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Help? Possible problem with my McCormack dna-125.

I recently bought a McCormack dna-125 here on Audiogon and I enjoy its sound very much. However, on the weekend when I crank it up (0.0, equal to 12 o'clock on a dial) for awhile the amp has twice just stopped abruptly in mid song after about 30 minutes at this volume. The led goes out so I assume the power is interrupted so I immediately turn it off. The next day when I turn it on it plays as if nothing ever happened. Because it only does this at higher than normal listening volume I am thinking a clixon fuse or something like that is knocking out the power. I'm thinking this may be heat related but I often leave the amp on for many hours at slightly lower volumes (15.0-10.0, 10-11 o'clock) without issue. I crank it up a little higher once a week or so and this doesn't always happen. Has anyone had similar problems with this amp and if so, what did you do to remedy it?

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silversurfer0116
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
2,766 posts
 
My guess is that you are clipping the amp and its protection circuitry shuts the amp down to prevent it from getting damaged. Is the sound ear bleeding loud when this happens?
sfstereo
193 posts
 
Thermal protection is turning on to prevent damage.
silversurfer0116 OP
15 posts
 
Thanks for the reply. I would not say ear bleeding loud. I would say loud as in you would have to double the volume of your voice to have a conversation while the music is playing loud. I was playing Stevie Ray Vaughn's greatest hits the last time this happened. Good tunes to play loud. I may be wrong but I would not think the amp would clip at the 12 o'clock setting with the speakers I have which are fairly efficient. I am more inclined to think it was a thermal issue although I play it for hours sometimes at 11 o'clock like I did this morning while I painted a room. The amp is in a large cabinet open to the front with 6" of air above the amp. I'm going to move it to a totally open area without the cabinet and try it there. Hopefully this will clear up the issue since I really like the amp's sound and build quality.
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