Chevin A6000 @ 2ohm sub - VZ5 killer or not?

http://speakerplans.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7567&KW=a6000+heat&PN=2

jbl_man wrote: i Have a test report on the chevin amplifiers carried out by Ken Dibble.he states,and i quote"the Chevin is not a switchmode amp,in the accepted sense.it capitalises on the law of physics which says that transformer size is inversly proportional to frequency.thus a power supply working at 100khz will be orders of magitude smaller that one working at 50-60hz.......first the AC current is rectified,ramped up and smothed,and fed at 100khz at 340v to a special high frequency transformer using a Phillips ferite core,it is then converted using high speed rectifiers and caps to provide 85v+ - to feed the amplifier.  He goes on to say that its not happy in continious high power low frequency operation,and "the amplifier was getting very warm by the time we worked up to full power bandwidth test,and shut down just before a full test could be taken.following a cooling down period,it fired up ok,but shut down again immediatly after the full power test,with fans running at full speed and making a lot of noise. "clearly it is not happy at continious sine wave operation at full power,but the protection circuits do provide the level of protection claimed."  Is this any help? maybe its an excellent amp for mid-hi,but maybe not so ideal for prolong heavy bass?

Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to to test them next to the Abashantis and Iration Steppers and such, but I am confident they would put up a good show.

Dansound used them a few times in the UK Dub cup competitions around '99 - 2000 and they certainly did deliver what was asked of them.

Oh, and they performed very favourably in a Bass shoot-out that he organised, with 4 ASS S118 scoops against 4 Looneys driven by an Infinite 8 mk1

If I ever get the opportunity to play alongside any of today's heavy weight systems they will be what I'll be using.

Unfortunately, I don't get to play out as much as I would like. Maybe sometime soon

They do get quite warm, so its possible that better fans would help.
The fan speed seems to be controlled by the amount of drive they get. In my opinion they would be better if they stayed at fullspeed continuously.

That said, two failures in the 10 years I've owned them doesn't  harm my  confidence in them. Just keep them out of damp  environments is what I would recommend.

I have a Chevin A6000, it will do sub at 2ohm & it does get pretty warm. To get the full 3k per channel requires a decent power connection. These amps are very power hungry.

Peter Moller wrote: levyte357 wrote: However, do know of people saying it gets really hot, maybe even overheats,  on 2ohm stereo sub duty. Would be interesting to hear why, and if it can be modded not to.   It can - and its fairly easy.. replace the fans with something that moves more air and runs on 230VAC..  One of the issues is that the fan controller pretty much modulates the airflow to the music signal.. The more signal, the faster the fans run... If the fans run constantly instead they move more heat away.. One could include a secondary thermal protection system aswell - it'd be relatively simple to use a thermoswitch to remove power from the overheating channel..

Edited by levyte357 - 26 August 2008 at 12:02am

levyte357 wrote: Static Age wrote: downside is the power consumption & the 4U height. Advantages are the sound quality, the power, the 23kg weight & the fact that its UK built. Matey, the amp has 2x thick power leads, and only weighs 23kg... How much more, do you want life made easy than that!!!? Pity they are about a grand, otherwise I would have bought one by now and upgraded the fan "gear".

Edited by Static Age - 27 August 2008 at 8:54am