Genelec and bad amp boards.

[Tapwatr]

For the second time in less than 6 months the Amplifier PCB has blown during regular use on my less than 2 year old Genelec 8050APM's. Now I used Dynaudio BM6A's for 6 years with no issue doing the same music. Now I've lost two days of work again while I get them repaired at my own expense due to the 1 year warranty.

Is this what I can expect being a Genelec user?

[Greg Curtis]

Never had a problem with my 1032a's, and use them all the time.

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[Tapwatr]

Ok so good on Genelec for repairing out of warranty for me. I hope this is the last time.

[elmono]

It happened to my 8040s twice and to a friend who has 8040s as well..

[Greg Curtis]

Sounds like bad boards on the 8000 series...

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[gotama]

I have a problem at the moment with my 1032a. Blown amplifier board (woofer) after 8 years of use. Trying to repair it at my local distributor but they seem to have some trouble with repairing the board and will probably end up buying a new 1032a to replace the faulty one... Sadly in my country Malta we dont have a professional repair center for Genelec Systems. Will have to repair it in another country. Shipping costs ouch :P

[jetplane666666]

I've fixed my own 1032's and 8020's a couple of times. The circuitry in the old 103x range is really simple, they even use the horrid 5532 op amps (they might be 4558's, I can't really remember, but they are stinky), which I was really surprised to see. The main source of failure has been the ribbon cable connectors which occasionally need to be rebuilt, or re-soldered.

[Greg Curtis]

Yes, the ribbon cable/Molex connections are fail-happy. Had one fail.

O/T I had a bad hum in one of my 7071a subwoofers. I took it apart, and it turned out that I just needed to twist one of the ribbon cables, and pull it away to get rid of the hum. I could take the ribbon and move it around to increase or decrease the hum. Not such a great design, eh?

+1 about the op-amps.

GC

[gotama]

Technician telling me that the whole woofer amplifier board needs replacement for 1032a. Been waiting for a price quote for it, but its taking ages, like 2 weeks. Anyone got an idea if its worth replacing the amp board or just buying a new 1032a unit ?

[jetplane666666]

The whole amp board needs replacing? Why does'nt he just fix it? Just speculating here, but maybe he doesn't know how? Transistor power amps are pretty simple. I would talk to another technician before ordering a new board. Most likely the transistors are just shorted, that's the most common failure in a solid state power amp.

[gotama]

Yes, initially he ordered them and replaced them, then he phoned me and told me that they blew up again when he powered it on... I'm thinking he isn't very capable of fixing them. He told me that the whole board needs replacement to fix the problem...

My local Genelec supplier sent me to him. Now probably I will get charged for the cost of his time and the blown IC. Eur 250 (which I wont pay). He told me to come for the broken unit and take it to someone else but I expect to have a properly repaired unit, so I told him to keep it and send me a quote for the amp board. Will check and act depending on the cost of the amp board.

If he will charge like another EUR 500 for the new amb board, I dont think I will fix it at all, I'll order a new 1032 for EUR 1,500.

I would take the unit to another technician but I'm scared he will do a worse job...

Terrible service here in Malta.

[Jerz3455]

Man. I've been back and forth between genelec and some local repair shops trying to find out what happened with mine..

I have a pair of 8050A monitors. I had recently purchased from someone second hand.
Yo! BOTH of my woofers are not operating..

Turns out that BOTH amp boards are faulty, and need repair.
Unfortunately, (so they say), the ONLY licensed Genelec repair facility in the USA is in MA. AND you can't purchase components for the cabinets either. Apparently, you HAVE to send the units to them, and have them do the repair. WTF!!!!!!

There has to be another way..

Im like totally willing to take this thing apart (I've already taken one apart to see its orientation), and get this thing right.

What in these boards normally go bad like that???

It makes absolutely no sense to be paying $300/unit every once a year for this non-sense.

Plus!!! I contacted genelec, and even hit up their forum, and one of their moderators had the AUDACITY to claim that these issues dont happen often.

60 or 90 day warranty like wtf.. #NOTGOOD..

... Sorry, kind of venting...

Does anyone know what should I be look at to possibly exchange myself.
Or better yet, what component exactly should I be testing and looking to overhaul.