CLX blows up Simaudio Titan

Well here is something you don't see every day. I have been doing a shootout between a Sunfire TGA 5400 which is a 400 watt per 5 channel amp and a Simaudio Titan HT which is a 200 watt five channel amp.

Things have been going along swimmingly until this weekend. I have probably listened to 20 albums with no issues. And I have been leaning toward the Simaudio Titan. But Saturday I ran into a problem that has me perplexed.

Saturday morning I was listening to Jeff Beck Sea Change when it got about 30 seconds into the second track.....and then silence except for the subwoofer. I could see the power light on the Titan had gone off so I checked the fuse and sure enough the fuse was blown.

I have never blown a fuse in any of the amps or components before but I figured there is always a first time. The Titan had a back-up fuse so I put it in and started it up.

Since it had Jeff Beck in the player when it blew, I started back at the beginning of Sea Change. It played the first song no problem, I thought well good that was a fluke. Then it got 30 seconds into the second track and poof.....no sound, except for the sub and the power light is off again.

I check the fuse and yeah you guessed it, it was blown again. So this time I take the fuse to Rat Shack and get an exact replacement, actually 6 in a packet.

I go back home and I replace the blown fuse and this time I start with Pink Floyd DSOTM. It plays with no issues, I then follow up with Beatles Love, Black Sabbath Paranoid, Elton John Yellow Brick Road and two Depeche Mode albums in a row. No issues with any of them and I am playing it louder than I was before on purpose.

So the moral of the story is that Jeff Beck Sea Change blows the fuse on my new Titan, but so far not any of my other music blows the fuse.

Does anybody out there have any idea what is going on here?

I know the Simaudio Titan has 200 watts less per channel than the Sunfire but I am not playing Jeff Beck loud and I am playing everthing else louder.

The Titan is suppose to be a high current amp. It is suppose to drive difficult loads. On the other hand I am driving CLXs front, Logos center and Vistas for the rear. With the Descent i bringing up the sub.

Again, any ideas I am all ears and yes I have checked connections and all the usual stuff with nothing out of the ordinary.

THIS IS ONLY A GUESS but maybe the Beck CD is passing a DC pulse or causing an oscillation in the amp for some reason. That is the strangest f+_*&^g thing I have ever heard. If nothing else causes it stop playing the Beck CD or just stop playing CD's altogether.

First off, I think you mean just Beck, not Jeff Beck. The former has an album called "Sea Change", the latter does not. Both great musicians, but seperated by about 30 years.

Let me ask you this - is your copy of "Sea Change" a standard redbook CD or the SACD? If it is the SACD, do you have the high frequency filter on the SACD player (you're using the new Oppo Blu-Ray player correct) engaged? That album has an amzingly broad frequency range. I wonder if some of the high frequency energy is causing the issue.

Awesome album by the way!

(EDIT - looks like Risabet and I are barking up the same tree a few minutes apart)

I had a similar problem years back running a BrystonBP25 pre with my Siaudio W-5 amp. Simaudio said the Bryston wasn't a good match up due to Simaudio using the number 2 pin on the XLR being the hot one and Bryston used a different set up. I switched to a Sim pre and never had this problem ever again.

I would suggest you give Costa at Simaudio a quick email to get an answer as to why the fuse blew.
Cheers, Greg

MiTT said:

First off, I think you mean just Beck, not Jeff Beck. The former has an album called "Sea Change", the latter does not. Both great musicians, but seperated by about 30 years.

Let me ask you this - is your copy of "Sea Change" a standard redbook CD or the SACD? If it is the SACD, do you have the high frequency filter on the SACD player (you're using the new Oppo Blu-Ray player correct) engaged? That album has an amzingly broad frequency range. I wonder if some of the high frequency energy is causing the issue.

Awesome album by the way!

(EDIT - looks like Risabet and I are barking up the same tree a few minutes apart)

Click to expand...

Mitt,

Yes you are correct it is Beck Sea Change. I guess I am of the generation that I can't type Beck without Jeff.

I am playing Beck Sea Change in DVD audio thru a McCormack UDP-1 Deluxe universal disc player and a McCormack MAP-1 pre-amp. This to a 5.1 all Martin Logan system with CLX on fronts, Vistas in rear, Logos in center and Descent i for the sub. It is the second song, Paper Tiger about 30 seconds in that blows the fuse and I too was wondering if some high frequencies were casuing the Logans to drive the impedance levels below 2 or maybe 1 ohm and that was causing the Titan to blow a fuse.

I have since played more than a dozen ablums some at some pretty high sound levels, with no issues at all. In fact this amp is incredible, I am hearing things I have never heard before and some of this stuff I have been listening to for 30 and 40 years.

But so I am clear on this, the Beck Sea Change album in DVDa has blown it twice at the exact same time stamp.

Another thing I have discovered in my research on the Titan is that the Titan is very senstive to DC and I am wondering if there is any way that the above combination could send a DC pulse for a millisecond. The fuse on the Titan is a Fast Blow 10 Amp fuse. I am considering trying a Slow Blow 10 Amp fuse. But have not decided yet.

And yeah, so far I have stopped playing Beck Sea Change, but once I get up to 20 or 30 albums with no issues, I will have to go back and try it again.:devil:

MOON said:

I had a similar problem years back running a BrystonBP25 pre with my Siaudio W-5 amp. Simaudio said the Bryston wasn't a good match up due to Simaudio using the number 2 pin on the XLR being the hot one and Bryston used a different set up. I switched to a Sim pre and never had this problem ever again.

I would suggest you give Costa at Simaudio a quick email to get an answer as to why the fuse blew.
Cheers, Greg

Click to expand...

I am not running balanced, just rca so not sure if that could still have an effect.

JMAUSGP said:

The fuse on the Titan is a Fast Blow 10 Amp fuse. I am considering trying a Slow Blow 10 Amp fuse. But have not decided yet.

Click to expand...

Don't do it - the amp may blow, protecting the fuse ! Talk to Simaudio first.

yeah, that could void your warranty....

Yup - this SACD is jinxed. First it won't play in my dodgy Tri-Vista (that is still battling on...), now it's blowing up amps...:devil:

Damn fine piece of music, though - highly recommeded and always has been as an el primo sounding disc. Now if your hi-fi doesn't sound good playing this, your system really does need some work!

Here's a question: How does the Sunfire handle that Album?

JonFo said:

Here's a question: How does the Sunfire handle that Album?

Click to expand...

That's what I"d like to know also...