refurbished xenons

todd217 · Post by **todd217** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:24 pm

since i know some of the xenons had problems are the refurb ones better than the normal ones?

Post by **ttocs** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:10 pm

as far as you know.....

we will never know the truth, it is a roll of the dice....

Marcotah · Post by **Marcotah** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:10 pm

I've neve seen nothing official on this...
IMO, they are just the same, but with a couple more attention and review...
Dunno, looks like people on USA does not like the refurb even for low prices.

Post by **Bfowler** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:27 pm

i dont have specific dates for you, but they went in waves

-first wave ones out the door were the ones that were built incorrectly, these sucked

-second (biggest) wave were great, they were built by a different build house.

3rd wave. these were all the returns from the first wave that pg fixed, problem was, they only fixed the noted problem, and didnt go over the whole board, so these were prone to sort life spans. these were sold to dealers as refurbs, and sold very cheap at a couple F&F sales.

4th wave. after the 3rd wave came back to haunt PG, they went over all of them and re-soldered everything. these were the last few units sent to dealers but mostly sold at the last F&F sale. these are solid.

so as far as what part in this process the amp in question came from....your guess is as good as mine. maybe ask the seller how he acquired it?

valeks1 · Post by **valeks1** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 10:13 pm

So there is some incorrect information going around so I’ll clear that up for you. The Xenon amplifiers were designed by Phoenix Gold engineers at the Portland OR factory and were manufactured in Korea. The only problem with the Xenon line was a manufacturing defect that was identified when we start get complaints from dealers and consume. After the problem was identified a majority of the amplifiers sold to dealers and all of those in warehouse were sent to the Portland OR factory for a complete rework and upgrade. The manufacturing defect was a lack of insulation between PCB traces and SMD components and cold solder connections. During the rework the amplifiers were upgraded with new circuitry, which improved functionality and sound quality. However, there are still a small number of Xenon amplifiers, in use today, that weren’t upgraded and they continue to work fine.
I’ve worked at Phoenix Gold for 19 years before it was sold to AAMP of America.

Post by **ttocs** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 6:23 am

what did you do there? Just curious...

Either story you believe still makes it a crap-shoot in my book and I do not gamble on equipment.

gbody805 · Post by **gbody805** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 1:46 pm

valeks1 wrote:The only problem with the Xenon line was a manufacturing defect that was identified when we start get complaints from dealers and consume.. The manufacturing defect was a lack of insulation between PCB traces and SMD components and cold solder connections. During the rework the amplifiers were upgraded with new circuitry, which improved functionality and sound quality.

Was this done to all Xenon amps returned to PG?
I sent back a total of 5 amps to them.
Would they have gone thru the whole amp like said above or just trouble shot the amp?
Say 5-6 years ago.

Of the five, I've only used two in installs and the both have been great.