Daughter board for a CAV-180

[DaveH]

Greetings,

First time post, new member. I just acquired the above amp from a friend of mine who said that channel 4 was causing this amp to go into protection mode. After a couple hours of testing the final stage transistors via the service manual then swapping the daughter boards between one module and another I found that the culprit is the daughter board. I previously emailed Classe' support about acquiring a amp module to which they said that they don't supply the 'kits' anymore but would sell the individual output transistors (matched set) once I found out which ones were the problem, which in this case is not the issue. I know this amp is over 20 years old but would you pass the chance to fix a $3000 amp someone GAVE you?
So it looks like there's no way to get this amp working unless someone has one for parts or someone here on this forum may 'know a guy who knows a guy'.
Any info would be appreciated.

 

[nicoff]

Greetings,

First time post, new member. I just acquired the above amp from a friend of mine who said that channel 4 was causing this amp to go into protection mode. After a couple hours of testing the final stage transistors via the service manual then swapping the daughter boards between one module and another I found that the culprit is the daughter board. I previously emailed Classe' support about acquiring a amp module to which they said that they don't supply the 'kits' anymore but would sell the individual output transistors (matched set) once I found out which ones were the problem, which in this case is not the issue. I know this amp is over 20 years old but would you pass the chance to fix a $3000 amp someone GAVE you?
So it looks like there's no way to get this amp working unless someone has one for parts or someone here on this forum may 'know a guy who knows a guy'.
Any info would be appreciated.

The saying goes: You don't look a gift horse in the mouth. But in this case, the "horse" is dead. You already know that the manufacturer is no longer supporting that amp (don't blame them! After all, the amp is over 20 years old). So even if you were able to find a broken amp that you can buy for parts, how would you know that the part that you need is working properly? Personally, I would pass.

 

[DaveH]

Thanks for the reply, nicoff. After working on that daughter board and measuring transistors other components I found that there was an open resistor on the 'solder-side' of the board that had opened up. My friend, who works on and rejuvenates old TV's and radios, happened to have a resistor of same value and wattage rating. Works like a champ now!!
Now all I have to do is figure out why the Subwoofer Out, from the SSP-30 processor, doesn't have a signal. Will probably have to connect my sub to the processor through the speaker connections instead of the RCA.

 

[nicoff]

Thanks for the reply, nicoff. After working on that daughter board and measuring transistors other components I found that there was an open resistor on the 'solder-side' of the board that had opened up. My friend, who works on and rejuvenates old TV's and radios, happened to have a resistor of same value and wattage rating. Works like a champ now!!
Now all I have to do is figure out why the Subwoofer Out, from the SSP-30 processor, doesn't have a signal. Will probably have to connect my sub to the processor through the speaker connections instead of the RCA.

Sounds great!
You can try connecting a "Y" RCA splitter cable (1 male to 2 female) to the SSP to split the output signal of the main speakers. But don't forget to send full signals to the main speakers!