Sherwood RD-7108 died (1 Viewer)

Today I started watching Die Another Day on my secondary system that uses a Sherwood RD-7108 receiver. I have always liked this receiver because I thought it sounded pretty good and was a great bang for the buck. Only paid $129 for it almost 2 years ago. Unfortunately it went out with a bang today. It was only on for about 5 minutes when it happened. As soon as it started playing the Madonna music in the beginning it shut down. I instinctively went over and turned it back on and it literally blew up. It started making all this loud popping and sizzling sounds. Sparks were flying out the top and landing on everything around it. I thought it was going to start a fire. After yelling SH*T....WTF in shock I reached around the back and unplugged it. A small fire had broken out inside the unit and it was smoking pretty heavily. I pulled all the wires and grabbed some oven mittens and took it outside. After a minute it was done. After letting it cool down I brought it back inside and thought about popping the lid but I could not. The electrical burning smell is so horrible it went back outside. I would say it is finished.

Chris

If I had to process Madonna's music to 5.1 speakers, I'd set myself on fire, too.

lol@svenge. At only $129 Chris, her time was up. Just think, you get to shop for new toys!

Yeah,

I will have to try and find another $129 receiver bargain out there.

I am not really sure what happened. The volume was set pretty low. I think like you said her time was up. I managed to pop the lid in the well ventilated outdoors and the power supply looks well cooked. Also the main board is all dark and warped every resistor and is burned. I would say the power supply failed and sent 120 volts to the main board and fried everything in the process. Usually a fuse would prevent this from happening but I can't see one in there.

Chris

Cheap power supplies burn up. I see it all the time in computers.

Svenge, indeed....I've heard of many TVs and DVD Players exploding when their owners tried to play "Swept Away".

Chris, buy.com is currently selling a Sherwood 6.1 receiver that got high marks from Sound and Vision for around $200.

Components should not do this, is a fire hazard that is potentially dangerous. Do other consumers a favor and report it so that they can investigate, if they find out its a design flaw they can do a recall, you might be saving property and lives. I know many audiophiles who leave their components on 24/7, its a good thing you took proper precautions and saw it.