[PC Corp]

Good morning everyone.
I moved back to Vancouver this summer and live in the basement now.

The AKG K1000 Amp, usually dead silent, suddenly became unstable. When I turn it on, more than 50% the LED light will be flashing, which means the amp won't play, and when the LED is stable and the Amp works, there's a loud noice. The tricky point is that sometimes it works fine... for about 30-40 minutes and suddently the noise comes out again. Sometimes the noise level is quite low.

I went to http://www.space-tech-lab.com/ to fix it. That guy said it may be the volume control problem and asked for $50 Canadian to clean it up. A few days later the problem was still exist and he said he had no clue, all electronic parts are fine, and he gave me a hint that it could be the power cord problem because the plug has two legs, not three. Didn't want to waste anymore money on that guy, I took the amp home and became so frasturated.

Do you guys have any clue??
I went downtown Vancouver the other day. The cheapest power conditioner would cost me around $350 USD and I don't know if it works or not.

 

[aeberbach]

Take it somewhere else and try it out. If it still works badly then you have to look further. Dirty power can have really dramatic effect on sound, sometimes even a bad earth can make the best gear sound terrible. Don't buy a power conditioner until you do that.

Otherwise how old is it? You could look at all the electrolytic capacitors yourself, maybe the electronics guy was wrong. Are any non-cylindrical or discolored? Is there any fluid around the base of any? Any component that looks dark in places should be looked at carefully.

Does it have output fuses? I once tested an amplifier and concluded it was junk before noticing that the output fuses were blown. After that it was really nice. Maybe you have loose fuse holders. It sounds like something is being affected by temperature, as the sound is changing as it warms up. You could look at all the solder joints too to see if any look dull or crumbly instead of shiny and smooth as they should be.

 

[PC Corp]

Thanks aeberbach.

I bought the last new SAC amp last Christmas from Jan. I don't have the tools necessary to open the amp but I did open the power supply today. The fuse is perfect there.

Put back the screws and plug the amp, the led would flash about 10-15 seconds then became stable. There was a hiss when I put my fingers on the volume control. well, after a few minutes, the hiss dissapered.

It's been three hours now and the SAC amp works silently.

Yeah, a power conditioner would be too costly for me now. I may contact Jan if the problem still exists.