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Hello everyone! + DAC stopped working

Just wanted to intorduce myself and try to get some help diagnosing a faulty product. I hope this is the right place (it is a DAC)

I should say i have never done any elecronics work or soldering before but im pretty fast learner and good with my hands. now let me explain the predicement that has me very upset :(

I have over the past 5 years been builing a nice HIFI system and yesterday i felt everything was almost exactly where i wanted it. i said to myself "you know, i dont think i need to buy any more hifi stuff"

The next morning as i open my eyes, literally the moment i open them, my DAC goes off and some unusual sounds from the speakers. i turn everything off and disconnect all the leads but Power.

The unit will not power on, and instead makes some "tick tick tick tick" like a spark plug or when you light your gas cooker but quieter.

I have done some digging on this website and it seems there has been success fixing this kind of issue. So, if the warranty doesnt go through (10 months into the 12month warranty) then id like to consider my other options.

I have sent off for a quote to a company that picks up and repairs electronics but I am not expecting that to be cheap.. the unit cost £400 so if its <£100 i probably could justify that but much more and i really cant afford to for a while, and that means no music and thats not acceptable (part of my health condition is to 'relax' and not be stressed and music really helps this / meditation etc) - I use this product 6-18 hours a day sometimes. I was almost brought to tears by its failure :(

So, if the worst comes to the worst and i cant get it sorted, would you guys and gals be willing to help me get to the bottom of the situation and repair the product myself?



Some more details about the device and my (very amature) diagnosis so far.

I have used my ear to determine the rough location of the ticking, and will try to show a picture of where. The PSU section still warms up (directly in front of where the plug goes)

The ticking now has lessened , very faint now but initialy could be heard clearly (i got a video of it)

I have got a lot of internal pictures of the unit from online but have NOT opened my unit yet for warranty reasons.

Would you think its possible to fix this from what i have said so far or is there no way to know until open? i would like to also if possible make this damaged component or whatever it is not break again after another 12months so if possible replace with a better quality component if available.. but im getting way ahead of myself. let me try to upload some pictures.


I hope these help. I think i would be capable of removing and replacing say the blue 'thing' near the power stage, but i doubt i would even attempt to say replace the ESS or XMOS chip.


I know im reaching here but i really need a lifeline :(

Thank you for reading my long post.

Regards,
Mark

20201213_180925.jpg 20201214_095038.jpg chips-1100x825.jpg Ei5uFfnVoAASvnF.png Ei5uFfoU0AAHdTq.png ESS_chip-1100x825.jpg inside_top-1100x825.jpg power_supply-3-1100x824.jpg SMSL - PCB outputs.jpg

The last picture that has circles is about where it sounds like the ticking came from... but i could be wrong, it just didnt sound like it came from near the plug side, more toward the middle id say.
 
here is a video of the clicking sound uploaded to my google drive (it should play , you dont have to download anything)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E1bjVPKMPzQaegdcSC7Et4AgKfFEH2wm/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E1bjVPKMPzQaegdcSC7Et4AgKfFEH2wm/view?usp=sharing
I didnt sleep much last night and have been digging around. i found this that seems similar/related - im hoping its just a simple diode/capacitor before the PSU.. aparently if this goes the PSU can just constantly restart, hence the sound. However ive probably butchered that explanation but it made sense.

quote the guy "a large-value resistor that slowly charges a low-voltage capacitor" - and - "This repeats every time the capacitor has reached the start-up voltage of the controller chip, causing rhytmic clicking."

Seem to be very relevant?
 
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Right, feel like im starting to understand how this works now. in a very basic way. Thanks to the component identification in my other thread and some basic SMPS repair youtube videos.

So the power comes in the IEC, goes through the RED FUSE first then to the NTC? or MOV first?

The NTC is inrush protection for the grey X2 Capacitor?

And the cap poweres the SMSL PSU? (going throught the RFI/EMI Filter first (the double E shaped coiled copper wire))

Does that sound about right?

Also the only potentially dangerous component there would be the capacitor is this correct?
 
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