Another ULW-10 Amp bites the dust

[wesley63]

My Black-Friday 2007 ULW-10 that I got November 2008 has started making some very odd sounds. I called up AV123 and they said that they have had some issues with that batch. A new amp is on the way. I wonder what kind of failure rate they are having with these? How many people have one going strong right now? Mine was until yesterday.

Jim

[sbisheff]

Those ones seemed to much more random than the MFW's. There are a number of cases for them making "odd" sounds or dying or air leaks out the knobs, etc. I talked to Mark Joslin last week and the replacement amps are in house and they have been going out daily (I'm supposed to have mine shipped this week).

[Sparky14]

My ULW-10 MLS edition made it about 3 months before it started with the WABBA-WABBA-WABBA sounds.

Sent it back to av123, and Mark J said it was in final testing early last week. No return shipping notice yet, so I don't know if it survived final testing.

[Eric D]

My ULW-10 MLS edition made it about 3 months before it started with the WABBA-WABBA-WABBA sounds.

No help to give, sorry. But with your talk of "WABBA-WABBA-WABBA" and Skeeter's "obnoxious air shooting out the back" of his got me thinking. Any chance you-all can all record the noises and then make a symphony out of it?

Tryin' to keep it light, :angel:

[sbisheff]

No help to give, sorry. But with your talk of "WABBA-WABBA-WABBA" and Skeeter's "obnoxious air shooting out the back" of his got me thinking. Any chance you-all can all record the noises and then make a symphony out of it?

Tryin' to keep it light, :angel:

Hehe that'd be funny :assshake:

[bunnyma357]

No help to give, sorry. But with your talk of "WABBA-WABBA-WABBA" and Skeeter's "obnoxious air shooting out the back" of his got me thinking. Any chance you-all can all record the noises and then make a symphony out of it?

Tryin' to keep it light, :angel:

While not a symphony Mavinwow did make a film and a sequel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAcbzAzRKP8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHRwYC-v1MQ

Jim C

[wesley63]

Successful Fix!

My replacement amp arrived yesterday and I put it in last night. It was not very painful at all. AV123 included some weather-stripping type tape to help seal the amp better. The whole replacement process took about 40 minutes with my big, clumsy fingers.

I listened to music for about an hour last night and everything sounds great.

From the time that the old amp failed, until I was listening to music again was about one week. Good customer service from AV123.

Jim

[sbisheff]

My replacement amp arrived yesterday and I put it in last night. It was not very painful at all. AV123 included some weather-stripping type tape to help seal the amp better. The whole replacement process took about 40 minutes with my big, clumsy fingers.

I listened to music for about an hour last night and everything sounds great.

From the time that the old amp failed, until I was listening to music again was about one week. Good customer service from AV123.

Jim

I got my replacement amp yesterday too and it was a very easy replacement (IE no soldering just plug and play). I got the amp out easy and it's working great! I played some Jack Johnson and the opening scene of Star Wars EPII with the Silver Ship flying into the planet and the explosion at the landing pad. It worked fantastically :clapper: I can't wait to build my sonosub so I can get this little guy up to my room :eyebrows:

[dane]

My replacement amp arrived yesterday and I put it in last night. It was not very painful at all. AV123 included some weather-stripping type tape to help seal the amp better. The whole replacement process took about 40 minutes with my big, clumsy fingers.

I listened to music for about an hour last night and everything sounds great.

From the time that the old amp failed, until I was listening to music again was about one week. Good customer service from AV123.

Jim

I got my replacement amp yesterday too and it was a very easy replacement (IE no soldering just plug and play). I got the amp out easy and it's working great! I played some Jack Johnson and the opening scene of Star Wars EPII with the Silver Ship flying into the planet and the explosion at the landing pad. It worked fantastically :clapper: I can't wait to build my sonosub so I can get this little guy up to my room :eyebrows:

WOOT! Love the positive news, fellas... Sorry you had to go through the process in the first place (getting replacements), but it sounds like av123's "customer experience" is improving after all.. :rock:

:clapper:


..dane

[sbisheff]

WOOT! Love the positive news, fellas... Sorry you had to go through the process in the first place (getting replacements), but it sounds like av123's "customer experience" is improving after all.. :rock:

:clapper:


..dane

I was lucky, mine still worked it just leaked air out some of the knobs so you couldn't listen at high volumes b/c the sound of air escaping became too obnoxious, but it did still work. I'm glad things are getting worked out too :woo:

[Cujobob]

My original UFW-10 has been awaiting a new amp for two full years, I've sent several emails and am getting nowhere. I really hope the BF ULW I bought my sis doesn't break down. What's the fail rate on the amps that went in the ULWs. I wonder.

