agedhorse

Yes, All of ICEPower’s modules going back almost 20 years by now are still in current production and available to authorized manufacturer’s service centers.

There are many parts that are no longer available as the manufacturers of such parts discontinue them and there are no other sources. The most common parts are pots, jacks, switches, relays, and some opto-electronics, plus many lateral and vertical MOSFETs (though for some applications there are still some reasonable substitutes but they don;t work in all applications). Beware of counterfeits however, especially semiconductors. The world is awash with counterfeit MOSFETs, most aren't even the type that they are labeled (lateral in particular). From a company that supports their products, replacement class D modules are often reasonably priced. Not are they generally impractical to repair, the act of repairing them invalidates their safety certifications because they are a specially certified part (reinforced insulation between the primary and everything else) and must be tested for compliance after the repair. The European manufacturers of these modules are quite clear about this and won't even repair them at the factory. It's a bit like rewinding a transformer, if you can't certify it (properly), it can't legally be used in a repair for the same reason. It's treated as an integrated component. The EU is more strict about this than most regions.

Or, they had inventory from orders placed months ago and you were lucky to find them.

I spend some time each day tracking down parts and production schedules that have been upended by one thing or another related to this matter. Just as a glimpse into the manufacturing world, here's the availability of SMT resistors from a large supplier of parts for all industries (including ours): https://www.trustedparts.com/en/search/tt-electronics/M55342K12B I have had nightmares less scary than this.

Yes, it’s a very real thing.

No, a class D amp can reproduce DC if the designer wished it to, just like a class AB amp. In fact a class D amp generally has higher performance at low frequencies. The HPF has to be designed into the amp, the same as for any amp.

This is basically what has driven most companies down this path, it the consumer won't buy it because of price alone, then price will become the overwhelming driving factor.

Everybody shares responsibility, and for many, many reasons.

Everywhere in the world is having these problems. For slightly different reasons, but no region is unaffected.

The problems are global, not related to our side of the pond. We have European manufacturers that can not build components for exactly the same reasons we can’t… unavailability of raw materials and component parts. This has nothing to do with our side of the pond. Transformer vendors (of line frequency parts) today can’t get materials in production quantities without long delays. Lamination steel of all grades, bobbins, terminals, insulation tubing/tapes and TCOs are all impacted. This has nothing to do with our side of the pond. Transformers “wound” in back street shops are not an option for real manufacturers because for the EU market, they MUST be designed, certified, constructed and tested to YOUR EU safety standards. The factories must also be inspected at least quarterly by a nationally recognized test lab inspector.This has nothing to do with our side of the pond. Currently that would be IEC 62368, it’s a European standard, and it’s not optional. All power and output transformers must comply. The shop must be registered as an approved manufacturer by the NRTL that’s responsible for certification of compliance. This has nothing to do with our side of the pond Test labs globally, including in the EU, are backed up with extremely long lead times. This has nothing to do with our side of the pond. Regarding tubes/valves, there were as many western European manufacturers of tubes as US manufacturers back in the day. Now, there are no US or western European manufacturers, they are all built in eastern Europe and Asia. This has nothing to do with our side of the pond. The global shipping industry is heavily impacted. We are experiencing very long delays and prices that are ~10x higher than before. This includes products originating from the EU as well. We use a lot of European components and materials, we struggle with delays due to our European partners inability to source materials, shortage of labor and shipping. This has nothing to do with our side of the pond. This is a global issue, it’s almost certain that delays and shortages will continue for maybe even a year or two at this point as manufacturers work through their back orders. This has nothing to do with our side of the pond.

The commonality of parts is not just a recent thing, it goes back 50+ years to the use of common tubes/valves, semiconductors, pots/switches, knobs, etc. There are commonly accepted architecture based on years and years of development and then refinement, architectures that didn't work out get dropped by the wayside and the successful architectures live on. Every designer has their own take on several basic power amp architectures for example. Every day, and sometimes in the middle of the night in a bad dream that seemingly won't end.

Yeah, too bad it took them forty-something years (and tens of thousands of amps) to "fail". Plenty of pro bassists used them as well.

The protective earth ground is never lifted from the chassis, it’s not allowed (via a switch or otherwise) under any code for a class 1 safety certified device in any region that I am aware of. Lifting circuit ground is different, though generally goes hand in hand with transformer isolation on unbalanced applications (including ABY boxes).

Erm, no it’s not. A DI takes an unbalanced ground referenced signal and balances it. It also floats the signal from ground. It requires a TS input cable, not TRS. that amp has the balancing circuitry built into the amp, so all that’s needed is a TRS to XLR male adapter cable.

This is what you want, the terminations are standard.