Aesthetix Io Users Group

[audioquest4life]

Reading stories about persistent maintenance problems with tube gear makes my blood boil. There is simply no reason for properly designed tube equipment to have failures like those reported in this thread. A phono preamp should be just as reliable as a solid state unit and it should require no maintenance other than occasional tube replacement every several years. Furthermore, in the rare instance where something does go wrong, it should be easily repairable. I.e. no solid state garbage that becomes obsolete after five years.

My all-tube phono preamp is my own design and it has been problem-free for over 15 years. It also happens to sound great. Of course, you can’t buy my unit but you can buy a very similar commercial offering—-the EMIA phono stage called the LR Phono Corrector.

The electrical gremlin situation that you speak of for this particular unit is not typical of many other Io owners. I have had my unit for 20 years without any problems. There are others in the forum with the same phono stage that have also have owned their units for many years without issues too. A forum is really not a full representation, only a partial representation, of other owners who own Io equipment. Therefore, it is not an accurate assumption about failure rates.

I do agree that equipment should last. My Soundcraftsman, Carver, DBX, and SAE equipment form my younger audio years lasted forever and made future owners happy. Equipment can be made to last a long time so long as it is built to a standard. The fact that you built your own tube equipment meant that you could take the time to ensure longevity through precise quality control and sourcing internal components that are high quality and have reliable and extended performance over a longer period of time than a normal mass produced device.

Many older U.S. made mainstream audio equipment in the late 70s and early 80s were built to MILSPEC (military specifications) standard for quality and longevity. The type of equipment that is made to this standard or absolute state of art should last a long time before MTBF (mean time before failure ). Every once in a while you get a bad apple. If 2000 Io’s were built and only 10 failed over a 2 year period, this would only be a .5 failure rate over a two year period. That is not too bad.

Do you have any technical specifications of your product? Any reviews?

 

[Lagonda]

More than a few with repeating problems, just in this forum alone and always "almost new" units for sale in the used marketplace. We have members from Norway, Sweden, England, Italy, Denmark, Germany and Hong Kong with repeating serious problems on Io's, most end up giving up and selling the units, so no it is not just a machine with electric gremlins i own, there are some problems in the design or parts in these units.

 

[thekong]

Don't do it ! It is better not to know !

I certainly will not pay full price for it, but sometime I can get really good deals! If it can fully replace the Io, it maybe worth it

 

[oldvinyl]

Reading this thread, it seems to me most, if not all, of the Io having problems are with 220/230V, while users with 110V units not having much trouble! I can’t help but wonder whether this is due to the different power transformers!

The power supply would have the exact same transformer for 110 and 220 operation. The AC just connects to a different set of windings in the transformer. That's how transformers are meant to work. It is also why the user would specify 110 or 220 operation so that the manufacturer can set it up. The fuses also change for the different voltages.

 

[oldvinyl]

I blame the construction of the Io, it has vaccinated me against future tube gear purchases and american class A products in general, running hot is just not durable in the long run, same problem with Krell.

My Io does not run "hot". There is heat generated from running it. And those vacuum tubes do have "heaters". Tubes are meant to be used with adequate ventilation. Look at the design of the chassis - it is designed for convection cooling. Cool air comes in through the sides and rises up out of the top. If it is used in an environment that is hot or air flow is blocked, then of course there would not be adequate cooling.
When I lived in a more southern latitude than my current residence, I used pancake style fans to cool the power supplies. In my current house, I do not need the fans. Also, when I got an HRS stand, I checked that the rise between shelves met Aesthetix recommended clearance for ventilation; and it did.
If your Io is running hot, you may want to check the ventilation and clearances around the chassis.

 

[oldvinyl]

The electrical gremlin situation that you speak of for this particular unit is not typical of many other Io owners. I have had my unit for 20 years without any problems. There are others in the forum with the same phono stage that have also have owned their units for many years without issues too.

Exactly!
I have had my Io for 26 years. It had one voltage regulator (sold state) fail and it had a pin break out of one of the IEC power inlets. Aesthetix had never seen the IEC failure before. The voltage regulator failure was a plain 'ole basic semiconductor failure.

The Io is a solid design.

 

[thekong]

More than a few with repeating problems, just in this forum alone and always "almost new" units for sale in the used marketplace. We have members from Norway, Sweden, England, Italy, Denmark, Germany and Hong Kong with repeating serious problems on Io's, most end up giving up and selling the units, so no it is not just a machine with electric gremlins i own, there are some problems in the design or parts in these units.

I am no engineer, but my repair guy told me the output voltage after the transformers were as high as around 870V and 915V (quite a difference by itself) respectively in my two power supplies. According to him, that is very close to the limits of some of the parts. That’s why I am trying to bring the input voltage down to 200V to hopefully minimise the potential problems!

 

[thekong]

The power supply would have the exact same transformer for 110 and 220 operation. The AC just connects to a different set of windings in the transformer. That's how transformers are meant to work. It is also why the user would specify 110 or 220 operation so that the manufacturer can set it up. The fuses also change for the different voltages.

Again, I am no engineer, but that’s not what I was told! Years ago I wanted to buy a second hand unit from the US, and I asked Aesthetix whether they could convert it to 220V operation by simply changing the taps, and they replied that the transformers had to be changed, so quite expensive for the conversion!

