NAD 326BEE clipping to safe mode

[admin_exported]

Hi all

I am having problems with my NAD 326BEE amplifier. After a short time of being used it just switches to standby (power light goes from blue to red) for no apparent reason. It will start and work again if I switch it off and then back on, but it will always go to standby again after a short time of playing music.

I am not playing it particularly loud and I am not using the soft clipping setting.

My setup is the above amp, a NAD 315 CD player and Monitor Audio Bronze BX2 speakers with chord cables.

I have noticed that it gets very hot and I suspect that this is causing the protection circuitry to cut in but I have not been able to find a cause. I have checked all speaker connections and also tried with different cables. There is no shorting from stray wires. My speakers are 8 ohm, 100w which should be no problem for this amp.

Here is the bad news, I bought the amp privately when it was one month old, it is now 11 months old, but had very little use over that time.

I have asked for help using the NAD site and after going through the usual fault finding checks they advised me to contact Armour Home to send it for testing/repair. NAD advised me that it would not be done under warranty as I had not bought it from a NAD dealer and also because the initial warranty was not transferable !! Armour Home have quoted £85 plus parts plus VAT.

I was under the impression that all goods came with a one year manufacturers warranty, apparently not with NAD though.

So If anybody has any suggestions what might be the problem or how I could sort it out, I would be glad to hear from you.

Many thanks in advance

 

[Dougal1331]

Hi Chebsy,

Unfortunately, Armour's warranty arrangements are the same as anyone else's- only the original purchaser of the new unit is covered. As soon as the amp is passed on, it is second-hand and therefore not guaranteed.

Sounds to me like your problem is a faulty resistor causing too high a voltage to be supplied to the business-end and overheating the transistors. Less seriously, it could be faulty bias settings- which may be a simple twiddle of a variable resistor on the PCB, or require fixed components to be replaced.

Either way, this will almost certainly not be self-fixable. See if any of your local dealers have repair departments. They may be willing to look at your amp even though you didn't buy it from them. They may be cheaper than Armour, but then again they may not.

Unless you dispute the matter with the person you bought it from (i.e the fault was present at the time of sale, but not disclosed), there really is not much you can do but pay the money...

Jon

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your advice Jon, I was thinking the same thing with regards to taking it to a local dealer.

regards

John