Dayton Audio SA 1000 subwoofer amp - repair


Just posting this repair note to the AudiogoN archives - in case another owner has a similar issue.

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My Dayton Audio SA 1000 subwoofer amp (7 years old) suddenly developed a very loud & scary high-pitched tone – well above 60Hz. On the phone to Dayton support, the tech offered a very weird response. He said: ‘Congratulations. It’s now a boat anchor.’ I asked if it can be repaired. He replied almost amusingly, ‘We don’t repair boat anchors’. Huh? That was one of the strangest chats I’ve ever had with any tech support.

Before tossing it overboard, I did a Google search. It turns out that the capacitor in the C6 position on the power circuit board is known to go bad. (The boards are well labeled.) Capacitor replacement cost $2. DIY labor cost: $0.

The amp is working great again. It does a very good job of driving my subwoofers. The built-in EQ is really nice for integrating the subs with my main speakers. I do recommend it spite of their tech support. It helps if you’re comfortable with a soldering iron.

steakster

Good to know. One of mine was in protection mode just last night, the light was red instead of blue. Immediately turned it off  then back on and the light stayed blue.  It's only 3 years old. I think what he means by boat anchor is not worth repairing a $500 amp?  But a cheap cap is nothing to fix.  Has anyone else had problems with these?  

Good job!! 

We have become such a throw away society. Why bother fixing it..."just get a new one" is so much easier. Consumerism and planned obsolescence are part of the design. So many devices can easily be repaired but get conveniently dumped instead.

We used to have 'shop class' in High school. There should be a class that teaches the skill of trouble shooting and repair of these common problems around the house. Kids aren't taught this. Instead, they are taught to call a repairman to come do it for them as they sit there 'doom scrolling' on their I-phone.

Heck, I even remember, back in the day,  when we would do service on our own cars. Imagine that!

 

 

 

Love posts like this.  Nice work in seeing this repair through despite very unhelpful tech support through Parts Express.  FWIW I have found their tech support a crap shoot.  Sometimes excellent, other times not.

Thanks for sharing this easy fix.

One of my Daytons is acting up again, I  had it on the other night and 5 minutes later it was off!  Shut itself down. Before this the blue light was red when I just happened to look at it, as I stated above  in a previous post. I want this amp to work need it to work.  You think it could be that 2 dollar cap? Not much out there on repairing these, I couldn't find anything other than @steakster  post above. 

@brunomarcs My SA1000 didn’t shut down. It remained on with a high-pitched hum. Take the cover off and check for bad caps. Either leaking or swollen. Though the cap in the C6 position looked fine, replacing it fixed the problem. Good luck!