<deleted rant about how much I hate trying to fix SMPS's!>

But it may not be as simple as that, I place an order with Thomann every couple of months, it is £174 + vat with free delivery, now Thomann have removed the vat I have heard a few FB stories of increased charging, so I phone them direct, they said with the courier sorting the vat, clearance fees and now charging for the delivery I could expect an invoice of about an extra £100, this is based on feed back from UK orders since Brexit.

This is all sounding like a very good reason, not to touch them.

Are the Sanway 4x channels, any better, just on mids?

My Dad reverse engineered the Pcb and has now found the faulty components. The amplifier has been fixed, no help to Thomann. 

Everytime the amplifier has gone back a new one has been sent out, not repaired. I won't be using them again. Thomann would rather I spent another £450 on an amp. 

boots-hifi wrote: ..... Everytime the amplifier has gone back a new one has been sent out, not repaired. I won't be using them again.....

Unfortunately this is the case for a lot of these cheap Chinese re-badged brands, they are disposable commodities with no service support or spares.

I stopped repairing this sort of kit about 10 years ago as it just wasn’t worth the effort but, I used to do the repairs for a small chain of music shops, amongst other brands, for a while they used to sell Berhinger, I never managed to get a single schematic or part out of them despite being a dealer.

Other makes were as bad, we had a Numark mixer in for repair that needed the faders replaced, the cost of a set of faders direct from Numark was the same as a new mixer and that’s before postage and my labour… I managed to source the components elsewhere for about 2 quid each.  

One exception was Wharfdale pro, the gear itself wasn’t that good or reliable but the service support was excellent, I’d phone the service department for schematics or parts , they would email me the schematics straight away and often send the parts out on a next day delivery often for free, even if the equipment was out of warranty.

Behringer have never given out their schematics. The technician for the main dealer here told me that years ago. They supply the dealers with some spares - and everything else has to go back to the main office in Germany. Odd, but true. They must have their reasons, I guess.    

Yes - like they themselves have done with loads of product...  

I know... doesn’t mean it’s right though!!!

I have a few iNuke DSPs that get used on monitor duty or for smaller gigs when I can’t be arsed to roll out a rack of QSC’s, they are well out of warranty and if when they fail, they will be landfill as I’m in no doubt Behringer will not repair them being that they are now a legacy product!! When they do eventually fail (and they will!!) they may well be repairable however without service information it’s just not economical to do so.

I have in my lockup a few Crest V series amplifies and that are 25+ years old, I have schematics and all the parts are still available, I can keep these serviceable almost indefinitely…. And I can still repair old valve amps and industrial equipment that was made before I was born!!

Behringer’s justification for not releasing service info is that their equipment will be copied, this is rich considering that their early amps were blatant copies of QSC amplifiers.

Edit: I was typing when you posted above regarding coping!!

Yes - the throwaway philosophy/culture is BS, I hate it too.

Most of my amps are also old school - mainly Crest as well - 7001 and 8001. They just keep giving! 

Here ya go - amp porn!!  

The new cheapo crap can't compare to these!! 

Your Dad is a top don by the way. Care to elaborate on what he found wrong and fixed? I bet it's a common fault, might even be the one that kills them all?

studio45 wrote: Probably because if they released their schematics to non-NDA covered personnel, various patent lawyers would be VERY interested!

LOL…. This exactly the conclusion I came to as to why they never released the schematics!!

One gain pot physically broken and two other dirty as well as a couple of diodes gone,

Went to order new pots from loud technologies and found that they don’t stock them anymore which is shit as the mixer is still a current product.

None of the standard component companies had a matching replacement so a long wait until Ali express came to the rescue 

Companies these days don’t make it easy 

Wishful thinking, but lets hope...

100% agree with this. For a company that should hopefully be sustainable and support climate change throwing a product away regardless of cost for a component worth pennies available from RS is ethically wrong. Why shouldn't products be maintained, as in previous years? Its all about greed and profiteering. To put things into perspective, it's a 4 channel £450 amplifier that serves a purpose. The fact that I've had 3 new amplifiers since 2017 from thomann (1 new, 2 new replacements) under very light use to describe as best doesn't bode well for the product or design. The fact the company will be prepared to send a brand new replacement amplifier out including shipping rather than replace a component in the pence which probably has become a known fault is ridiculous. As mentioned thomann can not be worried about the already copied design being copied. Its just the drive for greed and wealth that over rules any degree of rationality. 

Yes - like the proposal that the manufacturers of white goods be made responsible for recycling their products when they fail.

What is also needed is some sort of control over programmed obsolescence as well. One of my printers stopped working a while ago, because it was programmed to do so, not because of any fault. Absolutely ridiculous. 

Makes this a useful resource for people having the same problem as you.

I agree with Jon, that would be a really useful resource given the discontinued nature of the 4-1300

In fairness to Thomann, it’s an amplifier that they rebadged so I doubt they would have access to the schematics themselves even if they wanted them. I can’t recall which Far East vendor they came from but someone (I think on here) identified them once, possibly the same outfit that build the PL3000 for them.

Thomann *might* have had access to board-level spares but I would imagine their “repair” scheme consisted of sending back shipments of failed amplifiers for rework then using the reconditioned amplifiers or new units as warranty replacements. That seems to be a fairly common practice for Far East OEM’d equipment. (At least it’s better than recycling them into the landfill…)