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  3. 136490-484

Design flaw in Esoteric DV-60?

I live in the Pacific Northwest. We have lots of storms here in Puget Sound. Earlier this year we had a momentary power interruption. There must have been a spike in the power supply, which for some reason, caused the DV-60 to turn itself on from standby. After that, it no longer would do multi-channel playback.

So, I sent it in, and the most expensive board it has needed replacement. It cost $1000 to get it back. Back it came, only to have the same thing happen a few months later. To me, this shouldn't happen. I did think am I crazy to spend so much money? Probably, but I really like the thing, I even bought a spare transport mechanism so when that goes bad (it doesn't have the bullet-proof transport as in more expensive Esoteric players), I have a replacement ready to go.

My power is a dedicated line, goes through a PS Audio Soloist, and then a PS Audio Power Plant Premier, which the DV-60 is plugged into. I am in touch with PS Audio and Esoteric, They claim it's not their fault, so who do I turn to now? Did someone drop the ball when designing the power supply? Does PS Audio have any culpability in this?

I'm hoping one of the genius's (you know who you are Ralph and Al), or someone with the background in the EE field, might have some ideas on the probable cause, and maybe a solution to it. Helluva mess. I can't afford to waste any more money, so, what's next?

Thanks for you help,
Dan


  
islandmandan

Showing 1 response by almarg

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almarg
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Hi Dan,

Sorry to hear of this issue, of course. And thanks for the nice words. As Bill (Whart) mentioned, Jea48 (Jim) certainly merits such a compliment, especially when power-related issues are involved. Perhaps he'll see this thread and comment.

The only suggestions that occur to me at this point are:

1)If you are using the PPP in multi-wave mode, try using sine wave mode instead. Don't ask me why; just my instinct :-)

2)While under most circumstances I would strongly recommend against doing this, and I expect that others will post subsequently and say that I'm recommending an unsafe practice, in this case I think it may be reasonable to consider putting a cheater plug on the DV-60's power cord, to defeat the connection of its safety ground to the PPP. I'm envisioning either that safety ground may be the path by which an incoming power line transient manages to bypass the PPP, or surge suppression mechanisms in the PPP itself may dump the energy of an incoming power line transient onto the safety ground. From which it may find its way onto the DV-60's internal circuit ground, via whatever resistance or impedance connects circuit ground and safety ground/chassis within the DV-60, resulting in the damage.

That's about all I can think of at this point. Best,

-- Al
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