Eden my nemesis

[stewblack]

Sigh. About three songs in, first proper gig with my new band and my Eden starts buzzing and farting and generally sounding like a piece of crap. I'll be honest these amps come highly recommended and this is the second one I've had play up on me. Made it through to the end somehow but seriously regretted giving away my old Behringer head to our keyboard player (he runs his keys through a small Roland and takes a line out to the NA450 which drives a Behringer 1X15) as his sound was wonderful and mine was pants.
The funny thing is I thought I was stepping up to a world of better quality. Previously I've used Trace Elliot and (briefly) Laney but I have to say to all those Behringer haters out there the stuff I've used has been 100% reliable.
Now I have to buy a new head. Harumph.
Rant over. Carry on.

[King Tut]

I got a Nemesis 2 x 10 combo that sounds fab but has gone on the blink. My son is an electronics engineer - he took it to bits and remarked that it's cheaply made - which is good cos it means he can fix it - fingers crossed!

The cabs are brilliant bang for the buck though!

[Meenie]

well thats me well and trully put off!

I've been umming and aaring whether to invest in a Markbass or Eden stack...looks like the Yellow has won!

[Merton]

I've owned 2 Nemesis heads and now have an Eden WT550 and have never had a problem with them. Solid as a rock

[pandathe3]

Meh, my Eden EN400 crapped out on me....not impressed really!

The repair guy said it was cheaply made too, faulty (or un-needed wiring) and also commented on the state of the soldering....

[King Tut]

[quote name='Meenie' post='953831' date='Sep 12 2010, 06:45 PM']well thats me well and trully put off!

I've been umming and aaring whether to invest in a Markbass or Eden stack...looks like the Yellow has won![/quote]

My son's mate bought a MB head from the states, ran it at UK voltage and fried it!

Needless to say my lad is looking at it. he says it's really well made - state of the art and bloody difficult to fix!!

[Meenie]

[quote name='King Tut' post='953906' date='Sep 12 2010, 07:55 PM']My son's mate bought a MB head from the states, ran it at UK voltage and fried it!

Needless to say my lad is looking at it. he says it's really well made - state of the art and bloody difficult to fix!![/quote]


there is a section on the MB site in the faq's section about using or rather not using the heads in other countries.

Surely if they are that state of the art some kind of power selection switch could be fitted round the back so you could use it in multiple countries no?

or am i just bieng a naive moron?

[King Tut]

[quote name='Meenie' post='955079' date='Sep 13 2010, 05:32 PM']there is a section on the MB site in the faq's section about using or rather not using the heads in other countries.

Surely if they are that state of the art some kind of power selection switch could be fitted round the back so you could use it in multiple countries no?

or am i just bieng a naive moron?[/quote]

Well it'd be lovely to have that option on any electrical equipment we use - but of course it would put up the cost. I can't speak for my my son's mates common sense (or lack of it) but I draw my own conclusions - an expensive mistake!

[Meenie]

i am an idealist, i blame my dad's smoking habits in the sixties!

[JTUK]

This is why I run the old amp that I do.

Good quality components and design even though my amp genius said he wouldn't design the pre-amp section like they did, but he means
a design preference rather than it being wrong.
I listen to what he says about certain makes and quite frankly, that puts me off quite a few makes.

But the modern way is not to repair, it is to replace, which makes a lot of things hard to source from anyone but the dealer and it makes it harder for the little guy to get in on the act, IMO.

[JTUK]

If this a pattern with certain amps that they don't last very long..it will affect the name of that marque, for sure.

I would have put Eden up there as one of the best a few years ago.
Get an old amp...one that was made in the U.S and was the DB's at the time.

[jhk]

all of my stuff are the USA versions and they have been great sounding and reliable.Not sure or confident about nemesis or other current `china made` examples .........................................................

Edited September 13, 2010 by jhk

[Merton]

[quote name='jhk' post='955283' date='Sep 13 2010, 07:49 PM']all of my stuff are the USA versions and they have been great sounding and reliable.Not sure or confident about nemesis or other current `china made` examples .........................................................[/quote]
I *think* that things started going downhill from about 2007 but I may be wrong.

[King Tut]

Looks like it's only a cap in the power supply that's failed on mine - not sure Eden can be blamed for a faulty component - and at least it's repairable! Fingers crossed!

[JTUK]

Are we making the distinction between Nemesis and Eden U.S ?

