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Thread: The pip hospital

  1. #21
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: NE England

    Posts: 4,173
    I'm Jez.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Oldpinkman View Post
    Ah

    We crossed in the post Jez. You are certainly someone I personally would turn to for assistance or repairs if I didn't have other sources. Without wishing to name and shame, the guy who attempted a repair on mine was well qualified, and to be fair to him declined normally to work on solid state hifi amps, but did so as a special favour because I was desperate (valve hifi, solid state or valve guitar amps were his normal business). Owen was allegedly (according to AK) untraceable at that stage (even though he was actually in the same house he had been in for the last 20 years - including when working on Integral for PT)

    The ones you offered to repair were the ones on Arthurs shelf. The man other members, well intentioned, have suggested could help. Its a bit of a sad state of affairs, and I am not prepared to go into details, but pretty obviously there is a reason that whilst I am mates with both OJ and AK, and they are not on each others Christmas card list. And that rather leaves Pips in limbo - tragically. I am working on bridging the relationship, but it ain't a quick fix - not least because both have moved on to other things. In a way Paul Stewart is right. As with so much in this throw away world, it may be cheaper to buy a replacement than incur the cost of repairs - which can run to a lot of hours.

    If its working it may be easy to work on. But if its working why repair it? If its not working, without a schematic - there is a trail of corpses out there as I alluded to. That in no way implies any criticism of your abilities - its just the historical situation.
    Indeed if it is in fact working then way repair it? I took it that there must be issues with the unit or the OP wouldn't have asked about having it serviced but I may have misunderstood

    So I take it that AK has around 8 or so units wanting repair? Surely they can't all of been "got at"? If AK wants them all fixing as a job lot then that may be a possibility but it would not be cheap. I would have to reverse engineer them to get proper schematics for a start but if there's 8 or so ,and they are so well regarded and rare, then it may be worth it (? Weren't they big money when new?). One working one to take readings from would be most useful of course! I dare say that if there's several to compare, and once I've got a few going, then even the "got at" ones should be repairable as I'd have some that are correct to compare them to.

  2. #22
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: North Down /Northern Ireland/ UK

    Posts: 19,484
    I'm Neil.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Oldpinkman View Post
    My advice is if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I know of 11 Pips (8 of them Pip 2's). Only 3 of them are working properly. 2 belong to me, and one belongs to Owen Jones. To be fair, I don't know that one of them, which was advertised on this site, but the owner had contacted me because it had a fault which blew out tweeters, hasn't been repaired. If it is not banging crashing dropping out or otherwise malfunctioning, then it no more needs a service than does Marks Krell. Most of the non-runners, are on a shelf in Arthurs factory, who keeps asking me for help getting them fixed, so well-meaning advice to consult Funk Firm is not very helpful. When I tried to get an experienced engineer, who has a well-established repair business to repair mine, before Owen sorted it out for me, he not only failed, but made circuit modifications in error. I am not saying nobody else can fix them. I am saying I know of nobody who has done so, and many that have either been damaged or just not repaired.

    Replacing the battery pack, if that is knackered is VERY easy. The small control board (on the right, looking from the top) comes out with three screws and 4 wires. Where it connects to the main board your new supply needs to supply +18v, 0, -18v. Or, there is a bridge rectifier and smoothing capacitor on the main board - and just get a suitable toroidal to supply AC to the BR pins. Make sure the transformer ground is to the chassis ground, and not the star ground points. The big (100 ohm/ 1 watt?) resistor is to go in series with the switch light if you want that. Owen and I are using it in that format. A great deal of the "power supply" is integral to the amp. There is separate voltage regulation on the front of each gain stage. And the transconductance design effectively means that any voltage ripple on the supply rail is attentuated to "vanishing" on the output. So it shouldn't really need a fancy power supply. The Battery supply, as I have said many times, was primarily to justify the necessary price hike.

    So, if it aint broke, don't fix it. If it is broke - not working - not usable,then I guess you have to ask Paul Stewart which amp and phono stage he recommends as better, since he is confident he can assist you. I am not clear when he last heard a Pip 2, or what he has directly compared it with, since he declined to reply when I asked him, but he uses valves and a SUT for his system, and therefore maybe he has different tastes to me. There must surely be plenty of excellent alternatives - I just didn't find any. But then I didn't look very far, cos I'm a lucky b***ard and knew someone who could sort me out with a Pip instead.

    And I'm very happy with it.

    Be careful - if you have a runner, don't wreck it.
    Richard have you any idea how the first highlighted words come across ? While Arthur has no legal requirement to service or fix his past Pink Triangle designs or products designed/made under the company he historically owned/part owned, it would be the nice thing to do if known, to point folks, who bought from new (even S/H) to where they can get stuff fixed/serviced or if parts are no longer available/with no contemporary substitutes that these items can no longer be fixed.

    Reading what you have written, hinted at, basically it sounds like anyone who bought Pink Triangle electronics (maybe other items in the company's history) abandon hope all who bought these and the guy who was the brains behind this stuff no longer wants to know. That is how this reads in my opinion.

    How is it unhelpful to point folks to the people behind designs - the people best able to give advice or help, in terms of where stuff can be fixed ?


    Re the second set of words highlighted, well that's pretty rude. Certainly seems that being rude to folks comes pretty ease to you. And by the way anyone with an opinion on Pink Triangle (or any other company/products) is free on AoS to post those thoughts, experiences here. You of course are free to reply to what's written but please do so with no attitude and pleasantly, and keep in mind that regarding Pink Triangle your views thoughts are not the only valid ones, you may have been there, been a Pink Triangle employee but many, many others have valid and useful contributions to make. Hate to say it Richard but I will, your words are not some kind of gospel on this.
    Last edited by Spectral Morn; 09-09-2015 at 09:42.

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