Hi,

Under warranty my dealer has replaced the plate amps on each speaker. One already twice. I run the speakers through power conditioning but the amps fail. I built my house in 2001 so it has modern wiring and infrastructure. I have 3 high end stereo systems and the only elements failing are these goldenear plate amps. My TV's, computers, all are fine. Never been hit by lightening. No electronic failures to date other than these plate amps. I am baffled really.

My system is a Rogue Audio Sphinx Integrated tube/class D. I use a REGA DAC with USB Audiophilleo interface and computer with FLAC files. I mostly listen to Jazz music.

My question is not "why" they fail but if you have any ideas please give me feed back. My left channel amp began the tell tale crunching and popping the other day and I had to unplug the AC and just use the speaker with out subwoofer.

GoldenEar has offered to replace my plate amp once more out of warranty now. At this time I have no confidence that in 6 months or a year the other channel may go out.

My question is about a long term solution to this. My thoughts are adding an additional set of binding posts on the rear plate, then by pass the amp, preserving the wiring to the twin 5x9 woofers and wire them to the posts. I can then purchase an external subwoofer amp with built in high pass and run them.

My question is does anyone know if the two sub drivers are wired in parallel or series and what the impedance is for the two?

I would want to know this prior to buying a subwoofer amp.

Thanks for any feedback or help. I love the sound from these speakers but have long grown tired of the down time and hassle with replacing these plate amps. My dealer and Goldenear have not let me down but I am out of warranty now and need a long term solution.

Thanks,
Anthony

ajowers wrote: GoldenEar has offered to replace my plate amp once more out of warranty now.

For clarity, for others viewing this post, GoldenEar has offered to replace the electronics modules UNDER WARRANTY, even though the warranty has expired.

Yes this is correct. I meant that even though the speakers were out of warranty they had offered to replace the plate amp under warranty. Thank you.

ajowers,

What you're experiencing sounds very unusual. The T2 plate amps are not known to be a significant point of failure. I'm not exactly sure how the T2s work, but when my T1s have no power, there is virtually no output at any frequency.

Two things that I would be wondering is:

1. Is your dealer performing the repair properly?
2. Is your power conditioner the issue?

I would start by plugging the T2s directly into the wall. You may want to have your dealer take a look at the power conditioners. Is it possible they are passing DC into the plate amps of your T2s? In either case, a direct call to GET technical support sounds in order. Multiple failures indicate an issue other than the plate amps to me. Troubleshooting electrical issues can be a real challenge and finding the root cause extremely difficult. The real issue doesn't always "make sense". Good luck narrowing things down or finding an alternate resolution.

Cheers,

T Cobe

Thanks T. I have to agree, lose the power conditioner as a first step. It is unlikely the service has been done wrong, nothing to it as we always replace the full package (two modules and connecting cables) so no one is really trying to "fix" anything. I also asked for a quick scan of our repair records and no dealer has had four repeats in the history of our record keeping, so, if service was done four times it did not happen with GoldenEar's involvement. The Tritons have been hugely dependable, with the exception of the very first production batch that had all their control panels replaced due to a defective component.

Agreed also with a call to the office (Sandy will probably talk with him) or an email to support. If emailing support, best to ask questions rather than demand support. But, I can tell you now that no design information will be given out to help you mod the speakers, proprietary stuff and not a suggested path to pursue. (BTW, just driving the woofers will not do the trick, there is a 48 bit DSP engine involved in blending the active bass section to the passive components.)

Oh, T, your Tritons should still play highs and mids with the power cord unplugged, unless you meant the power cord to your power amp - in which case, yes, for sure.

Thanks, Moderator Dude! My T1s, in fact, do play without power to the plate amp, though it certainly isn't the same.

For some reason, I thought I had tried that before and there was no sound... My memory has a way of playing tricks on me from time to time.

Cheers,

T Cobe