JohnnySH

Hello

Any help would be very much appreciated, and thank you in advance

My crown macro-tech 5000i amplifier developed a fault whilst I was DJing at a venue tonight, one channel totally died on me and both fans went in to ultra high speed mode. CH2 Ready LED no longer lights up!



I own Two Macro-Tech 5000i crown amplifiers, one of the amps has not been used because waiting to purchase JBL subs,

The other Macro-Tech 5000i is used every weekend when I DJ, I also own 4 JBL SRX 700 (1 by 15") cabinets

I sometimes run 2 SRX700 per channel (4 SRX 700 in total) and other times only run 1 SRX700 per channel (2 SRX 700 in total).

For the past 8 months the Macro-Tech 5000i amp has worked faultlessly with my JBL speakers, until tonight !!

I was always under the impression Crown was the best in amplifiers, but nerves have now been left in tatters after limping along whilst DJing on only one channel, after the fault occurred and I'm not even convinced CH1 sounded that great after CH2 died!

Here's the events of tonight

The venue I was DJing in tonight was larger than normal, so I decided to take all 4 speakers out,

The first two hours of the night everything worked fine, and the system was running fairly hard level wise, but no problems.

As the dance floor started to grow with people, I changed to music to a more dance style and pushed up the level, it's fair to say the system was now thumping.

after about 5 more songs I noticed my right hand JBL speaker stack (SRX700 x 2) was periodically cutting in and out about every 2 seconds, I went over to the macro-tech 5000i to turn down the levels and noticed both the fans on the amp were running at ultra high speed blowing very cold air out the back of the amp. I knew I had problems occurring as my amplifier had never done this before !

I turned down both channels to half way on the front controls,

I then noticed the right hand  speakers (CH2) went off totally, things were starting to go from bad to worse,

So I turned down CH2 control to off, and prayed that I would make it through the night with just CH1 and my left hand speaker stack.

I must also say even the left hand speakers (CH1) did not sound as crisp and clean as normal, could this fault on CH2 also affect the power/ quality of CH1 ?

One other thing I noticed whilst limping through the night on CH1 was... CH2 Ready LED was not lit, But the signal LED did flash for CH2.

At the end of the night I powered down the amplifier for 1 minute and powered it back up, both the fans stayed in ultra high speed mode, and CH2 Ready LED would not Light again, so the fault on CH2 is on now all the time.

The main reason I chose crown and these very high quality amplifiers is due to the great name crown has and the reliability of crown amps, after tonight my confidence has been shattered.

I am an electronics engineer by trade have repaired a few amplifiers in the past, normally output stage etc.


I was under the impression the macro-tech 5000i has protection in almost every area of the amplifier, so in theory what I am explaining should have never occurred ?

I'm still not sure what has gone wrong inside the amplifier and what caused it, other than driving the system hard.

I am based in the UK and plan to open up the amplifier tomorrow in my workshop and start to investigate.

I would love a circuit diagram of this amplifier, I have managed to track down the service manual for the macro-tech 2400i which I assume is similar, but it would be good to get the 5000i service manual.

Any help form the forum experts and professional guidance as to where to look first in trying to repair my very loved macro-tech 5000i amplifier will be very much appreciated.

My concern is, why did this major fault happen in the first place? and will it happen again?

Is this a known issue with this maco-tech 5000i amplifier range,  are they know to be unreliable ?

I have to have faith in the equipment I use / work with, and up until tonight I had total faith in these amplifiers.

Also I have never connected a cat 5 cable to the amplifier but I know there is software that can be installed on a pc to view running management of the amplifier, is there a fault logging system built in to the amp to give me any more clues as to what went wrong and why ??

I am in the UK and would really appreciate any help in this matter so I can repair this amp and get a better picture as to what went wrong and why.

I await your reply

and thank you in advance

john