I have noticed that alot of guys here talk about a backup amp..which used to be pretty unheard of, not so long ago, IMO

[Ghost_Bass]

Seing that you're all talking about amp construction quality and durability i would like to ask if anyone knows anything about Genz Benz construction quality, the Shuttle series to be more acurate. I'm waiting for my new 9.0 to arrive in a couple of weeks and want to know if i have to keep my ears up for a possible amp problem. I don't fancy spending a lot of money in gear to end up with a faulty piece of s**t! Thats why i've already had 3 Trace Elliot amps (and i'll be keeping one) with absolutely no problem with any of them and all built with top components
Thanks

[bigevilman]

I'm currently running a WT800A through a pair of Eden 210's, and the sound of it is beautiful. Its punchy whilst retaining clarity. I often use a sansamp in my signal chain to give that bit of grit, as the Eden pre-amps are very clean.

In terms of reliability, the fan on kept on packing in after playing it quite hard. On the second time visiting my local engineer, he revealed to me that in the circuit board for the fan was this ceramic resistor. The weird thing though was that it was mounted solder side, not component side. It also didn't sit flush against the board, it was dangling. This meant if the amp got knocked slightly, it was weakening the solder points on the resistor. my engineer ended up araldite'in a wedge underneath so it sat flush against the bottom of the case, not giving it any room to move. Since then, I have not had a single problem!

In my opinion, the eden amps can be of extremely high quality, I just feel the QC may a bit slack on some days.

There we go...theres my 2 cents

[phil.i.stein]

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' post='955898' date='Sep 14 2010, 12:19 PM']

Seing that you're all talking about amp construction quality and durability i would like to ask if anyone knows anything about Genz Benz construction quality, the Shuttle series to be more acurate. I'm waiting for my new 9.0 to arrive in a couple of weeks and want to know if i have to keep my ears up for a possible amp problem. I don't fancy spending a lot of money in gear to end up with a faulty piece of s**t! Thats why i've already had 3 Trace Elliot amps (and i'll be keeping one) with absolutely no problem with any of them and all built with top components
Thanks[/quote]
hi,

i have had a shuttle 12.0. for a year or so now. it's amazing. no problems with any of the build quality.

i run it with a bf compact & t-midget, it sounds massive, i can't get it over 3 0'clock without the practice room humming like an earthquake, and the head isn't even getting warm

i once thought i had a cut-out problem, but it was me not pushing the power lead in securely enough, (doh !).

hopefully you will buy one from a dealer over here, in which case you'll get a warranty too, although probably unnecessary.

so fret not

[King Tut]

My Nemesis problem did turn out to be a faulty capacitor - now fixed

[stewblack]

Mine turned out to be an electrolytic capacitor on the power supply - also fixed!!

[King Tut]

[quote name='stewblack' post='961683' date='Sep 19 2010, 10:52 PM']Mine turned out to be an electrolytic capacitor on the power supply - also fixed!![/quote]

Was that one of the two massive black caps - if so was same as mine - symptoms were a massive drop in volume whenever I hit a loud note.

Edited September 19, 2010 by King Tut

[stewblack]

I'm quoting my tech guy's text message so not sure but it sounds similar. I had all sorts of horrible noises and distortions.

[stewblack]

Right, just back from picking up the amp. It was one of the two large capacitors had actually vibrated lose. The guy (who is the best in the West by far) said it was a design fault. They are vulnerable to deep bass vibration because of their size and placement. He has refixed and glued 'em up good and she sounds fine.

[King Tut]

Oh that's interesting - I'll maybe have to see about securing mine a little more securely!

[goaround]

I recently bought a Nemesis NA650 and although working on receipt the next time it was used it had a very distorted sound with little gain, took to an amp tech and although the fault did not recur he found the following which might help anyone else with similar problems;

3 possible dodgy things
- the 'Effects Loop' pre- and post-EQ jack sockets on the back have 'break jack' contacts in the signal path, and both seemed very scratchy (the 'pre-' one very much so), so I cleaned them up with lube/contact cleaner.
- while generally prodding around, (including flexing the circuit boards!) I disturbed a small connector (there are several!) and just for a moment the signal stopped altogether. It turned out that the connector takes the signal from the pre-amp circuit board to the back panel and to the aforementioned 'Effects loop' jack sockets. Having disturbed it once, I couldn't repeat the problem; Anyhow, I undid the connector and cleaned it before re-assembly.
Other things:-
- the screws holding one of the output power modules (there are 2 modules) to the baseplate were very loose - it wobbled! I tightened them, and checked everything else. There were quite a lot of loose screws!
- I see there is a relay on the pre-amp circuit board; these can give trouble when they get old; however, as the date code suggests this amp was manufactured in 2006, it's probably too soon to be a problem yet, but it might be one day.
- the rest of the control pots, switches and sockets seem ok - indeed, quality kit, but let down a bit by the cheapo jack sockets, I reckon.
It seems solid now...

It seems to working fine now and to his credit the BCer I bought it from covered the cost of the tech.