Help - my new Classe CAM350s have blown up...

Things happen from time to time. Sometimes it isnt our fault. I had an $ 8,000 amp that blew up in my living room after using it for two years. Just because you pay alot doesnt mean things cant happen. Good Luck Hope you get this rectified soon. It sucks to be without the system

No problem *CFB*

Say Lorne Your post reads like classe picked up the entire tab on your repair is that correct? I too have a 301 also purchased at agon used. I about had a heart attack when I opened the box and saw that it was shipped across the country upside down. It seems to be working fine despite the rough ride. Say, can you tell me what the clicks and pops are during warm-up. I have not recieved the manual yet. (Canadian snail mail is the worse) Thanks

Good idea to check your supply voltage at that breaker's output when you reset it, & then again while driving a load (several hundred watts of floor lamp, vacuum cleaner motor, etc). The whole rig may have been drawing enough current to load down your supply voltage (through too small a conductor) to a marginal point, at which point anything could happen. Perhaps the still-working amp remained in its protection mode for quite awhile? They don't always reset immediately esp. if catastrophic conditions were encountered.

That's an excellent point Bob and often overlooked. Big amps require big power. Low voltage can cause an amp to oscillate, causing damage to output devices, blowing caps in the output section, etc... With the amount of draw that these two amps are capable of, especially when "standing on the throttle", a typical house wiring scheme could become a problem. It might not be severe enough to do damage to the amps, etc.. but you might not ever see the full potential of those components or the entire system until that problem is addressed. Those that have gone to large monoblocks, two big amps to bi-amp, etc... that haven't gotten the results that they think they should have may want to take this into consideration. Sean
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Glen, yes Classe picked up the tab and even paid shipping back to my dealer -- I just paid $92 CDN for shipping to them -- that's it. The "clicking" you here is just the protection and warmup circuts doing their normal power-on routines. Come to think of it, my 301 did trip the breakers on my Audioprism Power II and this is with dedicated circuts. I think I'll go with a passive device (Hydra) since this thing sucks juice faster them my SUV sucks gas.

And Kelly, I'm stealing your "brain fart" line -- best one I've heard in a while and certainly explains my middle age memory. --Lorne