Noise & crackle in the speakers of my brAun A1 Atelier amplifier, bought for ƒ595 in 1981. Initial thought: electrolytic capacitors are old, dried out, and may be leaking.
Removed the pre out/main in connectors (back side of A1): symptom persists. Analysis: problem located in main amplifier (Endverstärker).
Opened the A1: everything looks good, except the large 10,000 µF caps (C808 and C809). Both have their top somewhat bulged. One even dangerously bulges out in the side near the top. Also, after removal, both seem to have leaked in the past.
Wiggling the speaker relais produces similar noise & crackle. Slightly worrying.
Decided to first replace all electrolytic capacitors on the main amp board.
| C602 | 10µ | 50V | ø05 | h11 | – | radial |
| C609 | 33µ | 35V | ø06 | h16 | – | radial |
| C604 | 47µ | 10V | ø05 | h11 | – | radial |
| C603 | 100µ | 50V | ø10 | h16 | w05 | radial |
| C619 | 100µ | 50V | ø10 | h16 | w05 | radial |
| C809 | 10000µ | 50V | ø30 | h50 | w10 | radial |
Replacing these caps was relatively straightforward. Required some fiddling in narrow spaces. Double-, even triple-checked correct polarity to avoid exploding electrolytic capacitors.
Reconnected amplifier to mains, speakers, and my old little Mac mini music server. Turned Volume all the way down. Carefully switched the amp on, ready to quickly turn it off if needed. Heard the reassuring and comforting click of the relais. Gently pressed the the Speakers 2 button and turned up the volume. Oh, what a wonderful sound.
Let it play for the rest of the afternoon. Sounds good. Problem fixed.
Omit needless features
In my old – 42 years in 2023 – and loyal A1 friend, almost all switches malfunction (speaker 1/2, tone controls, input selectors, etc. Crackle, noise, and hum. Would like to fix that, too. Yet, I’m using the amp only for amp. Source selection is just between computer and TV receiver. Tone control is done by computer. Only use speaker 2 outputs (since speaker 1 switch is broken). So it is of no use.
If I had to redesign this beautiful device, I’d just build a main amplifier and omit all source, and speaker selection control. All in the spirit of the original minimalistic design, where brAun hides rarely used controls behind a lid.
Thank you Dieter Rams, for your elegant design and “Good Design Principles”.
4 replies on “brAun Atelier A1 repair”
Do you have the bias adjustment information in english?
Sorry, no, I do not.
Hi Martien, I got one of these for free (Marktplaats). One of the channels turned out to have shorted power transistors. Also the metal band within the (really strange) tape out selector was broken. To be frank, I was underwhelmed by this amp as well as the T1 tuner. I have also restored a Audio 250. This unit impressed me very much because of the extremely well design and build quility, The team that designed the A1 has (in my humble opinion) made some bad design decisions. The amp is protected by only one fuse which is placed between main switch and the mains side of the transformer. This means a shorted power stage can potentially ruin the power supply as well as the transformer. That results in a total loss amp. The amp has a protection circuit but that is probably designed to protect the speakers, not the power stage. Replace the fuse is no joy, it’s placed just under the transformer. Why? Placing it two more centimeters from the transformer would have been easy. Than there is the odd solution for the source switches. Why not just use a rod instead of a steel band, that in my amp is broken. And to top if off: the phono stage has a high noise floor. The quality of this amp is just not in par with other amps from the same era. For instance: I also one a Swedish designed and built Philips 22AH777. What can I say? Better build quality, much better protection, way better phono stage, and way better FM reception than the Braun T1 tuner. For me the T1 is all about the looks, but it lacks the quality.
Hi Nico,
Thanks for your comment. I guess you are quite right. I have never given it that much thought at the time. I was 23 years of age, and I simply liked brAun’s design of the Atelier series. I saved money for some time and bought the complete stack A1, T1, C1, P1 and have enjoyed the set since. However, the switches (source selection, record selection, speaker buttons and tone defeat) failed on me. I agree that this metal band selector seems like a hack, waiting to fail. I never understood and liked it.
Anyway, I still like the look of the whole set. I still have it in my living room and use – only – the amplifier daily. I am not an audiophile, yet I do like proper quality as well as design. There is this project lingering in the back of my head to gut the whole A1 and refurbish it with a good DIY amplifier board – Hypex NCORE, others? What do you think, is it worth the effort?
On the other hand, I tend to like and prefer active speakers over passive ones with a separate amplifier. Thoughts?
BTW, how did you find my site and what is your interest in audio?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (almost).