Hello good people, thank you for great forum and source of information!
This is my first post here.
I have an Electrocompaniet AW 220 power amp, whitch I have been very satisfied with ever since i bought it brand new for a monts pay waaay back in 2003. As the years have gone by, some need of attention has come up, and first thing that came up was a need for a new output relay.
Got one of Mouser, easy peasy. Nice improvement in SQ as well.
But I've also noticed an ever so slight humming noise, putting my ear rigth by speakers (both channels about equal, and no signal source).
In the old days this amp was absolutely silent, so I'm guessing it's time to look at the 16 year old caps.
All electrolytic caps inside are Nippon Chem-Con;
6 x 10000 uF 80V SMH-series
10 x 1000 uF 63V LXV-series
10 x 27 uF 63V LXV-series
1 x 1 uF 100V KME-series (power-delay-circuit?)
So I've checked out Nichicon "Fine Gold"-series, and replacements are available for all of these, except the 27 uF ones.
This is the same for other higrade manufacturers, like Elna an Panasonic, at least at the shops here (Mouser / Elfadistrelec).
Closest "high grade audio" alternatives available are 22 and 33 uF.
27uF are of course available in "standard purpose" version.
However these 27 uF's are scattered across the PCB, and I find it difficult to tell what purpose they have without schematics.
Would changing all of these to a higher or lower value have any negative impact on sound quality, or stabilty of the amp?
Should i abandon hi-grade, and go for correct value gen purpose caps for these?
I've uploaded some pics, I hope maybe someone could lead me in the right direction here.
Or better still; If someone has access to a service manual for the AW220. I'm also curious about correct idle-current values / procedure for this one.
Paul
This is my first post here.
I have an Electrocompaniet AW 220 power amp, whitch I have been very satisfied with ever since i bought it brand new for a monts pay waaay back in 2003. As the years have gone by, some need of attention has come up, and first thing that came up was a need for a new output relay.
Got one of Mouser, easy peasy. Nice improvement in SQ as well.
But I've also noticed an ever so slight humming noise, putting my ear rigth by speakers (both channels about equal, and no signal source).
In the old days this amp was absolutely silent, so I'm guessing it's time to look at the 16 year old caps.
All electrolytic caps inside are Nippon Chem-Con;
6 x 10000 uF 80V SMH-series
10 x 1000 uF 63V LXV-series
10 x 27 uF 63V LXV-series
1 x 1 uF 100V KME-series (power-delay-circuit?)
So I've checked out Nichicon "Fine Gold"-series, and replacements are available for all of these, except the 27 uF ones.
This is the same for other higrade manufacturers, like Elna an Panasonic, at least at the shops here (Mouser / Elfadistrelec).
Closest "high grade audio" alternatives available are 22 and 33 uF.
27uF are of course available in "standard purpose" version.
However these 27 uF's are scattered across the PCB, and I find it difficult to tell what purpose they have without schematics.
Would changing all of these to a higher or lower value have any negative impact on sound quality, or stabilty of the amp?
Should i abandon hi-grade, and go for correct value gen purpose caps for these?
I've uploaded some pics, I hope maybe someone could lead me in the right direction here.
Or better still; If someone has access to a service manual for the AW220. I'm also curious about correct idle-current values / procedure for this one.
Paul
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A 33uF capacitor of the same voltage will be fine, the tolerances are about that wide anyway.
Just make sure the lead spacing is the same, and that the increased height and/or diameter
of the new parts won't cause any problems, like physical interference with other parts or casework.
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