Spectral repair service

[commonone69]

Hello once again. I am pondering the purchase of a DMA 100 amp and a DMC15 preamp. Both of these units seem to be in good shape but are still over 10 yrs old. I'm thinking second system long term and would like any advice concerning repairs/maintenance to be done at the factory. I own new Spectral Gear so am still within warranty and have no experience with their service dept. I'm also thinking that maintenance is probably cheaper than repair. Any thoughts?

 

[nirodha]

Hello once again. I am pondering the purchase of a DMA 100 amp and a DMC15 preamp. Both of these units seem to be in good shape but are still over 10 yrs old. I'm thinking second system long term and would like any advice concerning repairs/maintenance to be done at the factory. I own new Spectral Gear so am still within warranty and have no experience with their service dept. I'm also thinking that maintenance is probably cheaper than repair. Any thoughts?

Hi,
I always play on until a unit fails. In the case of Spectral, my favourite brand, I don't even know if they do "maintenance"? Ack is the Spectral specialist here, he might know.

 

[ack]

I would call the factory, I am only aware of periodic lubrication of the transport, no other maintenance.

 

[DHL]

For pre-amps and power amps the only electronic, non-moving part I can think of are the electrolytic filter capacitors. It also depends on how much older than 10 years the components are. Stuff built in the 80's or 90's should have those caps replaced with modern current capacitors. Just how bad they might be is difficult to determine, even by the factory, if they are not physically ruptured or spewing their guts out. Spectral used very high quality components, so even their 30 year old gear is not likely to have obvious physical damage. I recently re-capped all the Al electrolytics in my DMC-10, and none of the OEM caps showed any signs of physical distress. Internal operating parameters (such as ESR, tan delta, current leakage, operating capacitance, voltage breakdown, etc) are another matter, however. It is expected that older electrolytics will degrade over time.

Not sure if the factory will re-cap your amplifier, or if they do, how expensive it will be. There are a number of private techs who can do this for a reasonable cost. It is quite simple and low risk, providing the tech pays attention to the polarity and does not install any caps backwards.

 

[jhulton]

I would call the factory, I am only aware of periodic lubrication of the transport, no other maintenance.

Do you know what kind of driver they use to take to outer case off?
Jeff