My new Tarantula

Post by **Jacampb2** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:32 pm

Today I got one of those amps I have always wanted. This one is literally a basket case. It came in two separate boxes of parts, but I will figure it out. The amp itself is blown. The PO bought it blown, and the case got beat up in shipping. He thought it wasn't worth the effort, and sold it to me. IMO, the case is not that bad, but the yellow painted top has got to go... Pics speak for themselves. I hope you enjoy the upcoming repair and restoration as much as I do.

Later,
Jason

fordtough1 · Post by **fordtough1** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 6:38 pm

I always loved those amps, too bad it's such a basket case. Good luck with the repair!

andy600rr · Post by **andy600rr** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:38 pm

+1, I've always wanted an 'original' Tarantula as well as a DaVinci.

Yellow case cover???? Good god, the way that some people treat nice things

Post by **ttocs** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:43 pm

I thought they were kinda neat but I can't imagine why they painted the top, that was the best part..........

bogart · Post by **bogart** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:34 pm

that is cool....ugly as sin...but cool....the os tarantula amps are freaking bad ass...be interesting to see this one come together...as there is no doubt that you will figure it out.

Have fun and keep us posted.

bogart · Post by **bogart** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:35 pm

Hey...what other amp can you say you've owned that matched that floor!!!!

marko · Post by **marko** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:42 pm

does it come with heatsink? i don't see one in the pics! they are awsome, if anything just to look at

the lightening system is missing out of mine and i just got some blue cathodes to throw in there, maybe you have the correct lightening system?

Post by **Jacampb2** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:25 am

Thanks guys. The heat sink is still on the board. The neons got trashed in the same shipping fuck up that messed up the case.

Gotta get to work-- one more day then 7 off!

Later,
Jason

Post by **joerg** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:30 am

Nice catch there! I hope u can get it repaired. BTW: Check your PM´s please.

Post by **Jacampb2** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:45 am

joerg wrote:Nice catch there! I hope u can get it repaired. BTW: Check your PM´s please.

Joerg, I will get with you soon. Things are to busy when I am on my 12hr days to spend much time online. I will try to respond tonight or tomorrow.

Later,
Jason

Post by **Jacampb2** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 1:27 pm

So, Randy, or any others who might know, do you have any suggestions on what to do to remove the yellow paint w/ out screwing up the chrome if it is still there?

Thanks,
Jason

andy600rr · Post by **andy600rr** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:15 pm

You could try one of the following....

1. Paint stripper (should'nt harm the chrome).

2. Wet down an old towel with thinners and lay it over the painted surface for 10-15 mins to soften the paint.

3. Oven cleaner (whilst I hav'nt tried this, I've been assured that it works)

dBincognito · Post by **dBincognito** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:18 pm

Jacampb2 wrote:So, Randy, or any others who might know, do you have any suggestions on what to do to remove the yellow paint w/ out screwing up the chrome if it is still there?

Thanks,
Jason

Is the case real chrome or chrome plated ?

I have not found a way to mess up real chrome yet, I have thrown all sorts of products at real chrome including sulfuric acid ( for concrete removal ) and still have not been able to damage it.

Oven cleaner (whilst I hav'nt tried this, I've been assured that it works)

That stuff will damage aluminum, never tried it on chrome

shaheen · Post by **shaheen** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:27 am

Case is not so bad

Have a look at my refurb that I did on my Da Vin, some tips in there on how to sort the lighting out, also some pics on how I cleaned it up too, you have a red board so REV C at least, thats the good boards.

I say replate it , strip off whats there and get a good plater to redo the top , thats what I did.

Post by **Jacampb2** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:25 pm

Shaheen, I saw your DV repair. I will look up the thread again and read it over in detail.

I played with it for a few hours today. Found a handful of blown parts. It appears I am the first on into it, which is a change for me. All the tamper evident loc-tight was still in place. Anyhow, here are some pics. I got the case straightened out real well, working on stripping the top out in the shop.

I thought this was pretty clever. This is a shot of the heat sink with the board removed. The yellow piece appears to be a single sheet of Kapton film for a dielectric barrier. Kapton has excellent thermal conductivity, and extremely high dielectric strength...

Side view of the sink, it is a pretty massive chunk of aluminum.

