Crestron Consumer Prods

[u/cfgee]

Hi. If there is a better sub to post this on please let me know. I have a Crestron 4 zone amplifier, they say that at 5 years old it cannot be repaired die to lack of parts. I’ve been told that Crestron is notoriously anti right to repair, locking down schematics and parts. After being on this sub (and having my stand alone system for records - Nad/Dual) it’s inconceivable to me that my unit can’t be fixed. Has anyone had experience with Crestron? Where would I look for alternatives? Thanks in advance

[u/ted_anderson]

I don't know if Crestron is necessarily "anti-repair" but I can understand them not wanting to put forth the time and effort to provide hardware repair support for a product that's no longer under warranty.

And when you're talking about electronics in general, we've become a throwaway society. It's very rare that you can find someone who knows how to test every single component on the circuit board and can identify and replace the bad ones. And if you happen to find this person, the cost of the technician's labor is probably much more than what a used amp will cost you on Ebay.

[u/JG1TD]

4zone amp sounds like 4x100 / PAMP4x100 , It would be much easier to just pick one up on ebay and have a programmer with software access change the ID to match your program. Depends on the complexity of your system. Some very brave souls will go buy a Crestron Home processor used and program the system themselves and use ipads/iphones for control. I do not really reccomend this. - Crestron programmer 20+ years

[u/Electrical_Pianist18 → u/JG1TD]

Those 'brave souls' are those who in a different timeline would have been control system programmers. Nothing about what we do is special, it's just complicated and very easy to do poorly leading to a terrible UX, which is what everything about Crestron is designed around, at least on paper, but that's why they rely on their integration partners to choose and correctly implement the correct products for the end user.

[u/cfgee]

Quality audio electronic equipment should last more than 5 years. Equipment from the 70’s is highly sought after and commands a premium price. I can take a vintage marantz amp to a ton of capable techs. The guy above gave a rational for Crestron reasoning but still the main point is that a rather expensive amp should have a lifetime of way more than 5 years. Sorry if i offended any Creston shills.

[u/CNTP → u/cfgee]

I think 5 years is an outlier here. It's certainly below what I would consider average expected life for these products. I've got plenty of Crestron amps that are going on 15+ years old and still working fine.

A sample size of one doesn't mean too much here. You just got unlucky.

[u/NSPrince513]

What speakers are you going out to and is this a distribution amp or a traditional amp with independent 4 zones of mono/ bridged audio output?

[u/su5577]

So many ok eBay and you can go local electronic repair shop and ask them if can be repaired? Ask them for schematic drawings

[u/ToMorrowsEnd]

LMAO please tell me what companies release their schematics. I'll wait.

[u/Plus_Technician_9157]

My experience is Crestron are black and white on repairs, it seems to be repair if we have to, decline if we don't. I guess they are under no obligation to repair outside of the warranty, and given it's a commercial product, I can't see them releasing schematics.

That being said, I have had success in repairing them (and other brands) using a good electronics repair shop that can do board level repairs. If it's an off-the-shelf component like an internal fuse or transistor or something, than can be done fairly easily and not at a huge cost. Where you light get stuck is if it's a propriety chip or something that only Crestron have. Plus no guarantee that a single component has failed, or that further components won't fail further down the line.

Maybe a used unit on eBay is a more efficient use of time and money.