dudewheresmybass Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 Hi there. I have a favour to ask of the bh250 owners out there. My amp has blown, and the issue has been traced to resistor R140. Apparently it's "part of a potential divider where the positive dc power comes into the amp board from the power supply board" - I hope that means more to someone than it does to me LOL Is there anyone that knows what value it is, or could open up the case to take a pic for me to send to my amp repair chap to help him out? I'm coming up with nothing on google regarding schematics or values. Thank you in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassmanPaul Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 Like as not the blown resistor is not the only problem the amp has. Also the circuit board will be easy to damage for the average tinkerer. It requires specialized tools which you won't own. My advice would be to dispatch the amp to the authorized service provider and get them to repair it. You may be surprised at how cheap it may be. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agedhorse Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 When a resistor fails, it's almost always collateral damage from other failures that are not visually obvious. Replacing the resistor just burns up another perfectly good part and ultimately causes additional damage. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBunny Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 52 minutes ago, BassmanPaul said: Like as not the blown resistor is not the only problem the amp has. Also the circuit board will be easy to damage for the average tinkerer. It requires specialized tools which you won't own. My advice would be to dispatch the amp to the authorized service provider and get them to repair it. You may be surprised at how cheap it may be. We'll the authorised service agent for TC is Real Electronics in Sheffield and they aren't cheap. They don't repair to component level, just board swappers. There are a number of posts on here about Mark Bass repairs as they are also the agents for them. Generally it's not economic. Here are their charges from a few years ago when I binned my MB amp as the repair was more than the amp was worth. £35 to diagnose the problem, which you get back if you go ahead. £69 fixed labour, £18 courier fee to send it back + parts all +VAT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassmanPaul Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 (edited) Personally I don't see those charges as too excessive. Folk do have the right to make a living plus profit. Not to mention the cost of some very specialized and expensive equipment. Edited March 12, 2022 by BassmanPaul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBunny Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 12 minutes ago, BassmanPaul said: Personally I don't see those charges as too excessive. Folk do have the right to make a living plus profit. Not to mention the cost of some very specialized and expensive equipment. True, but it's the cost of the parts or in my case replacement board at £130 that made it uneconomical. £130+69+18 + VAT plus the cost of getting it to them and that's not far short of £300. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agedhorse Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 By my math, it’s about 250 not 300. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chyc Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 12 minutes ago, agedhorse said: By my math, it’s about 250 not 300. ( 130 + 69 + 18 ) * 120% for VAT + postage ( let's copy £18 excl that Real Electronics charges) = £282.0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 Mine went too, I just built a new preamp and bought a class D amplifier board from Amazon and used the same box. Sure, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it sounds good and only ever gets used for home practice anyway. Cost 1/5th of the repair quote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Downunderwonder Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 Tbf I don't know that American authorities have quite got the hang of revenue generation from sales tax anywhere near like the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 22 hours ago, BassBunny said: We'll the authorised service agent for TC is Real Electronics in Sheffield and they aren't cheap. They don't repair to component level, just board swappers. There are a number of posts on here about Mark Bass repairs as they are also the agents for them. Generally it's not economic. Here are their charges from a few years ago when I binned my MB amp as the repair was more than the amp was worth. £35 to diagnose the problem, which you get back if you go ahead. £69 fixed labour, £18 courier fee to send it back + parts all +VAT. 19 hours ago, BassmanPaul said: Personally I don't see those charges as too excessive. Folk do have the right to make a living plus profit. Not to mention the cost of some very specialized and expensive equipment. There re two problems here. not only are they the authorised agent but they are the only agent , a monopoly. Certainly for Mark Bass they do not provide circuit diagrams or spares It seems that TC are offering the same deal. I would imagine that Real are paying licensing fees to be the 'authorised' repairers and the manufacturers save the entire cost of support or their products in the UK. You can't go elsewhere because the normal repair shops won't really touch something for which specialist parts are not available. As stated the only real repair is board replacement, there isn't a lot of testing and diagnosis going on and there have been reports on BC of gear being returned with the original fault still there. An hour's labour charge to 'diagnose' isn't of itself unreasonable as just opening up the amp and closing it can take a lot of that time. Since just about everything is on the board and they don't repair boards the diagnosis is inevitable. The board replacement is £280 and the amp costs £199 so you are effectively being charged £35 to be told to buy a new amp. You can pay an additional £18 to have the amp returned but at that point it is just junk. The manufacturer can claim an after sales service is provided whilst accepting no responsibility. Real have a monopoly and are under zero pressure to provide a better service. The second effect is environmental. If cost effective repairs aren't possible then every am becomes disposable. To an extent that is our fault, we all buy by price and modern amps are cheap and by and large super-reliable. Mass producing with specialist chips and surface mount components certainly cuts costs. Ironically Music Tribe who own TC do provide cheap spares for at least some of their own Behringer gear. I bought a replacement amp board for one of their active speakers for around £70. When it came it was already mounted on it's heatsink and the repair took under an hour. Behringer may well have made 100% on the 'board' but I repaired a £200 speaker for £70 so I was happy. It can be done. It would be interesting to see how this is managed in the States where I think monopolies are not viewed as lightly as here. The EU are legislating to make manufactured goods economically repairable on environmental grounds. It'll be interesting to see what the UK govt. does. Not much on recent performance I expect. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agedhorse Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 I still get £261 with the courier fee, does VAT actually apply to the cost of shipping? I thought it was just materials and labor at the retail level. Generally, repair labor is excluded from our sales tax, only the materials are taxed. Slowly we are creeping up to European levels, some areas of our country are now over 10%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Downunderwonder Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 1 hour ago, agedhorse said: I still get £261 with the courier fee, does VAT actually apply to the cost of shipping? I thought it was just materials and labor at the retail level. Generally, repair labor is excluded from our sales tax, only the materials are taxed. Slowly we are creeping up to European levels, some areas of our country are now over 10%. The shipping could be quoted either way. Ordinarily the shipping cost would be quoted pre tax to make it simple to write X + Y + Z + shipping +VAT And thus account for the sale the same way, rather than messing around zero rating the VAT on the shipping charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudewheresmybass Posted March 14, 2022 Author Share Posted March 14, 2022 (edited) Just as an FYI here- The amp has been repaired as it was just the resistor that had blown. The resistor in question cost a total of approx 3p It works perfectly now, and is now in very regular service. Edited March 14, 2022 by dudewheresmybass 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBunny Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 3 hours ago, dudewheresmybass said: Just as an FYI here- The amp has been repaired as it was just the resistor that had blown. The resistor in question cost a total of approx 3p It works perfectly now, and is now in very regular service. Result. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassmanPaul Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 6 hours ago, dudewheresmybass said: Just as an FYI here- The amp has been repaired as it was just the resistor that had blown. The resistor in question cost a total of approx 3p It works perfectly now, and is now in very regular service. I'm glad you got it sorted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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