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Thomann Amplifiers


Rob_Beech

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I for one am interested in the T amp issue mentioned above. Whilst I know it is OT, if a discussion could be made from it it may well be worth a topic split.

 

I'm afraid Rich's post is rather vague. He and someone he knows both have piles of them. They are made very badly. Unfortunately this is a little like saying dont buy a Ford they are crap (nothing against Ford it was an example only), I've seen loads broken down.

Which model T amps, How are they driven, How long have you had them, What is it that goes wrong with them, What is the problem with Thomanns 3 year warranty? I now know 2 LARGE hire companies that use the TA2400 for D&B MAX wedges as they are a good sounding, solid, reliable, and wallet friendly amplifier. Sadly I cannot comment on the 3 year warranty, as I or nobody I know has had to use it.

 

Rob

 

edit : its also worth noting, somewhere, someone has a pile of something thats no good. Be it Behringer gear, BSS gear, Midas gear, Phonic gear, Its all crap to someone.

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Nice cocky reply Rob.

 

I thought as the post was in reply to the suggestion of a TA2400 that it would be obvious I was refering to the TA series, sorry if that was not clear.

 

The amplifiers in question are TA2400s and a TA1400. They are two years old and have never been driven into clip. I had one repaired which broke again, then the other two died. Channel B (on all three) is dead with a signal light lit. When you remove the load the clip light lights up.

 

The build quality of the amplifiers is what has let them down. The bridge rectifier(s) had sheared from the PCB on the first amplifier, I presume this to be the same for the others as the problem is identical.

 

As I'm sure you're aware Rob Thomann's three year gaurantee hasn't been running for that long, as the one year gaurantee has expired (or it'd be back with Thomann) it's obvious their three year gaurantee wasn't in place. I would imagine you'd still have to pay the postage back to Germany, 27Kg isn't going to be cheap and I'm not sure if Royal Mail will even take it.

 

Rich

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Certainly wasn't meant to be cocky.

 

There has been a revision to some of the T amps recently. And the introduction of the larger amps. (and now lightweight digital ones).

It may have been obvious you were referring to the TA2400, maybe I should have assumed that, however you've also mentioned the TA1400 which wasn't originally stated, so its just as well I asked.

 

As for the 3 year guarantee. This does only apply to products purchased as of February 2005. So if they are older than this then their standard warranty still applies (which will of course have expired sadly). (Would mean you'd had your amps more than 2 years but I realise you were not stating to the day) I was sure it was sometime in the previous year, evidently not.

 

Rob

 

 

Edit : As the topic has been split. the original part I was replying to is :

 

I cannot vouch for the C-Mark amps, but I would warn you away from the Thomann T-Amps. Sound fine and the power is there, but they are so very badly made. I have a pile of broken ones, and I know of two other people also with piles of broken ones.
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I've been using T-amps for about 4 years, with no problems at all. So far I've had T-2400 x 6, T-3200 x 2 some 400's (can't remember which version) and T-1500 x 1. Some have been abused pretty badly - used in a college where on a scale of 1 to 10 on the attenuators, they get wound to 11! - outputs are unplugged while going full tilt, speakers are daisy chained so that they present a virtual short to the amp and power cables get pulled out, shoved back in and powered up straight into full power mode!. Some have been bridged and touch wood, no problems at all.

 

Some are in racks in semi-permanent installation and are left unpowered for 6 months of the year in damp, cold and salty air and haven't showed any signs of harm.

 

If anybody knows how to get the curved foam grill panel off, I'd appreciate it. It looks as if they come off, but I've not found the secret yet?

 

For the price, I can't fault them - and with UK postage charges being what they are (and a 20Kg limit at the post office) sending them back to Germany even if covered, simply isn't worth it. If one does die - then spending around £50 to get it back to Thomann is a bit pointless. I got 12 big items from Thomann post free, and one was duff and the post office charged £25 to get it back to them. - and they make a loss?

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Oops! :) Sorry, hit the wrong button there a moment ago!

 

It is interesting to read the comments regarding the build quality of the t.Amp A series power amps. I don't have any experience of that series, but I do have a t.amp E400 that I use to drive a 4 ohm load on each channel (2 8 ohm monitors each side) It has done quite a few gigs and is worked hard in the usual far too loud stage volume scenario, that always exists with typical metal, thrash and young rock bands. It does the job well in that environment as well as its everyday task of driving two 8 ohm studio monitors for 6-8 hours daily.

