What went bang, smelled of "I'm fried", yet left it in working order...???

you have the likely culprits. MOV, capacitor, possibly the safety cap.

So the next question is "why?", "what did it do?" and ho to replace. Obviously the repair is influenced by why a cap failed. There are cues for anyone who knows the design int he fact that its still working. Sometimes products are in parallel and one can go. Sometimes they are intended to filter out noise in certain places, and maybe a 2nd order impact on performance/sound. But they are all there for a reason.

Let’s establish one fact: electrolytics capacitors are not the world’s most reliable parts. They die early. They die without obvious reason. The one predictable failure mode is old age, but your products are far too new. I am offering recap on some series of stuff i designed 30 years ago - and the vast majority are still in service. 5 or 10 years old is nothing. By way of contrast, I just got shipment of high quality 100v parts all of which fail at around 20V. QED.

I’d really hve someone who knows the design at minimum diagnose the reason.

One more possibility: an insect. Insects can become conductors if the voltage is high enough they might go bang themselves or possible conduct change voltage levels or loads and make a capacitors go bang. Seen that!

G

@itsjustme thanks. I'm planning on calling my LAD salesman when he's back in the office to discuss. I looked inside the D'Agostino and no smell, no carbon, no swelling, etc. (just a little bit of dust that got through the top vents). The biggest problem is figuring out where it came from - based on the direction of the sound, it's either the D'Agostino or plasma TV. If the D'Agostino was light enough for me to pick up and throw in the back of my car, even without seeing anything or even sure if it was the culprit, I'd just do it and drop it off at my LAD... but, at 125 pounds, and an awkward carry because its front heavy, and having to go down a full flight of stairs, it will take some planning and arranging helpers. -cheers

if you can find the culprit (it ought to be visible) and can get a schematic, i will take a quick look and if i can figure it ouy, tell you my opinion.

I get it, i just know most people are flummoxed w/r/t the how and why - and by people i mean techs and even engineers that dont spend a coupe of hours learning the context ( and an hour of n engineers time is worth.....?)

Check the MOV?

@imhififan -thanks. Yes, I had figured that was the MOV and it looks just as shiny and new as in the pic you posted... So, it's even more baffling now that you confirmed that is the MOV. -cheers