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rega mira: were they all this bad

sae-7125

sae-7125

Super Member
speaking from a longevity and manufacturing quality point of view, or lack there of.

owner complained of intermittent operation and eventually dropping out. not to mention the missing rca jack negative/ground. single sided for soldering, mostly, even though traces on both sides of the pcb.

judging by the thermal management or more importantly eventual thermal self destruction (no venting) plus the particular brand of capacitors (samwha) it would be surprising if this model didnt have issues. an unvented metal oven tends to cook temperature sensitive components like electrolytic caps (mid/low grade brand cap) with the greatest of ease.

i have not bumped into a schematic for the mira (version 1.0?) although some have said that 2000 and v3 have same output amp layout. has anyone noticed tech docs for this specific model? given the current easy diagnosis such info would be useful if after repairs there is something else causing issues. would be nice to know bias and dc offset numbers as well.

1-front.jpg make/model plus samwha. sorry no "full" face shot, my error.

2-pcb1.jpg 4 picture view of the full layout.

2-pcb2.jpg
2-pcb3.jpg

2-pcb4.jpg

3-jacks.jpg
solder joints so loose that...

4-solder.jpg
a 4 pack of jacks can be removed without ANY solder or heating equipment. a light pull and its out...

the 4 pack next to the new vacancy has one capable solder connection remaining and the pair at the other end of the rca jack array is similarly loose. the thin white sheet of slippery plastic between pcb and metal chassis seems problematic since the soldered side of a pcb can be quite sharp.

perhaps the simplicity of turn tables is where rega shines best, cant say i have ever owned anything from this particular brand. i may do a thermal "circuit" assessment, like with the recent luxman L-400, and see how many trouble spots are waiting to go boom.

thoughts and experiences anyone?
 
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a few hot spot areas on the amp/pre board would suggest a parts cooker, if people leave the mira sitting idle regardless of speaker connection. over 200f in a couple areas when mains are at 120v (standard us household voltage) it wont take long to heat up the interior environment. looks like people paid around 1k for this thing back in the late 90s.

t-1.jpeg
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t-2.jpeg
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t-3.jpeg
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t-4.jpeg

pcb version and date
5-ver.jpg
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6-ver.jpg

the rca jack solder joint sabotage looks to be manufacturer inflicted. little to no protrusion of the pcb interface connection which results in minimal contact area for solder to hold (single sided pcb, mostly).

7-pcb conn.jpg
not much surface area to handle mechanical flexing, like when a cable is connected/disconnected, even though there is a rear plate mounting screw. alloy of metal must not be sufficiently receptive to soldering, perhaps minimal flux used on the wave or low solder quality used.
 
There's a reason why despite living in the UK, and having the oportunity to listen, and buy a lot more British equipment than many here, most of my equipment is from Japan. There are a lot of 'renowned' audio companies from the UK that have a reputation (here at least) for poor QC, fit/finish, and poorly implemented thermal design etc, some of which might be permissable if we were talking about low budget goods ( I don't know many people who would pay £1000 for a plastic fascia like that).

I know someone who worked at a well known 'British' speaker company in the 90's, and he assures me that dispite the sticker saying 'made in Britain' at best they were only partially assembled here. The only two companies that I forgive their glaring flaws are DPA, and Musical Fidelity, because they can sound so damn good.
 
were these actually built in UK or is it one of those 'designed in UK, built by the cheapest clowns we could find' deals?
 
who knows if labeling laws truly existed back in the 90's, or if enforcement was ever a priority. one url sites some specifics but there are always exploitable loopholes like anything on the market.

https://www.packaginglaw.com/ask-an...-china-label-products-not-entirely-made-china

https://www.mgtrading.com/mark-product-made-china/

uk info:
https://www.gov.uk/product-labelling-the-law

https://assets.publishing.service.g...ory-origin-marking-research-phase-1-and-2.pdf

*the lower highlighted part of page 7 mentions "There is no existing requirement for COM in the EU or UK." (country of manufacture)

i have noticed some hifi companies do the "made in prc" no doubt to sidestep people who have mental reactions about the "c" word/origin.
 
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