Electric Shocks from brand new cambridge 340a

[admin_exported]

Hi there,

Just wondering if i could have some advice please

What it is, wenesday this week i purchased my new 340a cambridge amp, i hadnt had chance to have a real good listen with it hooked up to the rest of my rig until yesterday early afternoon,
I have a spare bedroom where i do my djing and general listning and never use a remote with any of my gear because everything is set at a station to hand, so everything gets switched manually,

Anyway, seen as though i had my new amp i thought it was as good of an excuse as any to dig through my old box of cassettes, so there i am sat in front of my system twidling with the knobs etc lol and all of a sudden i get a mega shock from somewhere on the system,

I thought wooow whats going off here lol as you would, and put the shock down to my wiring, i checked the wiring, everything semt ok , no shocks from anywhere on the system, so i proceded with my afternoons listning. 15 minutes later same thing happened again and continued to happen intermitantly in 10 minute stages until i get a mega mega shock lol which scared the life out of me i checked the wiring again, then disconncted everything and did an individual seperate fault test only to find that the metal plate on the front of the Cambridge was the culprit for the jolts.

Now, ive phoned the stockist i bought the amp from and they are more than happy to swap the 340a for another, but to be honest the cambridge has now doused the respect i had for the brand, as i see it like a new car having a dangerous fault from basically day one, not a very good way to start your beautiful friendship together..

Im wondering if anyone could reccomend another amp that would be a good alternative for me and my bedroom set up, i had more of a budget to spend on an amp than i actually spent on the 340a but thought that perhaps more watts etc would be a waste in the bedroom scenario.

Any thoughts, my budget is up to around £250

Thankyou and sorry for any bad spelling

 

[Andrew Everard]

Cna see your point, but even the very best manufacturers have the occasional lemon slip through the net, and it seems that the jolts you're getting from the amp, while startling, aren't exactly dangerous. Not making excuses, just suggesting that, provided you like ths sound of the amp, you might want to try another sample - I think it's a one-off problem you have here, not at all a design fault.

If you wanted to change amps, then the obvious contender would be the Marantz PM4001OSE, which thr same retailer is selling for just £20 more.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Ouch!

I can assure you we've (thankfully) had no such problems with the CA kit we've had through our test rooms, but I can understand how it'd put you off...

The easy answer with your budget is our Award winner at this price level, the excellent Rotel RA-04 (list price £250). It's a superbly balanced amp, with an open sound that suits all genres at all listening levels. The only possible negative against it at the price is that is doesn't come with a remote control - but that doesn't seem to be a factor in your system anyway.

Have an audition of it - and check you're happy with both the sound and electrics of whichever specific amp you eventually buy before you leave the shop!

 

[Andrew Everard]

Morning boss - yup, the RA-04 is another very viable alternative, agreed.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Morning Andrew!

 

[Anonymous]

If you charge yourself up with static (from carpets, jumpers, rubbing balloons on head etc), you will discharge rather painfully as soon as you touch a metal thing that is connected to earth. Your amp will constitute a metal thing that is connected to earth, so you don't need to worry.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yes, could just be down to the way the amp is earthed and thus it's you that's shocking it, not vice versa

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="bloney"]If you charge yourself up with static (from carpets, jumpers, rubbing balloons on head etc), you will discharge rather painfully as soon as you touch a metal thing that is connected to earth. Your amp will constitute a metal thing that is connected to earth, so you don't need to worry.[/quote]

That' s exactly what I think, I get the same from one on my pcs, I used to get it from a Rega tonearm,it was just static build up.

 

[Andrew Everard]

I got it from a Waitrose trolley today - made the weekly shop a total pain. Not a facetious remark, just happened...

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Andrew Everard"]

I got it from a Waitrose trolley today - made the weekly shop a total pain. Not a facetious remark, just happened...

[/quote]
I read that as:

I got it from a Waitrose toilet today - made the weekly shop a total pain. Not a faecetious remark, just happened...

Should I be worried?

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Andrew Everard"]
Cna see your point, but even the very best manufacturers have the occasional lemon slip through the net, and it seems that the jolts you're getting from the amp, while startling, aren't exactly dangerous. Not making excuses, just suggesting that, provided you like ths sound of the amp, you might want to try another sample - I think it's a one-off problem you have here, not at all a design fault.

If you wanted to change amps, then the obvious contender would be the Marantz PM4001OSE, which thr same retailer is selling for just £20 more.

[/quote]

Well, i took the amp back and got an exchange for the very same amp lol

thankyou for your help everyone

ps: clare is a total babe!!

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="marcymarc555"]ps: clare is a total babe!![/quote]

Hopefully, reading Clare's post didn't give you a shock!

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="ranjeetrain"][quote user="marcymarc555"]ps: clare is a total babe!![/quote]

Hopefully, reading Clare's post didn't give you a shock![/quote]

I think it was my post that shocked her lol