of 12 separate boxes and two massive floorstanding speakers, needless to say it sounded amazing and had a retail price (at the time) of over £40k.
@@markrowe8824 yes. Crazy en when a sound system costs as much as my house did when i bought it.
@Kent Teffeteller i listen at lower levels all the time on my crest and it drives my B&W speakers nicely. QSC also sounds great.
@Kent Teffeteller you have obviously not heard the NAD and VTV that use the purifi modules. I test drove one for a week and it was an experience. I was listening at low to mid levels too, nothing ear shattering and mostly acoustic music
Got my hands on a sort of working 20 year old Sony SACD player on the cheap, would replay CDs no problem, but had to be re-loaded multiple times to realize a hybrid SACD was inserted, but then would insist it was CD only once powered down and up again, so cue open/close and hope for the best. Decided to start by replacing all SMD caps and then try to figure out what's wrong with it later. Got a bunch of low impedance UCD/CL/CW Nichicons and had lots of fun trying to position them on the pads, as some turned out to be juat a bit larger than the originals. Managed nevertheless and guess what - that actually solved the SACD playback issue! Old caps measured tens of ohms in terms of ESR, especially on the RF board.
ATA boy
Good detective work and repair! 👍
Are most SMD caps a problem ? I have few in my CD player in the clock stages
Knowledge is wisdom, enjoyed the video
I just got done replacing 22 surfacemount Electroytic capacitors on a Pioneer Amp !
Thank you for the great video. Great job!
I have a linn 4100 with bad power supply. Are you still doing repairs?
Morse code? Great amplifier!
Have you ever used a Hakko FR-301 for de soldering or anything like it?
Nope. Can't justify the cost for what i make.
I have only worked on a small number of Linn amps despite living in the UK.
Linn have always had a knack of making great sounding gear.
I have admit to not liking amps that use switching power supplies, sooner or later they fail
and 99% of the time it's bad capacitors.
Easy for me to fix, but not for customers.
I prefer linear power supplies with toroidal transformers, they more reliable and provide
a cleaner DC supply.
Yes switch mode power supplies seem to inherit crap caps as I had a monitor audio Sub with a switch mode power supply and it went bad because of the Big caps
@@johnweegenaar7314 The problem is caused by poor design of placing capacitors close to components
that run hot, then enclosing the whole pcb inside gear with no airflow.
I have repaired hundreds of subs and it's nearly always the caps that go bad.
@@Barbarapape except there are two fans blowing air directly across the powerboard.
Switchmode provide much better regulation and are free from the 100/120 hz ripple that all unregulated linear supplies suffer.
All linear supplies will dip when the load goes up. A switcher just hums along without breaking a sweat. A switcher also has over current shut down so if something goes south they can shut down much faster than any fuse can blow to prevent a single component failure from turning into a disaster. The caps fail due to internal heat generated inside the cap not so much external heating. Switch mode don't generate heat themself but the caps do get hot because they are dealing with khz frequencies all day.
@@12voltvids Switched mode may be more able to deal with loads and offer better protection, but from my experience
they are a common source of problems in any gear that uses them.
Oppo used them in their high end blu-ray players, and a very common upgrade was to replace them with regulated
linear power supplies that gave a superior performance, this was one of my last jobs before i retired from the trade.
You wont find them in Arcam amps or receivers for a good reason.
Surface mount electrolytics are terrible. You can't tell the series, they're a pain to remove, and they fail quicker. I would say to use surface mount polymers instead, but I don't think you can do that in a power supply.
Not to mention they leak and can damage the traces.
A switching power supply in a Class AB analog amp. Surely the purists in the audience have all fainted away.
On the contrary. I remember the first one i saw. It was a Sony amp back in the 80s and the pulse power supply as they called it was in a totally enclosed aluminum box.
I can't seem to figure out what class of amplifier that is, but I don't think it is a class AB amp.
I believe its a class AB. See the output transistors/ There are 3 channels per side. 6 trasistors and 3 ICs. The IC would be the voltage amplifier / driver stage.
My Device says 250v 2amp fuse only. There are supported voltage details. Will this device works with 220v. I'm buying this from Japan.
the voltage on a fuse is the arc over value and needs to be higher than the operating voltage.
2 amps is the trip current. It doesn't matter is it is 2 amps at 240v or 2 amps at 2 volts. The problem would arise if you put a 2 amp 30 volt fuse on 120 or 240v circuit. Would work fine till it tries to blow. Then it can arc over and not kill the power. a 250v fuse on a 12 v circuit will blow just the same.
The fuse's "marked voltage rating" has nothing to do with the devices actual input voltage requirement, that number is the maximum voltage that fuse can interrupt safely ... always check the devices actual listed voltage requirement and AC Frequency Range .
Are comments not working?
?
Fascinating
You're the best. 100%
There's good chance that also the SMD capacitors in the other boards have passed away...
Power supply is exceptionally hard on caps as they Are operating in the 40 to 60khz range.
@@12voltvids And maybe the PSU board gets hotter. It seems like they needed to address the heat transfer.
@@rbtgmnstcs it dies have 2 fans blowing air through the tunnel. I guess you skipped that part or fell asleep.
@@12voltvids That's what I meant, that Linn had to do something about the more compact SMD design, compared to pin/hole mounted. Saved money on some of the manufacturing, but couldn't rely on passive cooling.
I didn't fall asleep :) I find your videos very interesting and I've learned from your knowledge.
@@rbtgmnstcs I'm sure the 4 smd were chosen for what seemed like a good idea at the time. Robotic assembly the most likely reason. All the SMD are relatively low voltage. All the higher voltage parts are thru hole. If high voltage SMD were available they probably would have used them as well as less hands on during production.
Regular human beings should not be working on Linn equipment - only those blessed in Scotland or their highly coveted dealers must touch the magic that exists inside a piece of Linn kit. I say that with tongue firmly placed in-cheek...
Its interesting to see how they have done it, because Sony was doing the exact same thing. Monolithic IC for the low signal level for precision sound, and bipolar outputs for power.
Does being Scottish count?
How old is that amp?
not sure exactly but doing a quick search I found a review of a different "Majik" product from 2008, in fact Linn's own website shows this power amp as still in their current lineup.
Hifi center in Vancouver has one in stock right now for only $5930.00 so that would indicate that this is still a current model. I notice they also have the Linn Klimax 2 channel amp. 200 watts per channel and its only $15,490.00. I think I will order mine today.
@@12voltvids great I'll order two, do they do shipping to the UK? 🤣 , downloaded the manual for this amp and it shows the first edition (for the manual) as March 2005.
@@markrowe8824 this one is dated 2008 right on the power supply. This amp is still current. You can buy one today. Well perhaps not today as it's a holiday but tomorrow.
i have linn gear wouldn't change it for anything else..
Its good. has a very clean sound.
Linn is always a brand I have always admired. I'm just too cheap to throw down the ludicrous amounts of cash required to buy one.
It Does have a Strange Name..lol
how so, its called "Majik" as it sounds magical and the 6100 part is because it has 6x100 watts per channel output.
@@markrowe8824 Good Reply...
@@weerobot All hand built in Glasgow Scotland and the person that builds it puts their name on each unit.
Not a single Class D amplifier will last for 10 years. Nowadays you're way better off buying a secondhand Sony ES series amplifier than these switching turds.
Not true. I know a few that have class D from late 90s and they are working 25 years later with no issues.