Has anyone had problems with iLive iDR preamp failures. We have had a run of failures and it is proving to be costly for repairs. A&H originally said we were the only ones with this problem and now say " We’ve found that sometimes these kind of problems can be caused by hot plugging condenser microphones when +48v is enabled". It would be the first time I have heard of a problem like this with any console. I am interested to see if anyone else has had similar problems. We have 4 iLive consoles and 2 GLDs in our A&H range and have never had an issue with the GLDs. We are now seriously considering getting rid of all our iLives.
I have three iDRs and one has 3 damaged inputs- can’t tell how it was done it came back from long term rent like this. Of course, hot plugging mics with phantom enabled is not good practice, however it should not kill the preamp. Repair kit for a channel was not terribly expensive, about €10. Soldering requires some hot air tools and skills. Would be happy to live without these repairs, but in my case they happened just once.
What issues did you have to identify a bad pre? I just did a show and had two channels in stereo mode and the left (B-1) was much lower (as in so low had to mono the channel for the show)… then in the shop I was able to replicate except now the right (B-2) is lower. Seems worse when the pad is engaged. About a 10 db diff with pad but only a 1db diff with out the pad.
Of course this is happening now as the iLives are supposed to go out for our biggest show yet (2 week festival).
I am not sure of this is a preamp or something else yet… Any suggestion or comments (until I can get A&H on phone)?
I can send you a short video of defect, but basically it’s unpredictible gain- level can raise for 10 dB just with one click of encoder. Not sure if initial levels are different comparing to other channels.
C2 is 14db lower than C1 with no pad: Gain set at 20db and trim of 0db
C2 is 1db lower than C1 with pad: Gain set at -5db and trim of 0db
So far the others seem OK, I am more curious if I am likely to see this issue spread either in the same bank C1-8 or if likely isolated. Figures this would occur right before we deeply for a 2 week festival.
If the issue is stable and gain can be adjusted to get desired input level I’d not worry about it. Nearly all my older analog desks had serious gain and hpf value offsets, but as long as it still can be adjusted, it’s not a big deal. During the long winter evenings you can track it down- the input circuit is not any difficult.
To be honest, this could have been this way for a while, it cam to light when C1 & C@ were set as a stereo channel. What I am more worried about is if this is a sign that other pre’s in that strip will follow. Is this typically isolated to the single preamp or the bank?
Well even though I have control over it, the noise floor is not so good jacking it up to get it where it belongs, I guess replacing it is the best option.
C4 had failed on my iDR-48 last year, same issue- low gain, increasing the trim level would result in a sudden signal spike at around the 3:00 position.
I sent mine in, and had the entire C row card replaced.
I specifically ordered the F card moved up to the C position, and replaced the F row with the AES card. Had them send back the original C card too. I convinced myself that the defect turned into an upgrade for the mixrack. They tested all inputs and outputs, all working 100%.
I hate to bring up the dead ? but I am having issues with some preamps on an iDR 48. Also I was wondering if you can direct me to that 10 euro kit to fix these preamps. I have the tools and the skills just not sure what parts i need to order!
I’d really appreciate your help! Also, if you ever made that video about it, I would love to get a link!
Hi batManu,
The distributor here arranged the 24v mod for us. We had regular failures with these and were told it was something we were doing wrong and the mod was done without us knowing while they were in for repair. The mod did seem to fix this problem but the 4 iLives we have in stock all have other problems now as well as the ones we have sold to customers. We cannot send them to a job anymore and the GLDs that we have are also failing everytime we use them. The GLD is still a current console for A&H and the support for the A&H products is extremely poor. We have struggled for so long now to get these consoles sorted that we have decided to move away from the A&H products totally and now use Midas, Digico and Soundcraft and have found that the product support for these products is far better and they respond very quickly. We used A&H consoles for a long time and we were always have with the sound and usability of them but it is a real shame that they don’t seem to support the product after the sale. Best of luck with it.
Again we love the product we just hate the lack of support when they fail.
I can only see one support ticket from yourself - back in October 2010 requesting gain-tracking on iLive - so it’s disappointing to hear that you feel we haven’t provided sufficient support for your iLive and GLD mixers.
You mention that your GLDs are failing every time you use them - please could you drop us an email at support@allen-heath.com so we can look into this for you and help you get it resolved.
Hi Ben,
I can assure you that there has was a long line of correspondence between us and you guys when the iLive pre amp failures were happening which only started after a post on your forum after having no luck with the Australian distributor, TAG, and being fed the standard responses. We have since just dealt with the same distributor with the issues that followed. We were swapping boards in a trial and effort style method under the advice of TAG. Our Lighting guy who is very competent with computer hardware and software was the only guy that solved some of the problems in the end as we had no luck with A&H or TAG. Unfortunately the iLives are just to unreliable to send out now. We are now following a very similar pattern with the GLDs and having no luck at all. If you had taken time to look into these matters a little more you would have seen this and if you like I can post it all here. It seems the only time we get any type of real support with these issues is when it lands on your forum which is a real pity.
Could you PM me with the ticket reference numbers so we can look into this for you as there is no correspondence history associated with your email address in our system other than the 2010 iLive gain tracking query mentioned previously. If you used a different email address to the one you use in this forum let me know.
Although we do monitor the forums they are not the best platform for support queries - we would always recommend contacting us via email support@allen-heath.com or via the support interface here: https://support.allen-heath.com/ as this always yields the quickest results and will ensure the appropriate member of the support team is dealing with your enquiry.
Hi, did anybody get to the bottom of this, I have similar problems with gain on preamps, did anybody find out what the 24v mod was or the 10 euro fix kit.
So, the kit exists, according to A&H tech, but getting it in my country was impossible! It technically would have cost me €35 a set (needed 2) and A&H UK told me to talk to their distributor in my country and purchase it from them!
I got in touch with them, they told me it is available, gave me the price, I agreed and put in a written order. They told me it would take 3-4 weeks because they don’t have a lot of shipments in that period, I agreed because I’ve been sitting on the issue for a while and could wait another month. Long story short, despite calling every other week and being told that it missed the shipping or whatever BS reason, after 6 months I gave up. I started the process in January 2018… It’s been 18 months.
Anyway, finally asked a friend who is a wiz with electronics and he was able to check and fix all of them, the cost was about €20 plus labor (which he didn’t tax me for) but he did tell me it was a bit of a headache to unsolder the old broken parts and solder the new ones… Lack of Pb in the solder made it difficult!
Anyway, not sure how to help you, but I would recommend finding a good electronist and I understand that the parts are generic so if he/she knows what they are doing, it should be an easy fix!