 

I have worked in the international electronic industry as a field service consultant/engineer for 26 years directly involved in automated pcb assembly and I am well familier with levels of build quality across a broad spectrum of the electronic industry.

 

I have two Behringer EP1500's which I am very happy with and when I decided to try the t.amp for floor monitor duty, almost as soon as I got it, I lifted the lid to see what it was like inside. For its price, my expectations were not very high, but when I examined it, I was amazed at the standard of the pcbs layout and assembly quality, the way they are mounted, the lead dress of all interconnecting wires and the level of workmanship in general.

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  • 1 year later...

I know this is a fairly old thread but I wanted to say, I recently had to send a Thomann Proline 3000 (37kg) back on the guarantee and Thomann sent me a free shipping label to send it back to Germany.

 

I lent it to a mate and it came back dead :D he's not sure what happened but it was on bridge setting when I got it back and I know he was running 4 8ohm cabs from it!

 

I've run it on other occasions with 4ohm load a side and it's sounded lound clear and heavy, I also use the 2400 and find it to be a great mids amp.

 

Alex

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I'm also a service engineer and see them in the workshop from time to time.

 

The basic schematic of the TA series (and CMark and Soundlab and Audiohead..same basic chassis) is based very closely to the QSC RMX amps..in fact just a few components have been changed, a few different values here and there and the circuit references altered and the boards re-jigged from SMT to through-hole. A QSC schematic serves as a reasonable fault-guide for the others. They have less output transistors (Bipolar) than the equivalent QSC's which have more headroom in this way.

 

They have optical limiters and dynamic current limit, the 1400's and above are class H just like the QSC and use mosfet high and low-side switches and Toshiba bipolar outputs.

 

On the last example I serviced, it seemed several attempts had been made to get the amp module assemblies into the chassis, several sets of badly drilled holes were seen under the heatsink. On another example, only 2 of the 4 bridge rectifiers had been bolted down, there were no paint marks where screws had maybe fallen out. On another, the mains cable to the fuseholder had blasted off, this is because they just dab the cables to the solder tags with a hot iron (I.e not wrapped as stipulated by BEAB) and the cables are only supported by heatshrink sleeve. The pcb holes drilled for the switching mosfets are meant for TO220 transistors and TO247 are fitted, meaning the leads are too thick to pass through the board so are simply blobbed on the surface...the through-plated holes taking much of the amp current. Inter-pcb connects are cheap and are held in place by soft silicon sealant which seems to fatigue easily. Some PCB connectors are fouled by chassis components and have to be bent at cruel angles to accomodate the amplifier modules. The amp modules have 20A 20x5mm bus fuses in pcb-mount fuseholders (which are only rated 8A or so) and therefore the 20A fuses are soldered into the clips to prevent them melting. Speaking to another engineer, I'm told a common fault he's seen is for the bias pots to fail leading to high idling current and premature thermal cutout..though I haven't had that yet myself. None of the importers I've approached can cater for a service manual or genuine readable schematics.

 

On the plus side they sound pretty decent as you'd expect from a QSC-based design, the clip limiting is efficient, they have a choice of jack and combi-XLR inputs, speakon outputs, stereo/mono/bridge mode switch and ground lift. Outputs are via speakon and 4mm posts. They have relay soft start, relay speaker protection, variable-speed fans and IEC lead mains supply. As with all class H they have dual split rail busses and a single (and very heavy) toroidal transformer. The case is well made and strong. Despite the shortcomings I've found, they remain good value at the price.

 

The former rep of DAP Audio told us they used to use the same manufacturer for their range of 'Palladium' power amps but switched supplier after quality issues, opting for the 'Palladium Vintage' range which are rather different in design.

 

I have one in the workshop (badged Audiohead AH1400) at the mo and the customer told me this was the third of three examples of his to have failed, the previous two had been swapped under warranty by the retailer. I have a Cmark example booked in for repair, (the second we've seen from this particular customer). Another trade customer used to supply them for retail and he's swapped now to stocking QSC because of the high return rate.

 

Dont forget I only see them when they've actually gone wrong, they are an extremely popular and widely distributed machine. The manufacturer is Shenzhen Bao Ye Heng.

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well,

I have 2 TA600s, had one nearly 2 years and the other about 6 months, both are fantastic Amps, and I have never even had them running in anger, but they still have plenty of drive.

 

I have a couple of spare amps, but its a bit like the behringer outboard I have, they do a fantastic job for the price, I wont expect them to last as long as the Carlsbros I have.

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