heathkit sa-2 received from scott1019 smoked my blu ray and tv

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cduarte

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received it today, looked fine. Installed the tubes, hooked up speaker wires and connected it to my blu ray and it smoked both the blu ray and the tv. HDMI cable was welded to tv. disconnected rca cable from blu ray and it scorched when it hit my cast iron radiator. Now amp won't power on at all, and I have a dead tv and blu ray. Called scott, he insisted it was impossible and didn't want anything to do with it. Told me to contact the person he bought the amp from.

trade thread here... http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=574942

pics of smoked cables.

heathkit1.jpg


heathkit2.jpg
 
took a pic of the amp to show that the tubes are installed correctly. It doesn't light up at all now, even though the fuse is fine.

heathkit3.jpg
 
If I had to guess, the polarity of the AC plug was 'reversed' in the socket when you plugged it into the wall, and the "death cap" had failed (or was, perhaps, not present) - and the chassis and all the grounds had 120 VAC on 'em.

Just a guess.
 
I can't believe this! I really can't! It was working perfectly when I sent it.. It was fully serviced by a really reliable tech on AK. I used it for 2 months without a problem and prior to that was the centerpiece of the sellers collection, I hope DanO55 can chime in about this. My reputation on AK is very important to me Chris and rest assured we will get this resolved for you. I have no idea how that's even possible with the Blu-Ray and TV. I hope you have home owner's insurance and you can get this resolved on your end. I KNOW for sure DanO55 will get this amp back and working and back out to you... I tried calling you and left a message after we hung up. Let's please work this out somehow! You can have your pre-amp back if you wish and don't want to deal with the hassle of having it repaired. All I ask is that you send it out to him to get looked at. I donated a good sum of money to the Christmas charity for this amp and Dan has always done me right and we all will get this right. Somehow, someway. I stake my good standing and reputation on it.. Ask anyone on AK... I will make this right!
 
I never said I wouldn't work with you Chris, you hung up on me before we could resolve anything. I cannot really offer any idea as to why this could have happened and it would do no good sending the amp back to me as I don't have the slightest idea how to repair it. Nor have I done anything at all to what may have caused this. I used it for two months and fully tested it. I bought a brand new set of outputs tubes that were matching as one of them tested marginal, and had it running right before I packed it and sent it out to you. I merely removed the case, removed the tubes, and sent it. I don't see how anything that I did could have any bearing on this.

I just said I'm not a tube technician by any means, just that the best person to ask about this amp and how/why this could have happened would be the guy who offered a warranty to me for it and by extension offered it to you as well. If anyone can get to the bottom of this its him and if you have any desire to keep the amp he would be more than willing to repair it I'm sure. And I'll gladly cover the postage to him. Beyond that I really don't know what more I can do for you. You have my sympathies and compassion and I will do the best I possibly can to make this right!
 
Probably is not the correct forum for this but what is a deathcap?

If memory serves me correctly, a death cap is a very small value cap that goes from the hot AC line to the chassis to ground out RF energy picked up by the long power cord. If they short out they put AC voltage on the chassis and can shock the hell out of you if not kill you.

If you have these old type caps they should be replaced with modern caps called safety capacitors. They will fail open and not shock the hell out of you.

http://www.justradios.com/safetytips.html
 
I never said I wouldn't work with you Chris, you hung up on me before we could resolve anything. I cannot really offer any idea as to why this could have happened and it would do no good sending the amp back to me as I don't have the slightest idea how to repair it. Nor have I done anything at all to what may have caused this. I used it for two months and fully tested it. I bought a brand new set of outputs tubes that were matching as one of them tested marginal, and had it running right before I packed it and sent it out to you. I merely removed the case, removed the tubes, and sent it. I don't see how anything that I did could have any bearing on this.

I just said I'm not a tube technician by any means, just that the best person to ask about this amp and how/why this could have happened would be the guy who offered a warranty to me for it and by extension offered it to you as well. If anyone can get to the bottom of this its him and if you have any desire to keep the amp he would be more than willing to repair it I'm sure. And I'll gladly cover the postage to him. Beyond that I really don't know what more I can do for you. You have my sympathies and compassion and I will do the best I possibly can to make this right!

