Aesthetix Io strange behaviour

Csng1, I assume you mean, one should only use identical parts? Do you have your Io for repair at the factory, or locally?

For some reason, mine has failed once more, with exactly the same symptoms. After bringing it back from the repair shop, it worked OK for some days, then I turned it off for a day, and then, starting it, same thing as before. Sadness reigns. Strange how one can miss a piece of gear so much, I guess this says a lot about the Io. I can play a bit of digital, using the volume on the Squeezebox Touch through a Stello mk2 Dac connected directly to the amps - quite nice, but not the same. Not at all (sigh).

Obviously something is causing these failures that was not fixed, and I guess I have to try the repair shop once more. Jim White promised to get back to me on email, but that was some weeks ago - no further info.

(The digital comment may have been a bit unfair to the Stello DAC, which I bought recently. In my analog chain, the pickup alone costs quite a lot more than the DAC. However, even using the same source (digital), I prefer the DAC into the Io, rather than direct into the amps. Even if there is a bit of plus and minus on both sides, in that comparison. Direct is perhaps more precise and, well, direct. Through the Io it is a bit less immediate perhaps, a bit less precise. On the other hand the music is much more fleshed out, embodied, "humanized"; I don't quite know how to describe it, but it sure does create a more convincing illusion of live sound. Which is the goal of this hobby, for me. But as I said, the Stello is also fine).

I am no engineer, but I guess the possibilities are: 1 the new regulator was not quite the same, not correct, and broke down, 2 the tube went bad (seems unlikely), 3 something else / upstream. I wonder if this kind of failure should have made one of the fuses go, instead of components. My Io has four fuses, two inside the power supply box, 2 at the back of the box (none in the Io itself). After getting it back from repair, I changed the fuses to weaker amperage, thinking that it is better that a fuse blows. I tried changing the two at the back to 1 amp fuses, but the "B+" blew and I had to go back to 5 amp. The "Heater" fuse worked ok. I then changed the two internal fuses F1 and F2 to 1 amp (I had 5 amp in one channel - too much). It may be that this is still too much (could be 0.5A or 0.25A since we have 240 volts here in Norway). Both lights turn on, at the front, so I assume none of the fuses are gone. And it seems very unlikely that a fuse, by itself, is cause of the failure. I have also read (at this site) that Aesthetix later dropped the two internal fuses since they often blew and did not protect the components anyway.

Another remote possibility may be that the active shield power cable (Synergistic Research A/C Master Coupler X2) that I bought recently is not good for the Io, it gives some static effect, or whatever (even if it is plugged into the same course as the preamp). I know that the Io is very sensitive to the mains, and the problems have come after I changed from a Kimber power cable (standard type, no active shielding). Yet I have not seen users reporting problems with active shielding, so I consider this quite unlikely.

The mystery deepens. I brought it back to the repair shop some days ago, and got an email from the professional involved, today. He writes that they have the Io up and running once more, but he wants to keep it for further testing. He writes (my translation from Norwegian);
"I changed the fuses that had gone from 'fast' to 'slow' 0.5A. Did not find the BUSS [US] fuses that I thought I had, but found the documentation for those fuses and as far as I can see now it should be 'slow' 0.375A. For now, everything looks fine. Has been left on, for testing, yesterday and so far today. Want to test some more for checking power voltages esp around the regulator."