Gazember - continued

Andy Williams added the following information:

I am also involved in the upgrading of QUAD amplifiers and during the course of this I have seen a Gazember. The owner of this had owned it for around 12 months and said it had been returned for repair two or three times and had eventually lost faith in the product.

Opening the case revealed the original 30 year old power and output caps had several low value caps soldered in parallel and the original caps had finally ruptured and leaked onto the circuit boards causing the amplifier to fail yet again. The original large capacitors should have been replaced when serviced, to not do so is just penny pinching and is not in the customers interest as the amplifier would be no more reliable than a non serviced 30 year old 303 which is not what the customer would expect after spending money on his Quad.

The old trimpots were still in place as was the original rectifier bridge however the power supply board had been removed and the current limit increased by removing half the turns on the wire wound emitter resistors and putting them back in place. New resistors of the correct value would have been far more professional and actually easier to fit - again penny pinching at the customers expense. The resistors windings are no longer in contact with the ceramic former and would be far more prone to failure than a new resistor.

I looked at his ebay shop recently and notice he is now selling QUAD's valve powered equipment - I would like to express my concerns to prospective customers of the high voltages involved in valve equipment and the required safety measures that should be followed when upgrading or repairing such equipment. My advice would be to ensure that whatever they purchase, if it has been modified or repaired that it has been done so by experienced qualified technically competent people and not someone who's past record shows a distinct lack of electronic knowledge and know how. These amplifiers can be very dangerous if the work is not competently carried out and could pose a serious electric shock hazard to children as well as the owner.

Regards Andy Williams