Scott, this is a decidedly different tone than you had when I spoke to you, you know full well why I hung up. I've contacted Dan055 and we'll see what happens. I'm not too happy with you or your initial response.
 
I was merely empathizing with you on the phone and was really in a state of "shock" when you told me this. I was having a hard time comprehending how something like this could have possibly happened. Sorry if I didn't come off this way on the phone, but I could tell how upset you were and really was at a loss for words. I was not yelling at you or being accusational at all, at least I didn't think so??? Just wasn't sure what I could do for you.

I wouldn't be happy either in this position, but I swear if I had any inkling that anything like this could have happened I would have already sent it out to him to look at long before offering it to anyone. One of the tubes was marginal and they were unmatched and I went out and bought a complete matched quad and its ran for hours and hours straight with NO issues whatsoever.. Right up until we made the trade.

I thought this amp would be something you'd cherish literally for a lifetime. It performed amazing when I had it and this really saddens me. Especially how amazing it sounded. :( I hope Dan has a magic wand to make this all right for us. If it can be repaired you'll be happy in the end, its a special sounding/performing amp.
 
So Chris, lemme get this straight.. You have my $100, my Heathkit amp, AND you get your Jolida back!? Clever move making sure the Jolida would get here a day after you receive the Heathkit. I offered to send it back to you at my expense if you agreed to send the amp out to Dan for inspection and didn't want to mess with it. And I would have covered the shipping costs less the $100 given to you.

I will forward the PMs from Dan who built this entire amp. Most likely one of the RCAs was grounding out on the chassis and there is no way current could have gone through the RCAs if a cap failed like that considering the caps that he used, especially if the cables were properly installed and not grounding out on the chassis. Those RCAs look rather larger and smaller ends are required for this amp, and if you recall I offered to send you the ones that worked for me at no charge, but you said you had plenty.

How is this at all my fault in anyway? It was fully serviced.. and I ran it for 2 months solid without issue.

I genuinely feel bad about how all of this transpired but I don't see how this is my fault in any way shape or form. I did absolutely nothing to cause any of this and there in NO negligence on my behalf.

Please send the amp back to Dan to have him look at it and refund me the $100 less the shipping it will cost to get it out to him. If this amp is repairable I plan on just offering it on AK as a donation and be done with this entire nightmare. Please take that into consideration. And consider that I gave my hard earned money to donate to a worthy charity and that Dan offered this amp to serve a worthy cause. There are sometimes more important things than money in this world.
 
Scott, the rca ground is the chassis ground on that amp. The cables I use could not have caused what happened. I called fedex to redirect the preamp after I got such a negative response from you on the phone.

I will send the heathkit and remaining funds back to you or Dan if he ever gets back to me once I get the preamp back. As far as casting aspersion on my shipping timing, I was advised by a site moderator to not ship at all until I received the amp due to past experiences with you, same mod also advised that I reverse the shipping on the preamp.
 
And the response on the phone was one of pure disbelief and I really was at a loss of how to react. I never was accusational or anything I just didn't know what I could do for you at the time. I can understand why you reacted the way you did.
 
If I had to guess, the polarity of the AC plug was 'reversed' in the socket when you plugged it into the wall, and the "death cap" had failed (or was, perhaps, not present) - and the chassis and all the grounds had 120 VAC on 'em.

Just a guess.


This amp doesn't use one.
 
received it today, looked fine. Installed the tubes, hooked up speaker wires and connected it to my blu ray and it smoked both the blu ray and the tv. HDMI cable was welded to tv. disconnected rca cable from blu ray and it scorched when it hit my cast iron radiator. Now amp won't power on at all, and I have a dead tv and blu ray. Called scott, he insisted it was impossible and didn't want anything to do with it. Told me to contact the person he bought the amp from.

trade thread here... http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=574942

pics of smoked cables.

What's the make and model of your TV and Blue Ray?
Do either of them power up at all?
 
What's the make and model of your TV and Blue Ray?
Do either of them power up at all?

no, they're smoked. The hdmi jack on the tv welded itself to the cable. Keep in mind the scorch marks on the rca cables occured when I disconnected them from the blu ray and they grazed my cast iron radiators. That's when the arcing occurred.
 
I'm wondering if something on the unit got bumped loose during shipping causing this short. You're lucky you weren't injured when the arcing occurred.
 
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