UFW refurb

[etcarroll]

Got my PE amp, popped off the old amp, looks mostly OK except the one black object that looks like a cap appears partially melted, see where the pen is pointed to. Can this part be replaced? I don't see an ID on it.

As the PE amp is self-contained, I assume I can also remove the stock transformer, so all I should have left is the box, driver, and PE amp, correct?

[Sandbagger]

That is the UFW-12HR amp isnt it? Looks just like one I have hear from a customer that I am ReWorking the ORIGINAL AMP to work with the 12"HR driver from AE.

I will be releasing this amp only upgrade I hope this weekend as I have now seen/heard over a half dozen or so failures now.

That little black thing is an Inductor not a cap, nothing to melt there for the most part

Do you still have the original amp that you took out to put the HR kit in?

[HAL]

Looks like an inductor that is glued to the PC board.

Does the amp work?

[etcarroll]

This is one of the infamous Black Friday 10" subs, I went through a few amps till I got this one. I never wound up using the sub for intended purpose, so it sat for a year with little use, I thought it fine. Last Summer I started using it, very soon it developed an issue where it works but starts a high pitched tone or whine behind the music. Turn it off for awhile, turn it back on, cycle repeats, works ok for 10 to 20 minutes, but then high pitched tone/whine begins.

So it works, but it's unsatisfactory, so I got the PE drop in amp.

And no, I don't have either of the first 2 amps, they went back to AV123.

That is the UFW-12HR amp isnt it? Looks just like one I have hear from a customer that I am ReWorking the ORIGINAL AMP to work with the 12"HR driver from AE.

I will be releasing this amp only upgrade I hope this weekend as I have now seen/heard over a half dozen or so failures now.

That little black thing is an Inductor not a cap, nothing to melt there for the most part

Do you still have the original amp that you took out to put the HR kit in?

[Sandbagger]

AHHH its one of the 10's from the pics it looks just like the 12HR amp does too.

Well since its the 10 and you have a PE amp, just pull the old transformer out too while your in there and drop the whole PE amp in(black box and all)

BTW these amps like the one you have and the 12HR do not fail the same way the MFW's do so there is no easy cap fix.

[etcarroll]

BTW these amps like the one you have and the 12HR do not fail the same way the MFW's do so there is no easy cap fix.

Balls! - Geof Peterson

[tesseract]

Balls! - Geof Peterson

HA! One of my favorite exclamations.

[rsa]

...it looks just like the 12HR amp does too.

Doug Goldberg designed that amp series to be scalable, hence the resemblance. My Black Friday UFW-10 continues to woof nicely, knock on woody.

[Sandbagger]

Doug did the initial concept and design, although from what I have heard, he never really had any say or verified in what was released:thinking:

I had to go take another look at the HR amp I had here and the one board actually says UFW-10 on it too.....

At least after this weekend I will have a fix for everyone with UFW-12HR's when their amps go. (notice how I didnt say if)

Doug Goldberg designed that amp series to be scalable, hence the resemblance. My Black Friday UFW-10 continues to woof nicely, knock on woody.

[Fatcat]

I'm curious to hear which might have an edge in performance; the original driver with updated amp or the HR driver with updated amp. I ask because I have both drivers and one original UFW-12 amp.

Best....Carlo.

[Sandbagger]

Carlo

While I havent had a chance to do any measurements with the 12"HR driver from AE and HR amp( its dead) I have had plenty of play time with the orig UFW-12 driver and the 15" AE driver that I use in the BB kit.

I would say that the UFW-12 with the AE Driver and the Original amp with my mods will be killer. While the original driver is a very nice piece, the AE driver should work better for several reasons in this case. Unless av123 totally screwed up the specs on the driver, but I dont think they did on this one.:clapper:

I'm curious to hear which might have an edge in performance; the original driver with updated amp or the HR driver with updated amp. I ask because I have both drivers and one original UFW-12 amp.

Best....Carlo.

[Fatcat]

Thanks for the info Kevin! Looking forward to hearing all the details about this upcoming option for those of us with dead HR amps.

Best...Carlo.

[dane]

I JUST pitched (like two days ago) a UFW-10 amp that was dead in a different place.. I would have gladly scabbed off the component(s) you needed had I known earlier. So sorry. It does however turn out that I do have the schematic for that particular board. Unfortunately not for the entire amp, but at least for that one board. I can look at it on Monday if you'd like. I don't know who owns the original design rights to the board however, so I will not be releasing the schematic publicly. Additionally I don't recall if it actually has part values or just designators (C1, C2, etc...).

However given that no one really ever "root caused" the various failure modes of the UFW10 amps, there's no telling if all the work you put into getting it going again will in the long run even be worth it. ...and therein lies the reason I decided against keeping the boards I had any longer. I needed to make some room in my office for some more current projects, and with the history of AV123 securely behind us, well, it found its new home in the trashcan...

If you'd like me to try and look something up on Monday, let me know. I'll do whatever I can. FWIW, I do think the 240W Dayton sounds pretty good. Never quite A-B'd it to either of my early/original UFW-10's, but did give it a brief listen and thought it sounded good, albeit a tad less powerful in some spots.

cheers,
..dane

[etcarroll]

Naw - have a few days in with the PE, it's fine for a bedroom system.

Guess I was more curious than anything.

I JUST pitched (like two days ago) a UFW-10 amp that was dead in a different place.. I would have gladly scabbed off the component(s) you needed had I known earlier. So sorry. It does however turn out that I do have the schematic for that particular board. Unfortunately not for the entire amp, but at least for that one board. I can look at it on Monday if you'd like. I don't know who owns the original design rights to the board however, so I will not be releasing the schematic publicly. Additionally I don't recall if it actually has part values or just designators (C1, C2, etc...).
cheers,
..dane

[etcarroll]

Just got a replacement amp plate off of ebay, guess I'll try it in place of the PE unit.

Wish I could get my hands on a Birds Eye Maple UFW box, I've got the parts to build another sub.