Any hope for fixing this amp??

mikejz84

Okay so I just picked up an SAE A-205 at a garage sale for $10. I got it home to test it, and it works fine out of one channel, but the other one is dead. I opened it up and quickly found out why. The board for that channel is covered with suet and one cap seems to of exploded with a metal rod coil expending from it. I know practically nothing about electronics repair, however I would like to know if it is worth trying to fix with amp. See pictures....

HBombToo

I would be most concerned with the integrity of the board. Looks badly burnt! The rails need to hold off alot lot of potential and if the boards dielectric properties have been seriously altered I would guess it wouldn't last long after replacing all the components.

HBomb

disneyjoe7

Well would give it a shot, but again being the time or money to fix all that fired I don't think it would be worth it in the long run. Only then if after cleaning the board with PC wash I may take into account the quality of the sound of that brand. I then may call it NFR short for Not Feasible to Repair.

That Amp owner push it after that channel died, was possibly smoking something with his friends really wondering what that smell was…. Only later when his parents came running to find that the HOUSE wasn’t on fire, they pulled it out placed it on the shelve in the garage for the last 6-9 years till you bit on it.

Some you win some you lose.

madmax

Possibly it looks worse than it is. Remember that the boards are probably identical. With one working and the other not it doesn't take a lot of know how to fix it. So something is blown up, look on the other board to see what it is. Need to follow the signal path but don't know what it should look like? Look on the good board. If the tracks on the board are shot? Use a little jumper wire. As a start take a little rubbing alcohol and brush it around the board to clean it off so you can see what you have.
madmax

disneyjoe7

Well I do agree that it may look worst then it is on that side of board. But remember also that for this much current to flow and fry some wiring shown in picture there is some output transistor damage on the other side not shown.

That is where it will add up.

mikejz84

I cleaned off the PCB a Bit, and it sppears to be only two small aeras where the PCB has lost intergity, it seems to of been burned half though. I do not see any damage on the other side, but it is clear that there has been heat damage, while cleaning several diodes and resistors simply well apart.

You are right, and it appears that the left channel is identical to the right channel.

I can't do much more now, I am away at college and doing all of this in my dorm room

mikejz84

P.s. Can anyone please send me the Audiogon bluebook on this amp.

disneyjoe7

Gee all that damage and the Fuse looks like it's intact.

organ

Have you tried calling around electronic repair shops

danger boy

take it in and get an guesstimate on repairs. it might be worth it in the long run.

madmax

Originally posted by mikejz84

I can't do much more now, I am away at college and doing all of this in my dorm room

Any Electrical engineering at your college? Maybe you can talk someone into looking at it for you? The parts will be fairly cheap. I would start by showing the transistors to someone and see if you can find them on the internet. The resistors and diodes shouldn't be any problem. A good power transistor may be only a few dollars and the smaller ones on the boards are less than a dollar. Resistors and diodes run from 0.10 to 0.65 each. Normally you can type in the part #'s in google and get some sources for them. Digikey and newark are good sources which take credit cards.

madmax

Wardsweb

FYI: This amp was made by the now defunct Marubi company in Japan for DAK, who bought SAE from Morris Kessler (founder) after he got tired of the business. Sold through the DAK catalog, this was DAK's attempt to reach a larger low end market. It has nothing to do with the original SAE company other than name. It is not even listed in the Audio Blue book under SAE.

From the looks of the board, that channel is a dead short. The amp actually caught fire. As the componant burned, it created all the soot and singed the surrounding wires. The entire channel will have to be rebuilt from the bias network on. Personally, I would not spend the time or money on this amp.

disneyjoe7

Agree.

Even if I was that Electronic Sudent 20 years ago. I say it's not worth the time or money...

mikejz84

Originally posted by Wardsweb
FYI: This amp was made by the now defunct Marubi company in Japan for DAK, who bought SAE from Morris Kessler (founder) after he got tired of the business. Sold through the DAK catalog, this was DAK's attempt to reach a larger low end market. It has nothing to do with the original SAE company other than name. It is not even listed in the Audio Blue book under SAE.

Amp is made in USA, I checked online and it turns out to be the last amp that SAE made before being bought.

Right Now It seems that I have four options:

1. Try and fix it--If I can do it for $30-40 in parts I would say its worth it
2. Use the case and some PSU parts and build a gainclone
3. Sell it for parts on ebay--I think I would get $50-$100
4. Use its one good channel and use it to drive a subwoofer. (Maybe combind that caps for more power).

Wardsweb

Originally posted by mikejz84
Amp is made in USA, I checked online and it turns out to be the last amp that SAE made before being bought.

Please let me know where you found this information, as I've always believed this series to have been made after the SAE TWO series which was when SAE was sold.

mikejz84

It says "Designed and manufactured by SAE. Los Angeles, USA" on the back of the amp:)

Wardsweb

DAK bought the full rights to SAE including the right to market it as SAE. As long as final assembly is done in the US, it can be marketed as built in the US. You will notice this amp used Tohsiba TO-220 output while all SAE amps used Sanken TO-3 metal case output transistors. Even the SAE TWO line was farmed out to Japan and several used STK Power Pak modules in place of descrete outputs.

If you would like third party clarification you may ask on the SAE Talk Forums:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SAE_Talk/

mikejz84

Also I found this: http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1163

HBombToo

Originally posted by mikejz84

2. Use the case and some PSU parts and build a gainclone

NOW where talken!!!

HBomb

Wardsweb

You will notice the sentence starts out with "I believe" and that he did indeed buy it from DAK. Furthering to substantiate my previous statement. Again, you may ask the gurus over at the SAE Forum, including James Bongiorno who was the chief design engineer at SAE. All equipment designed after he left was farmed out, as they had no other audio engineers on staff by then.

mikejz84

At this point I really don't care about where it was built. I am just trying to do a cost/benefit on what I should do with it. The one channel that does work, sounds quite good--Right now I am running an H/K AVR 525 receiver. I just am looking for some ideas as what the future of this amp holds in store.

Wardsweb

Given Tohisba 100 watt ouput transistors, the 2SC3281 and 2SA1302 are typcial complimentary pairs for this type of amp. They can be had at Digikey for about $2.50 each. You will still need to replace all the bias transistors, signal path resistors, caps and diodes. If you can do this yourself, you can get out of this for little money. I don't think it would be worth sending to a shop, as they would charge you $100-$150 for this kind of repair.

danger boy

well none of us can know the damage just from the pictures.. take the damn thing in and get an estimate on repairs.

last month i had a vintage Yamaha amp repaired.. and i was counting on repairs being in the $80 to $100 range. well, it was only 1/3 of that to fix.. total cost of my right channel out on the amp was ONLY $32.31 much less expensive than what everyone was saying it would cost to fix. take it to a reputable repair shop and find out for yourself how much it will cost. people in here can only guess on what it will run. none of us have crystal balls.. hee hee maybe brass ones. but not crystal

mikejz84

I put it up on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39783&item=3088592473

mikejz84

Sold it on ebay for $74 to a buyer from Italy. The shipping will in all odds be more then the amp!

Tour2ma

He probably got excited when he read your disclaimer...

THIS AMP'S RIGHT CHANNEL IS BLOW