This thing is built like a tank. There are 8 pairs of outputs for each channel, it is two mono amps with one inverted and internally bridged, similar to the Ti1200.1 design, but with 2x's the output transistors. My guess is that it is capable of far more than it's 2Kw rating if the power supply regulation were not so tight...

Just some shots of the blown goodies. That is a jfet op amp there with its top blown clean off. I am not sure yet if this is all the damage, but all of these parts were in the same section of the board. All the outputs and power supply fets tested good. I am going to order these parts and get back to it next week sometime.

Thanks,
Jason

Post by **Jacampb2** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:49 pm

Well, I know why they painted it now. The chrome had bubbled in a few places. This is the cover after 10-15 minutes of working at it w/ solvent and a razor blade...

Later,
Jason

dBincognito · Post by **dBincognito** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:54 pm

2 bad.....it could have been polished to look new again if it didn't have the bubbles

shaheen · Post by **shaheen** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 2:59 pm

hey dude, yeah , if you need scematics contact Soundstream they have no qualms about sending out the diagrams, tell them you want all the revisions and you can rebuild it back to any rev you want.

They really easy to work on , none of the SMT design stuff, some things I found out. Nichicon or low ESR caps are the way to go. There is a company in Australia which specialises in Soundstream repairs but the shipping would kill you.

there is a remote delay on the board which will allow you to wire some lights, I found the LED strip stuff works really well. Then there is the fan control, i am not sure if this is like the DV, but that pulses the fans based on input voltage which to me was really cool.

Some other nice things are the logical layout of the board makes it easy to trace burnt tracks or see where signal flows are.

They really robust amps, but have issues.

I say replate the top , strip it to the substrate then re-plate , it will bring years back .

Oh and my case was bent in the same way , they all do that when pulled apart a few times, nothing a block of wood and large mallet cannot fix.

Post by **fuzzysnuggleduck** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 3:06 pm

I must be retarded but I don't see any inputs on that board... where did they go?!?

shaheen · Post by **shaheen** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 3:10 pm

Inputs as in RCA's , they sit on a daughter board which then goes to the top panel which has all the X-Over bits, the light swich and gains on , this then runns in a ribbon cable to the actual amp board.

Post by **fuzzysnuggleduck** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 3:17 pm

Ah! I'm just showing off my SoundStream noobness...

reallyxxxxxxloud · Post by **reallyxxxxxxloud** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 6:24 pm

shaheen wrote: There is a company in Australia which specialises in Soundstream repairs but the shipping would kill you.
fix.

Who told you that rubbish...

Not having a go at you but "THERE IS NO REPAIR SHOP THAT SPECIALIZES IN SOUNDSTREAM REPAIRS", (other than the Soundstream distributor here in Australia, but he usually just swaps out returned warranties).

Who ever told you that is bullshitting you. There's not enough sold in this country to sustain a specialized repair shop. Repairs done in your local area would be of no less knowledge. Plus from memory only a handful of the original Tarantula and DaVinci were ever sold here.

Post by **Jacampb2** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 6:33 pm

It doesn't matter boys. I am not sending it out for repair, in Oz or in the US. If I can't fix it, then-- well, lets put it this way, I will keep working on it until it can't be worked on any more...

STROKD · Post by **STROKD** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 12:00 am

andy600rr wrote:+1, I've always wanted an 'original' Tarantula as well as a DaVinci.

Yellow case cover???? Good god, the way that some people treat nice things

Me too I always wanted one of each, I should have tried to get em when they were fairly new but no one was runnin SS and coulda gotten a smoken deal on fairly new amps. Now you get em like this one, in 2-3 boxes.

andy600rr · Post by **andy600rr** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 1:14 am

reallyxxxxxxloud wrote:
shaheen wrote: There is a company in Australia which specialises in Soundstream repairs but the shipping would kill you.
fix.
Who told you that rubbish... Not having a go at you but "THERE IS NO REPAIR SHOP THAT SPECIALIZES IN SOUNDSTREAM REPAIRS", (other than the Soundstream distributor here in Australia, but he usually just swaps out returned warranties).

Who ever told you that is bullshitting you. There's not enough sold in this country to sustain a specialized repair shop. Repairs done in your local area would be of no less knowledge. Plus from memory only a handful of the original Tarantula and DaVinci were ever sold here.

How about Danny????

http://www.resolutionelectronics.com.au ... stream.htm

Ex AZ Trading employee.....