SOLVED - Need help with Focal Solo6 Be repair?
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chilidawg
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Nuts were glued on an aluminum piece using UHU that came off after a gentle twist. Seriously, these guys never heard of self-clinching nuts, or they are just to cheap skate to invest in a manual 1 tonnage arbor press, lol.
Different size of screwdrivers, a plier, and a box cutter just to get the board out, and a bottle of isopropanol plus paper towels to clean both of my hands from the thermal paste galore! Grrr...
All so that I can swap the positive signal mosfets with the negative signal mosfets and see if DC will follow them. If not, then the mosfets are good and they don't need to be replaced.
chilidawg
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Well, believe it or not. Same exact problem with 2 years ago!
Here's the one that I repaired back then.
R311 (120K) measured in circuit as 120K instead of 15K like R307 in the negative signal section because there's no continuity to C312.
And here's the one that was measured 15K in circuit 2 years ago, but now is measured as 120K. I have continuity to C312, so I guess something else must have died and gone open circuit which is why this resistor (partly connected to opamp input) doesn't go down in resistance.
Added a solid core wire jumper, connecting C312 to the resistor, and voila! resistance in circuit is back to 15K. Powered it up, no more DC, no more crackling noise, and no pop when turning the speaker on/off. Hooray!!!
EDIT: Fixed typos (128K to 120K, and C132 to C312)
Here's the one that I repaired back then.
R311 (120K) measured in circuit as 120K instead of 15K like R307 in the negative signal section because there's no continuity to C312.
And here's the one that was measured 15K in circuit 2 years ago, but now is measured as 120K. I have continuity to C312, so I guess something else must have died and gone open circuit which is why this resistor (partly connected to opamp input) doesn't go down in resistance.
Added a solid core wire jumper, connecting C312 to the resistor, and voila! resistance in circuit is back to 15K. Powered it up, no more DC, no more crackling noise, and no pop when turning the speaker on/off. Hooray!!!
EDIT: Fixed typos (128K to 120K, and C132 to C312)
Last edited:
Wavelength
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Chilli,
I feel your pain. Rob Fetters brought both of his 6Be in a year ago. One the two main power supply caps were bulging at the top. Easy fix, NOT the damn thing is almost impossible to take apart. The second one had some real whacky problem cut the wires because they were soldered to the drivers and sent the amp in. I have designed for Focal in the past and know these guys.... yeah it cost like $600 and they just sent back a new amp and tweeter grill.
Some nonsense about the defraction of the tweeter and the new amp it was required. Been designing drivers since 1981 pretty sure I was talking to a marketing guy.
Now the one I fixed is doing the same thing so Rob said send it in. I am not going to remove the amp because they charged me extra for that. So far had an RMA# for 2 weeks and they keep telling me I am like 250 in line for repair so don't send it yet???
Oh well... I have the 650's and turn them off when not using them as there is an easy power switch on the front. I think the problem with these is people plug them in 24/7 and you get some power surge or brown out and the damn thing kills itself.
I feel your pain. Rob Fetters brought both of his 6Be in a year ago. One the two main power supply caps were bulging at the top. Easy fix, NOT the damn thing is almost impossible to take apart. The second one had some real whacky problem cut the wires because they were soldered to the drivers and sent the amp in. I have designed for Focal in the past and know these guys.... yeah it cost like $600 and they just sent back a new amp and tweeter grill.
Some nonsense about the defraction of the tweeter and the new amp it was required. Been designing drivers since 1981 pretty sure I was talking to a marketing guy.
Now the one I fixed is doing the same thing so Rob said send it in. I am not going to remove the amp because they charged me extra for that. So far had an RMA# for 2 weeks and they keep telling me I am like 250 in line for repair so don't send it yet???
Oh well... I have the 650's and turn them off when not using them as there is an easy power switch on the front. I think the problem with these is people plug them in 24/7 and you get some power surge or brown out and the damn thing kills itself.
chilidawg
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No power supply problem here, but I do believe what I encountered is a flaw with the circuit design. A certain component will die in that positive signal section of the woofer amplifier after a decade of usage, causing R311 to lose connection and its resistance in circuit will no longer be 15K, but back to 120K (yes, it's a 120K resistor not 128K that I previously wrote, my bad...)
I don't know which component that died because I didn't have enough time to poke around to find out. The monitors are back with the owner. Maybe someday if another problem arise, lol. I think the big 6800uF 80V supply cap will need to be replaced soon considering its age.
I don't know which component that died because I didn't have enough time to poke around to find out. The monitors are back with the owner. Maybe someday if another problem arise, lol. I think the big 6800uF 80V supply cap will need to be replaced soon considering its age.
