Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo My NAD's exploded!

Hi,

I have a NAD C370. My NAD C370 exploded. Fire and smoke kind of exploded. Run around in circles looking for the power cord to pull to stop the fire and smoke exploded. Find a towel to beat-out out the fire engulfing the window drapes kind of exploded.

Sort of pissed me off because no music was playing; it was simply on. It was evening and I would have been in bed an hour later. I then would have written "My NAD's killed me and my family in a blazing inferno."

OK; I'm better now. Took my meds.:-)

I opened up the C370 and found one of the 4 10,000uF/80VDC 'lytics had blown, the venting cap gasses melted the insulation on the adjacent 115VAC power cord which then proceeded to arc, flame and smoke mightily. Vent slots in the top of the C370 cover helpfully transferred the sparks and flames to the drapes a foot away. The fuse never blew because the venting cap comprimised the power cord before the fuse. Before you ask; I'm a EE and I am absolutely anal about having anything on an amp or even around it that would obstruct convective air-flow.

Good amp though. I'm going to repair it.

Got 10 some DigiKey 10,000uF/80VDC (P10645-ND) coming in. I'll replace all 4 caps, check the torroid xformer and bridge rectifiers before I do. My wife does not want in the house anymore, repaired or not. She's skittish that way.

Anyone have a similar experience? Anything else I should be checking? Close call; I don't want a repetition.

Mariss

Well heck that sure sucks.It's good to hear that you were able to contain the fire right away.I haven't had anything burst into flames like that.I did have a Rotel RB 1080 loose the left channel at only 5 hours old.I was lucky it didn't harm the M80 it was connected to cause when it went there was a loud POP.Everything here turned out ok with a brand new replacement amp.

How old was the amp ?

Yikes! It's a good thing you were still up and about when this happened. Do you normally leave your equipment on? A freak accident like that would leave me paranoid and shutting everything that was plugged in off when I wasn't using it.

I used to (as of 2 days ago) leave my equipment on. I don't anymore. My wife is skittish about that also now.

Mariss

About a 18-months new to me, bought it used. Serial# H37C37024366, made in China. The date code is probably hidden in the serial #.

Mariss

In reply to:

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I did have a Rotel RB 1080 loose the left channel at only 5 hours old

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This seems a very common problem with Rotel RB-1080, as I often read in at Club Rotel. It seems that it is caused by using the 12V trigger option. I do use it with my 1080, and haven't had any problem so far (crossing the fingers!!!)

Yikes, Cap exploding like that sure doesnt seem too common. In any peice of gear. Sorry to hear your NAD blew up like that, sure hope mine doesnt. Hopefully once you change out those caps and stuff it will be all good though

Mariss, congratulations on being delivered from the explosion and fire.

I had an Anthem PVA 5, new out of the box, first time powered on I saw a great honking lavender arcing spark from under the vent grate, and a great whomping noise. No fire. I think I'll make sure all my amps are power off before going to sleep tonight.

well thank God everything's all right. you're extremely lucky you caught it when you did! i respect your idea to rebuild it, but I think at this point I'd be jumping to another brand!

also I'm surprised no one's noticed that it's quite possible that this thread had one of the all-time funniest subject lines ever.

I didn't use the 12 V trigger on the amp and it wasn't a fuse.The dealer check for bad fuses and found that they were all ok.I never did find out what went wrong with the amp.I have had the second one for nearly 2 years now without one little problem.