warwickhunt Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 I owned this amp from new, sold it on BC and bought it back but sadly it looks like it is now destined for the bin as the transformer which delivers voltage to the valve front end has died for the 2nd time. The guy who first replaced the original transformer binned the dead unit (despite me asking him to keep it), when it died the 2nd time I used a different repair guy who had to source a unit from Eastern Europe... but this is fried. I hasten to add that the amp is my back up and when it died the 2nd time it had 5 hours use in the house! There is obviously a secondary issue here but neither tech found anything to indicate why they are dying. IF I can get a replacement I'll be sure that some form of diagnosis is followed up to see what, if any, is the issue It is a long shot but does anyone have one of these amps and can give me info from their original transformer or even better, does anyone have an amp that has other issues that they'd sell 'spares/repairs'? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 That's pity as this was a terrific sounding amp when it was working properly. I only sold it back to you because I have moved to an ampless setup. However, during the time I owned it, I found it was somewhat temperamental regarding the electricity supply it was presented with. On 3 or 4 occasions at gigs it went into some sort of "protect" mode and could not be persuaded to produce any more sound for the rest of the evening. Plugging it back in at home the following day would always result in it working perfectly. Have you tried getting in touch with Thomas Eich? I believe that he will still repair old TecAmp/Tech Soundystems gear if he has the parts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fitzmaurice Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 The first thing you need to do is to get schematic. That in hand it should be easy to determine what's required for a transformer. Without it you're up a certain creek sans paddles. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted November 10, 2022 Author Share Posted November 10, 2022 Cheers folks. Yes I tried Tecamp but they basically said it was old/obsolete and they didn't carry spares. I may well try Tecamp again and as @Bill Fitzmaurice has suggested try and get a schematic. Both repair guys said it was a straightforward job as the transformer was only for the 3 valve front end (class D output) but clearly not! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 1 minute ago, warwickhunt said: Yes I tried Tecamp but they basically said it was old/obsolete and they didn't carry spares. Did you try TecAmp or EICH? IIRC the name TecAmp is now owned by some US concern and have almost nothing to do with the original company. The designer of the amp is Thomas Eich who now runs EICH Amplification, and he is more likely to be able to help. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 What is special about the transformer? You just need to know the rating and the output voltage and you can replace it with something else. That should be marked on it somewhere as VA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted November 10, 2022 Author Share Posted November 10, 2022 2 minutes ago, TimR said: What is special about the transformer? You just need to know the rating and the output voltage and you can replace it with something else. That should be marked on it somewhere as VA. You'd think so but whatever the issue is, I'd rather not have to buy and have a 3rd transformer fitted and have it fry on me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBunny Posted November 10, 2022 Share Posted November 10, 2022 Hell of a long shot but try Mike Walsh, Zoot Bass. IIRC he was the importer of Tech Amp gear when he had his shop. I'm sure when I spoke to him once he told me he had to deal with warranty claims for the UK so would have had repair contacts here. A lot of water under the bridge since then but you never know. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted November 10, 2022 Author Share Posted November 10, 2022 Fired off messages to Eich Amps and Mike... fingers crossed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassmanPaul Posted November 12, 2022 Share Posted November 12, 2022 Please keep us informed on your progress or lack of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted November 12, 2022 Author Share Posted November 12, 2022 Mike at Zoot hasn't any info. No reply from Eich re. schematic... I'll give it another week though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassmanPaul Posted November 12, 2022 Share Posted November 12, 2022 I wish that more companies followed the ethic that Genz Benz uses and keeps a stock of older parts to support product as much as possible. Way to go our @agedhorse. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 Does the company actually still exist? A decent engineer should be able to run the amp up on a temporary supply and determine what it uses on full load and size a transformer to suit and at the same time determine why the other ones were failing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanAxe Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 The transformer for the valves will have two secondaries: A few mA at say 200-300V DC for the HT; About 1A at 6.3V AC or 0.5A at 12.6V AC for the heaters. It sounds like there is a fault whereby one of the secondaries is seeing a near-short. A tech should be able to detect this without burning out the transformer, by slowly raising the supply voltage via a variac and a dim bulb tester. I hope you get this fixed but if not, don’t bin it without letting me make an offer on a spares-or-repair basis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted November 13, 2022 Author Share Posted November 13, 2022 1 hour ago, TimR said: Does the company actually still exist? A decent engineer should be able to run the amp up on a temporary supply and determine what it uses on full load and size a transformer to suit and at the same time determine why the other ones were failing. Thomas Eich went from Tech Sound to Tecamp to Eich! 17 minutes ago, JapanAxe said: The transformer for the valves will have two secondaries: A few mA at say 200-300V DC for the HT; About 1A at 6.3V AC or 0.5A at 12.6V AC for the heaters. It sounds like there is a fault whereby one of the secondaries is seeing a near-short. A tech should be able to detect this without burning out the transformer, by slowly raising the supply voltage via a variac and a dim bulb tester. I hope you get this fixed but if not, don’t bin it without letting me make an offer on a spares-or-repair basis. The guy who did the last work said that he was finding it hard to source the part as it was dual core (that might be my recall of what he said) and ended up getting it from Eastern Europe as a special order... for what good it did! Possibly the part wasn't genuinely compatible but without finding a competent repair guy who won't end up charging more than the amp is worth even after the repair, I want to get all the info I can to support the repair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanAxe Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 There should be plenty of transformers that will do the job as long as the chassis layout doesn’t dictate a particular form factor. Any chance you can unscrew the top or bottom panel and post some gut shots? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted November 13, 2022 Author Share Posted November 13, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted November 13, 2022 Author Share Posted November 13, 2022 Lots of room around the offending article! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 IIRC this is the transformer that supplies the HT for the valves as well as power for the rest of pre-amp circuitry. Have you checked that they are all OK? A fault with one or more of the valves might be causing the transformer to fail. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanAxe Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 40 minutes ago, warwickhunt said: Lots of room around the offending article! Yeah, just about any transformer of the right spec would fit in that space. I wonder if the tech felt he had to stick with a toroidal rather than go drilling holes to accommodate a conventional one. Although toroidals can be less noisy, that is predicated on pointing the cable exit/entry holes away from sensitive circuitry. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 Or maybe get a company to custom build one. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agedhorse Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 That's a pretty early build, before they started using ICEpower modules. You are probably going to have to find somebody qualified to reverse-engineer the power supply to determine what's really needed to be reliable. So far, you have succeeded in discovering a couple of ways it doesn't work... Does anybody know how many of these amps might have been built? This may explain why there are no spare parts available. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 6 hours ago, warwickhunt said: That’s a powersoft digimod top right - what’s the model number? Some of them have their own power supply section….The power amp section of the amp might be powered separately than the preamp … which might make everything simpler 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted November 13, 2022 Author Share Posted November 13, 2022 20 minutes ago, LukeFRC said: That’s a powersoft digimod top right - what’s the model number? Some of them have their own power supply section….The power amp section of the amp might be powered separately than the preamp … which might make everything simpler Yes I believe the transformer is purely for the preamp / valves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fitzmaurice Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 24 minutes ago, warwickhunt said: Yes I believe the transformer is purely for the preamp / valves. Based on the size I agree. You may find numbers on it if you pull it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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