• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Eden WT-550

I have one and it does sound fantastic. For those who are wondering about servicing them it can be done. Mine developed a bad hum and had some other issues pop up. I took it to a shop here in Austin and they had to change out quite a few components and pulled some magic to help isolate the transformer to make the overall amp less noisy. When I got it back it was night and day difference and I have pretty much been gigging with the WT-550 for the last several months. That said something in the power section took a dive in the middle of a gig this past weekend so it’s back in the shop. Talking with the tech though he has no doubts he’ll be able to get it back up and running again. So I guess if you know the right tech there is a high probability you can take your amp from being a paper weight to a solid performing piece of equipment again.
 
Screenshot_20240412_112833_Chrome.jpg
 
I had one. Sounded great, but it died and parts were not available so it's been sitting in my garage gathering dust. They are FANTASTIC amps.
Hey @Sub-Frequency, what was the hang up on parts? Was it an Eden authorized repair? My WT500/800 (made in 1999) fell off the top of my 410 while I was moving it from car to rehearsal and then distorted like crazy. There was no Eden authorized dealer in the Seattle area at the time so I took it to a highly respected repair center, "Aviator Audio", in Edmonds, WA, which is a Seattle suburb. I actually have a schematic for my amp and offered to bring it to them and they said, "don't bother, we have the schematics on it already". So I had them go through it and they fixed it.

Turned out the Toroidal transformer loosened in the fall enough to cause it to rotate a bit, which was causing the distortion and they replaced one 100K Lin Alps Potentiometer and a 2W 5% 6.8K resistor for me back in 2017. To my knowledge there's nothing really unusual or proprietary about the parts for the WT550 . Broken circuit boards would be a problem, but if you have a good tech anywhere near you, you might want to have them take a look at it. It's a shame to be relegated to a garage.;)

When Marshall bought Eden they changed a bunch of the authorized repair stations and a fair number of them they listed were actually Marshall repair stations. Makes sense, but when I checked with the ones in Seattle, they said they didn't work on Eden gear. So I checked around for the best techs in the area and Aviator Audio was the most highly recommended and reviewed. They were also the busiest and most expensive around. Might be worth a second look...
 
From what I remember it needed a circuit board. I had gotten good use out of it, but tbh I had my mind made up that I was getting a new amp. I was going to get the Eden fixed then have it as a backup, but my amp guy said no go. Maybe I'll dig around in the garage to see if I can find it and bring it somewhere else. Not really a big deal because I'm going straight to the board (with IEM's) 90% of the time nowadays. :help: The 10% that I do get to use an amp I'm using my D800+. So sadly, I really don't need a backup amp anymore.

My how times have changed...
 
@Rip Van Dan will likely know, I can not remember.
Can you help out?
He actually DM'ed me and I read that before I checked my alerts. I did get him some info on it and it appears to be from 2015 or later and definitely when Marshall owned Eden. Different serial numbers than the standard Eden ones and they removed the 2Ω minimum load text because the WTP series they were replacing the WT550 and the WT800C with couldn't go that low and weren't selling very well when they first came out.

Here's a shot of the back of a WT550 from 2005. Notice how it uses the first 4 digits for the month and year it was made. Makes it easy. I have no idea how the Marshall/Eden serial numbers work. Notice also that it shows the minimum load as 2Ω. That entire minimum ohms load line is missing off the one he sent me a picture of.

EdenWT550_FullBack.png


EdenWT550.png


I remember when the "1100-watts rms bridged @4Ω" text was changed on the WT800C to "800-watts rms at 8Ω". Had questions come up about that on the Eden Forum when it happened. Armin checked with our contact at Marshall about it thinking it was a typo and he said that their designers weren't comfortable with the 2Ω rating on either the WT800C or the WT550, so they changed them without changing anything internally. I checked on the WT550 and there wasn't a minimum load rating on the back anymore. So they didn't change anything, just took the 2Ω minimum ohms load info off the back of the WT550 and changed the minimum bridged rating on the WT800C from 4Ω to 8Ω.
 
  • Like
Reactions: S-Bigbottom