[sbisheff]

My original UFW-10 has been awaiting a new amp for two full years, I've sent several emails and am getting nowhere. I really hope the BF ULW I bought my sis doesn't break down. What's the fail rate on the amps that went in the ULWs. I wonder.

Really? Give Mark Joslin a call, I'm sure he'll take care of you pronto.

I don't think the failure rate was that high. There were a few instances of the "quacking" maybe a few that died and a few "leaky" amps like mine but overall I'm pretty sure it was fairly low.

[Sparky14]

My ULW-10 MLS edition made it about 3 months before it started with the WABBA-WABBA-WABBA sounds.

Sent it back to av123, and Mark J said it was in final testing early last week. No return shipping notice yet, so I don't know if it survived final testing.

Update, my repaired ULW-10 MLS returned home yesterday. Seems to work fine on initial inspection.

Pretty quick turnaround on av123's end.

[flattie]

My original UFW-10 has been awaiting a new amp for two full years, I've sent several emails and am getting nowhere. I really hope the BF ULW I bought my sis doesn't break down. What's the fail rate on the amps that went in the ULWs. I wonder.

I have a UPS tracking number and expect to receive delivery today of my UFW10 that has hopefully been repaired. My odyssey began way, way back in 2004 with the purchase of 550's, bigfoot, 300's and a b stock ufw10. Within a year the ufw10 was making some odd noises - the diagnosis was an airleak around the back of the amp so at -15db on the master volume on my Denon receiver (level matched to 85 db at 00 on master volume with radio shack spl) the previously awesome sounding sub started making a buzzing sound. I suspect the air leak was brought on by the insane bass in War of the Worlds -but who knows - I never stressed the amp and the only time it spent at reference level was to level match it.

I emailed av123 not expecting anything since it was b stock and they surprised me by shipping me another ufw10 - and I shipped back the leaky one.

Life was good until Nov of 2007 when the sub would occassionally "pop". At first it happened infrequently but started happening with greater and greater frequency not just during use by while simply in standby as well. This time the diagnosis was a bad capacitor that was "unloading" all of its energy at random moments in time. Again I emailed av123 not expecting much having owned it since the spring of 2004 and already getting it replaced once.

Once again I was surprised and offered to trade it in for a MFW15 or wait for a replacement amp. I was torn - the ufw10 sounds so good for music but expectations for MFW 15's output for movies were high - the UFW 10 does roll off sharply under 30hz after all. I mulled it over and knowing the replacement amps for the UFW10 weren't available opted to wait for the amp.

This was the spring of 2008 and I was scheduled to ship the sub back for repair in July - those amps didn't work out so the return took place in Nov of 2008.

I would email every few weeks and Mark Joslin was aways very apologetic and reiterated their generous offer to trade in the ufw10 against the mfw15 - for the reasons above I declined - 2.1 music with 550's and the ufw10 and SACD and DVD Audio 5.1 music sounded so good that I knew I would regret making the swap.

So after an seemingly endless wait I will hopefully be in possession of a fully functioning UFW10 when I get home tonight.

Throughout it all I believe Mark Joslin and Kyle have been as honest and truthful in their communications with me as possible. I harbor no ill will towards av123 and feel badly that things which are apparently out of their control have impacted them some negatively. I hope they get their supply chain issues worked out and continue to provide a product that offers an insane value for the price point they are selling at.

[etcarroll]

MJ and Kyle rock.

I'm sitting here having a TGIF moment, grooving on Radio Paradise from sound card to Carver receiver to X-LS classics. Yesterday I added the BF ULW-10 that went through 3 amps, just the Hi inputs to the sub from one of the X-LS.

In the past hour or so RP has played;

Barenaked Ladies - Easy
R.L. Burnside - Glory Be
Rolling Stones - Moonlight Mile
The Police - Message in a Bottle
Hooverphonic - We All Float

And the little sub just thumps along with it all.

Now if they'd just play some Porcupine Tree before my 10am HR conference call, (groan), life would be good, at least for this moment in time.

Good luck with your amp.