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-   -   JL Audio Fathom f113 repair (https://www.audioaficionado.org/showthread.php?t=43298)

For The Love of Music 07-04-2018 07:49 PM

JL Audio Fathom f113 repair
 
Why not just making the drive if you cannot square away it yourself, I would guess you are around 5 hours - may even get them to repair while you wait?

jdandy 07-04-2018 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by For The Love of Music (Post 921853)
Why not just making the drive if you cannot square away it yourself, I would guess you are around 5 hours - may even get them to repair while you wait?

Ed.......The drive to Miramar is about six hours from my home. That's six hours down and six hours back. I would prefer to use UPS to ship the amp if necessary. The UPS store is only 20 miles from my home. I can be there, do the shipping and payment, and be back home in about an hour. I haven't had the Fathom f113 working for nearly two months so I am not in any rush. Frankly, my PMC EB1i speakers with transmission line loading of the woofers have such a wonderful low end response I haven't felt deprived of bass performance. Even without the Fathom subwoofer my living room system still sounds very good. Just one more reason why I have procrastinated so long about this repair.

I already have the f113 amp on my work bench in the shop. I have the metal plate behind the circuit board removed so accessing the individual parts that I plan to replace will be easy. My new ESR meter and replacement caps should arrive Friday.

For The Love of Music 07-05-2018 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdandy (Post 921857)
Ed.......The drive to Miramar is about six hours from my home. That's six hours down and six hours back. I would prefer to use UPS to ship the amp if necessary. The UPS store is only 20 miles from my home. I can be there, do the shipping and payment, and be back home in about an hour. I haven't had the Fathom f113 working for nearly two months so I am not in any rush. Frankly, my PMC EB1i speakers with transmission line loading of the woofers have such a wonderful low end response I haven't felt deprived of bass performance. Even without the Fathom subwoofer my living room system still sounds very good. Just one more reason why I have procrastinated so long about this repair.

I already have the f113 amp on my work bench in the shop. I have the metal plate behind the circuit board removed so accessing the individual parts that I plan to replace will be easy. My new ESR meter and replacement caps should arrive Friday.



Yes your right, time is precious!

Seconds add to minutes, minutes hours, hours days, days weeks, weeks months, months years, years decades and so on.

PMCH 07-05-2018 10:12 AM

Dan, hope you get your F113 repaired quickly. I have a F113 in my HT system and I am now getting nervous that it may develop the same problem.

nicoff 07-05-2018 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PMCH (Post 921903)
Dan, hope you get your F113 repaired quickly. I have a F113 in my HT system and I am now getting nervous that it may develop the same problem.



Me too. If this is a common occurrence and the culprit is well known, how come JL keeps using the same parts? I had One of muy JLs fail. It was repaired under warranty, but It still cost me money (shipping), aggravation (hurling the heavy unit) and time. [emoji53]

GaryProtein 07-05-2018 12:36 PM

One of my f113 v 1 subs died a few months ago after owning it for about five years. Randy Wagner was terrific about it. He said it needed to be re-capped. I hope my other doesn't have the same problem.

Anyway, the most annoying part of the repair was the shipping. I was told to use Fedex, but my local Fedex was a royal pain in the ass, so I shipped it UPS.

JLAudio shipped it back to me Fedex freight strapped to a pallet. When I asked how much it would cost to ship it freight strapped to a pallet, the cost was astronomical, so it was shipped regular UPS because it was only 147 pounds. 150 would require freight. I am certain JLAudio paid much less shipping it freight than I paid UPS or the quote that I got from Fedex. Having a large commercial account evidently gives them a BIG price discount on shipping costs.

Dan, Thanks for the internal photos. When the other one goes, I may follow your guide and just ship the amp.

mtroo 07-05-2018 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PMCH (Post 921903)
Dan, hope you get your F113 repaired quickly. I have a F113 in my HT system and I am now getting nervous that it may develop the same problem.

Not really sure what a cap is, but there seems to be lots of solid state amps that work for decades without a problem. Can’t JL Audio use a higher quality component? These are not exactly sold as budget subs. If I had read all of this before purchasing two, I probably would have looked elsewhere.

When shipping these to me, one of the subwoofers was damaged and had to be sent back. Return postage was on me as I had waited for my room to be completed before opening the box which was outside of the 30 day window. I sent it back to them, they sent a new subwoofer out and the replacement was also damaged. When I spoke with Barry, he implied it was my fault. Ultimately, the third subwoofer was in great shape. The thought of going through this headache in the next few years gives me heartburn.

Mr. Big 07-05-2018 09:54 PM

I have two f110 v1s and I first heard of the issue with the caps a couple of years ago. I've been waiting for them to crap out and when one goes bad I'll extract both amps and do them at the same time.

thex748 07-06-2018 12:16 AM

I'm hoping this doesn't happen in Version 2 subs.

jdandy 07-06-2018 12:17 AM

Gentlemen.......I would not let this issue dampen your enthusiasm for JL Audio subwoofers. They represent some of the best subs available today from any manufacturer. My Fathom f113 gave me 9 years of daily service without an issue before this problem popped up. If the new capacitors bring it back to life I will most likely get another decade or more of service from it without issue. It is not worth the stress worrying about a failure that hasn't happened yet.

You know how it is with news, only the bad stuff makes it to print. If one considers just how many JL Audio subwoofers have been sold and are still in service without issues, the small number we hear about, mine included, represent a very small percentage of the total JL Audio subwoofers in use. No reason to fret.

Worry is debt paid in advance for something that has not happened yet. It is a waste of time and energy. Crank it up guys. Enjoy your music.


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