Are you among the sound enthusiasts who love getting the most out of their sound systems? If that is the case, then perhaps you have an amplifier to amplify the sounds you get from your component systems. People use amplifiers either at home or in their cars. On the other hand, amplifiers are being used on stage for various purposes like for music bands for example. Now sound systems aren’t that affordable. So if and when you notice changes or poor performance from your amplifier, it may be best to know if your amplifier needs repair or not. Here, you’ll learn the common symptoms of amplifier failure so you’ll know if it already needs repair or not. At the same time, you’ll learn how you can prevent this from happening to your amplifier and avoid having your amplifiers repaired.
In the world of amplifiers, the most popular amplifier failures can be categorized into two. These two are the shorted output transistors and the second is the blown power supply transistors. Now there are different kinds of protection circuits built in your amplifiers. These protection circuit amplifiers are either thermal or over-current with the latter being used to protect the output transistors. The only problem here is that sometimes they fail to work causing you a shorted or blown transistor. However, what’s good about it is that even if it doesn’t work well enough, it will work to simply shut down the power supply so it doesn’t destroy the rest of the parts of the amplifier. In short, what it does is that it keeps your amplifier in a safe mode or simply blows the fuse so damage won’t spread. Most of the time the cause of this problem is the shorted output transistors.
On the other hand, power supply transistors fail when the fuse used is too large or when the power supply is not designed properly. You’ll know if this happens if you see black soot on your power supply transistors. This can be seen near the power transformer. Now note that if you are using an amplifier that has been used previously and repaired, then perhaps the soot doesn’t mean that your transistors have already failed. The soot could probably be from a previous amplifier failure. On the other hand, if there is a power supply transistor failure, smoke, flames, and soot is present. When this happens, the transistors will short internally. Even though you can’t see any visible damage, when you open up your amplifier, you will notice that the third leg to fuse has opened and a direct short is visible in the first and second terminals.
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