XS4600 Repair

[trickyricky]

I picked this up for a few bucks knowing it wasn't working. Well once I got it, I quickly notice that someone used wire/foil for a fuse (NOT A SMART THING TO DO, actually one of the most dumb things to do). So I pop it open and found that all 6 power fets where shorted, one gate resistor off tolerance, an open trace near the transformer (this amp was lucky the trace opened, if it didn't it would of catch on fire) and the fuse block was all melted down.


I replaced/repaired the following.
-6 Fets in power supply
-1 gate resistor
-open trace
-fuse block
-4 capacitors (dc filter caps, original 16v 1000uf....replacements Panasonic FR 16v 1800uf)
-Removed old thermal and used DowCornin 340 compound
-Reflow solder joints on the transformer

Bench tested it and its now working and pounding the crap out of my Xtant 12" sub. This repair was very easy and took about an hour to complete (I had to look around my box of goodies for a board with a fuse block similar to the one the PG XS4600 has, I was lucky). Oh and the gain knob for one side was broken...but the pots where okay, all that's needed is the right size allen key (2mm) to adjust the gain (similar to those amps that dont have knobs for the gain...audio art, harrisons lab, ect...so this is not a concern for me..I even thought about remove the gain knob that's on the other side to make it match).

Enough with the mumbo jumbo and here are some pics of the repair process.

[zztunnell]

Thank you for the post! Very clear pics and description of what was going on and one could just follow the pics to see everything you did.Very well done.

[Eric D]

Nice job! I love to see others saving these old amps. They are still just as useful today as the day they were made.

[trickyricky]

Thanks guys, I just can't believe what some people do when their fuses open/pop. This are easy to repair and from what I was told by my friend, a whole channel can get completely rebuild for around 7-8 bucks, mine was the power supply which was quite easy and simple as you guys can see.

Love the power it puts out, true 300watts x 2 at 4ohms. Am glad I was able to save it and keep it going.