 

[oldvinyl]

I am no engineer, but my repair guy told me the output voltage after the transformers were as high as around 870V and 915V (quite a difference by itself) respectively in my two power supplies. According to him, that is very close to the limits of some of the parts. That’s why I am trying to bring the input voltage down to 200V to hopefully minimise the potential problems!

But the question is - what was the input voltage? The same for both power supplies?

Hexfred and other rectifiers often come rated for 600V or 1200V operation. Obviously, the 600V would not work in this application, but the 1200V device far exceeds the 915V.

 

[thekong]

But the question is - what was the input voltage? The same for both power supplies?

Hexfred and other rectifiers often come rated for 600V or 1200V operation. Obviously, the 600V would not work in this application, but the 1200V device far exceeds the 915V.

Yes, same input voltage out of the wall, pretty stable at around 220V in Hong Kong !

 

[oldvinyl]

I am no engineer, but my repair guy told me the output voltage after the transformers were as high as around 870V and 915V (quite a difference by itself) respectively in my two power supplies. According to him, that is very close to the limits of some of the parts. That’s why I am trying to bring the input voltage down to 200V to hopefully minimise the potential problems!

That's a 5% difference, which in this type of power supply - it doesn't matter. The circuits after the step up and rectification do the step down and regulation. The precision comes in on the regulation for the output. Power supplies are designed to accept a varying input with a controlled output.

If your input AC is a stable 220V, then what is the concern?

 

[Lagonda]

The power supply would have the exact same transformer for 110 and 220 operation. The AC just connects to a different set of windings in the transformer. That's how transformers are meant to work. It is also why the user would specify 110 or 220 operation so that the manufacturer can set it up. The fuses also change for the different voltages.

If there are two different taps on the transformers ? There could be different transformers for different power regions, i will ask my repair guy tomorrow, i think they are different. My Martin Logans have different transformers for 120 V and 230 V operation, PS Audio regenerators have different transformers in different regions, so did my Nakamichi turntable.

 

[thekong]

That's a 5% difference, which in this type of power supply - it doesn't matter. The circuits after the step up and rectification do the step down and regulation. The precision comes in on the regulation for the output. Power supplies are designed to accept a varying input with a controlled output.

If your input AC is a stable 220V, then what is the concern?

The concern is smoke coming out from my unit, and this was not the first time, that’s why I was prepared to take photos

 

[oldvinyl]

If there are two different taps on the transformers ? There could be different transformers for different power regions, i will ask my repair guy tomorrow, i think they are different. My Martin Logans have different transformers for 120 V and 230 V operation, PS Audio regenerators have different transformers in different regions, so did my Nakamichi turntable.

Look back at some of the Mercury Magnetics photos in the thread. One of the transformers is clearly marked WLP-210-117.
My guess is that it is a 210 and 117 VAC transformer.

 

[Lagonda]

Again, I am no engineer, but that’s not what I was told! Years ago I wanted to buy a second hand unit from the US, and I asked Aesthetix whether they could convert it to 220V operation by simply changing the taps, and they replied that the transformers had to be changed, so quite expensive for the conversion!

I was told the same thing, the components also run close to max at 230 V and it does not take much of a spike to kill them, voltage at my house is consistently around 235 V. The many big capacitors also put stress on the system as they are not left with ways to discharge, as someone in this thread has pointed out previously. My old repair guy, the one that worked directly for the scandinavian importer and had problems getting proper diagrams from Aesthetix , told me "with that many component running close to max it is only a matter of time before something fails again, sell it !"

 

[oldvinyl]

The concern is smoke coming out from my unit, and this was not the first time, that’s why I was prepared to take photos

View attachment 143422View attachment 143422

Ok, but what is the root cause?

That could be from any number of issues. Modifications, tube failures, lightning (without surge protection).

Just stepping down the input AC voltage would not necessarily correct or address this.

 

[oldvinyl]

I was told the same thing, the components also run close to max at 230 V and it does not take much of a spike to kill them, voltage at my house is consistently around 235 V. The many big capacitors also put stress on the system as they are not left with ways to discarge, as someone in this thread has pointed out previously. My old repair guy, the one that worked directly for the scandinavian importer and had problems getting proper diagrams from Aesthetix , told me "with that many component running close to max it is only a matter of time before something fails again, sell it !"

Maybe they are longitude specific!

 

[Lagonda]

Look back at some of the Mercury Magnetics photos in the thread. One of the transformers is clearly marked WLP-210-117.
My guess is that it is a 210 and 117 VAC transformer.

Definitely different transformers for different regions. From my unit. The "210" is probably a type number.

 

[audioquest4life]

The concern is smoke coming out from my unit, and this was not the first time, that’s why I was prepared to take photos

View attachment 143422View attachment 143422

The smoke appears to be coming from the control unit and not the power supply. Did you figure out what happened? Does the unit have stock or other tubes? It looks great in black. How old is the unit?

 

[DasguteOhr]

The only thing that helps is to turn off the power to the device and remove the cover and take a photo of the problem. But I would guess that the actual problem lies in the power supply. Perhaps you can see burnt components, e.g. resistors or regulators.